A Little Distressed

***Scroll down to the post below for my Birthday Blog Hop post.***

Here’s my card for this week’s Papertrey Ink Make it Monday challenge. This week’s theme was distressing. It’s not something I do much on my projects since I tend to lean towards clean and simple or cutesy stuff, which don’t usually lend themself well to distressed elements.

After starting a few different things and throwing them in the trash (after retrieving them from Chloe the cutie puppy’s mouth—boy, does that puppy love her some paper . . .), I decided to just go with some of my newest PTI supplies—Royal Velvet cardstock and the coordinating Pacific Vineyard patterned paper. I came up with a clean and simple design that included a pair of distressed elements.

I started with a panel of the Pacific Vineyard paper. I lightly distressed the edges, then machine stitched around the edges of the panel to accent the distressing. The panel is attached to a Spring Moss card base.

I decided that I’d use a sentiment as my focal image and accent it with a die cut. I die cut a Fillable Frames #4 piece from cream paper, then stamped the matching frame image on it in Ripe Avocado ink. I went with a sentiment in a modern-looking font combo from the Fillable Frames # 5 set in the same green ink. For an accent, I die cut a flower from Royal Velvet cardstock using the medium sized flower from one of the Beautiful Blooms II die sets. I used my fingernail to split the cardstock along the edges and peeled the layers apart to get a somewhat distressed textured look. For the flower’s center, I stacked a pair of PTI buttons, using natural twine to secure them. I stretched a strip of Ripe Avocado ribbon from the top of the card to near the bottom of the patterned paper panel. I wanted to use the Royal Velvet grosgrain ribbon, but it’s way too blue—I’m a little “distressed” by that . . . Anyway, I moved on from that and attached the label die cut with some foam tape and added the flower to the left side of the die cut to finish the card.

Materials Used:
Fillable Frames #8 and Fillable Frames # 5 stamp sets, Ripe Avocado ink, Spring Moss, Royal Velvet, and Vintage Cream cardstock, Pacific Vineyard patterned paper, Fillable Frames #8 and Beautiful Blooms II #1 dies, Ripe Avocado grosgrain ribbon, Royal Velvet and Simply Chartreuse buttons, twine (Papertrey Ink); sewing machine; foam tape