Almost Artisan – Card #3: Floral Wallpaper

This is my favorite of the cards that I created for the Artisan Awards. It was inspired by the wall paper in my 1st floor powder room, which looks like overlapping pieces of paper with drawings of plants on them.

I knew that I wanted to use Herbed Expressions for one of my entries, but was struggling for the right idea. Then one day in the powder room it hit me – to recreate the wall paper as a card.

I knew it would have a very natural, earthy feel to it, so I used Naturals Ivory paper. I stamped each image twice and colored using Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I then distressed each piece using Creamy Caramel Classic Ink so that they’d look like aged pieces of paper. I then glued them to the card base, and trimmed the overhanging edges off.

I popped up the sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals and put some brads in each corner (the photo makes the brads stand out much more than do in person).

The sentiment wasn’t standing out all that well, so I brought focus to it by wrapping linen thread around the card in a fan-like manner. The thread helps to draw the eye away from the rest of the card and down to the sentiment.

I just adore this card. Boy I miss it. I’m going to have to make a bunch for myself at some point this summer.

Recipe

• Stamps: Herb Expressions
• Paper: Naturals Ivory
• Ink/Coloring: StazOn, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Creamy Caramel Classic Ink (retired)
• Accessories: Earth Elements Brads (retired), Linen Thread
• Tools: Stamping Sponges, Paper Piercer, AquaPainters