kraft and gold

Today's card was one I challenged myself to make a little differently.  I tend to always have similar patterns in my cards- patterned paper, a cute die cut, etc.  This time, I wanted to go with a two color kind of clean and simple card.

I started with a kraft card base and adhered on a gold chipboard frame.  The frame is actually something I won in a prize pack awhile ago, and never used because the colors were honestly kind of 90s.  Then last weekend I got a "I feel like altering things" kind of bug and I pulled all the chipboard pieces out and colored them with a gold paint sharpie.  Some thing I then put Stickles on, some I didn't.  Once I did that, I decided to stick with gold throughout the card.

I chose to stamp this tree from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings stamp set in versamark and then emboss it gold.  I'm still learning heat embossing, so it ended up really warping the chipboard and I had to set it under a pile of books for awhile.  Something to remember for next time.

For a finishing touch, I pulled out some gold pearls from my bling drawer and put them in the bottom corner.  I decided not to use a sentiment inside yet. I find that, with the exception of birthday cards that I make specifically with a certain person in mind, the cards that are blank on the inside tend to be the ones I use the most and don't just languish in my stash.  When I need one, I can pull it out and stamp the right sentiment inside without being like "man, I need a get well card and that would be perfect for that person but it says 'thanks' inside."  So when I want to use it, I'll stamp a sentiment inside in my gold pigment ink and send it along.

I had to photograph it on a slight angle to get the shine from the embossed tree. 

I'm entering this card into the following challenge(s):
Simon Says Stamp- Wednesday Challenge, Get Krafty