I'm a Guest Designer

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a guest designer for this week's Monkey Challenge over at A la Card Monkey!  I was really excited to be chosen as a runner up for last week's challenge and looking forward to designing an example to go with this week's sketch.  I have to admit, I was a little dismayed when I got the sketch (here it is):

Vintage!  Yikes!  I've never done vintage (really) and had to borrow some supplies from my good friend, and fellow demonstrator, Christy.  I did some research about what "vintage" cards might look like and here's what I came up with:

Vintage Card for A La Card Monkey

 Not too sure if it really fits the "vintage" mold, but I like it.  I decided right away to use one of my favourite sets, "Just Believe".  And thanks to some examples posted online (thanks to http://createdbyyou.blogspot.com/)  I was able to cobble together this card.  I really love the vintage brads and crochet trim ribbon and was glad to have a chance to use them (again, thanks to Christy for giving them to me).  I started with a base of Crumb Cake card stock and then did a series of layers; Very Vanilla (sent through the Big Shot in an embossing folder, I would use Vintage Wallpaper next time) and sponged with Crumb Cake ink, Early Espresso, Old Olive and, finally, Very Vanilla again, this time with the stamped image.  I inked the flower image with my Marina Mist, Pear Pizazz and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers.  After it was stamped I went around the edges of the flowers with the fine tip of my Marina Mist marker to make the edges stand out a little more.  I sponged the edges with Old Olive ink.  I did more sponging here than I normally would, but when looking at examples of vintage greeting cards there seemed to be a trend towards soft edges.

Vintage card detail

For embellishments I used Early Espresso satin ribbon, crochet trim ribbon and Antique brads.  The sentiment, "Friends", comes from the "Just Believe" stamp set and I punched it out using my Decorative Label punch, small end to the top of the sentiment (check out my post "Thank Card for Stamping 411 challenge for more details).

I hope you like it and I'm looking forward to creating more Vintage cards in the future.  Thanks to Shirley and Terry for getting the creative juices flowing on this one.  I'm also looking forward to being a guest designer again for next week's challenge!