Bayou Chocolate Thanks

I spent some alone time last night working on a thank you card for a recent workshop hostess. I don't often get time to sit quietly and play anymore, so last night was a real treat.

I felt inspired by Beate's Technique Challenge card this week and decided to lift some (most?!) of the elements of her design. I particularly liked the colour combo. I struggle to use more than one colour on my card, finding comfort in the safety of monochromatic cards with shades of the same colour.

The card base is Not-Quite-Navy with a Whisper White mat layer that had the tickets clipped with a ticket corner punch. I gave the same treatment to the Blue Bayou Designer Series paper. I tied a piece of the chocolate wide satin ribbon from the 2007 Holiday Mini catalog around both the white and the patterned paper.

I punched a scallop circle out of the Not-Quite-Navy, then a white 1 3/8" circle followed by a Chocolate Chip 1 1/4" circle which I pierced around the edge. I used the flowery shape from the retired hostess set In The Spotlight (2007 Fall Winter) and stamped it first in Close to Cocoa, then rock'n'rolled it in Not-Quite-Navy before stamping it on Whisper white. I trimmed the flower and mounted on the circle with an antique copper brad and gave the petals a bit of a curve. This was all adhered to the card using dimensionals for some lift.

For the sentiment, I punched a designer label out of NQN, a large oval out of Chocolate Chip (pierced) and a smaller oval out of Whisper white on which I had stamped the THANKS sentiment from Fundamental Phrases. All three layers were adhered together and copper brads were added on each end. I stamped Friend from the In The Spotlight set in NQN on Whisper White, punched it with a 1/2" punch, and adhered it to the card with a dimensional. The sentiment was then adhered to the card with a standard tape runner.

What I really like about the card are the accidentally recurring elements: the dots on the flower, the paper piercing, and the polkadotted background and the ticket corners of the Designer Label punch with the corners of the matted background layers.

Enjoy!