Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch - Foliage a la Vintage

Hi everyone! It's time once more for the Saturday Sketch Challenge over on the Stamping 411 blog. I just love being part of this design team - it's so fun each week to see the sketch and reach inside myself to create from a linear start. I'm a very linear stamper for the most part, but love stepping outside my box and adding vintage or rustic elements to my stamping. That's what happened this week and I LOVE the results!
Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

Yeah, I got a little carried away with the details, but it was so fun to just pick something and Go!
This card was actually going to be an Autumn theme with a pumpkin from the Autumn Harvest stamp set for a focal point, but when I opened my embellishment drawer to gain some direction, my eyes landed on my yet unopened Waffle Paper. Yeah - that's some awesome cool stuff!

My card base is Soft Suede cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". I folded it in half to make an A2 card measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The next layer is Old Olive cardstock cut at 4" x 5 1/4" and run through the Big Shot machine with my Texture Plates - they haven't been loved in a while - I chose the antiquey wallpaper looking one for this card. Here's a tip for getting a nice, deep impression from your Texture Plates: spritz the cardstock with a little bit of Rubbing Alcohol before running it through the machine. It is damp enough to break down the fibers in the paper resulting in a deeper impression, but evaporates quickly enough to not leave you with wet cardstock. Just don't spritz too closely to the cardstock, it will stain it.

The inside layer is simply a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock cut at 4" x 5 1/4" that I've sponged with Soft Suede ink. I stamped images from the French Foliage stamp set in the lower left corner to give it some interior interest.

My card front layers started with a piece of Newsprint DSP cut at 2 1/4" x 5 1/4". I randomly stamped images from French Foliage on it in Old Olive, Cajun Craze and Soft Suede. It's a bit hard to see in the photos, but I also used a bit of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint and stamped the speckled image in that as well. The edges were sponged with Soft Suede ink and then I added the strip of Waffle Paper to the back side with SNAIL adhesive. I was surprised at how easy this paper was to work with and you can be sure I'll be pulling it out regularly now! Here I just pleated it up and gathered it loosely across the adhesive, letting about 1/4" hang below the DSP.

I covered the seam by adding a line of Sticky Strip on top of the DSP and gathering a length of Always Artichoke Seam Binding across it. Again, so easy to work with due to it's flexibility and lightness. Love it!
The top seam across the DSP was covered with the Chantilly Trim for a different texture twist.
I added a combination of the Chantilly Trim and Artichoke Seam Binding to the right side with Mini Glue Dots after adding one of the little safety pins from the Antique Trinkets collection. They are so cute!

My focal point is stamped collage style on Watercolor Paper - this is wonderful to work with.

I again, randomly stamped images from the stamp set and added some more shimmer paint before sponging all the layers with Soft Suede ink and adhering them together. Before I mounted the focal point to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals, I added an Antique Brad to the lower left corner.
The top layer is cut at 2 3/4" x 3"and each layer underneath is cut at 1/8" intervals, giving a 1/16" matting for each one. I like this thin matting technique on some cards, it gives a hint of color without making the focal point exponentially larger. (Ok, that's a really big word - even for me! What I'm trying to say is that it makes it too stinkin' big to cut it larger sometimes!) :)

So, there you are, another week, another fun sketch, another card! I hope you liked it and I'm really glad you stopped by to visit!
Be sure to visit the Stamping 411 Blog and check out the other Designer's projects. I know they will have great ideas for you - they are a talented bunch!

Happy weekend everyone - I'm having an unplugged family weekend since I was gone most of this week and so busy since I've been home. It will be nice to actually SEE my family for two days instead of just rushing past them to get something done, know what I mean? If you do, maybe you need to unplug too and hug the ones you love most!

Stamped blessings,
~~Robin