Nutty for You

Here's my card for this month's Paper Smooches challenge.  My design was inspired by a fall themed card featuring an acorn that was created by Jill Dewey Hawkins.  I used an acorn image and a similar layout as well as incorporating lots of white space--even though my white space is kraft-colored!

My acorn is from PS's Falling for You stamp set.  The stamped image was colored with Copic markers, then cut out by hand.  For the background, I created a mask and inked a circle with green distress oxide on a kraft cardstock panel.  Jill's acorn card had lines of machine stitching across the top and bottom.  To bring in this element without bringing out my sewing machine, I used one of PS's Stitched dies to cut a row of stitches along the top and bottom of the panel.  Once I'd finished adding the details to the kraft panel, the acorn image was added at the right side of the circle using foam tape for dimension.  Originally I stamped the sentiment directly on the kraft panel, but the part of the text stamped on the inked portion of the panel looked faded compared to the rest of the text.  To save the design, I stamped the "nutty for you" sentiment on a narrow olive green cardstock strip and added it to the panel with more foam tape.  A tiny twine bow was added to the acorn's stem for a whimsical touch.  The finished panel was adhered to a cream card base.

Materials Used:
Falling for You stamp set, Stitched dies (Paper Smooches); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko/IMAGINE Crafts); Peeled Paint distress oxide (Ranger); Kraft cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Old Olive cardstock (Stampin' Up!); hemp twine (Hemptique); foam tape