Birthday cowgirl

Have you ever seen a stamp set and immediately known it was perfect for a certain project? That was how I felt when I saw the stamp set called Moka Jane from Taylored Expressions. The set, which I stumbled across this summer while looking through the company's retiring products, has a cute image of a cowgirl and several fun sentiments. What made it so perfect for me was that A) My mom's name is Jane, B) My mom wanted to be a cowgirl when she was little (well, more accurately, she wanted to be a cowboy because "Cowboys got the best horses"), and C) My mom's birthday was September 1.

I knew that set would be perfect for my mom's birthday card, so I had to buy it. Here is what I created:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Moka Jane (Taylored Expressions), Wanted
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Chocolate Chip, colored pencils and blender pencil (Prismacolor)
Accessories: Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies (Lawn Fawn), metallic vintage hemp twine (Hemptique), Princess assortment sequins (Craft Medley), Dimensionals, Glue Dots

Isn't she a cutie? On the packaging for the stamp set, they had used pinks and browns for the color scheme, and I decided to stick with those shades. After stamping and coloring the cowgirl, I cut out the image with a stitched rectangle die.

At that point I wasn't sure what to do with the card base, so it sat unfinished for several days. I wanted a Western theme, but I didn't have the right background stamp, so I finally decided to make my own background. I used a single paisley image and stamped it repeatedly, turning the image each time to completely fill a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock. The pattern works perfectly for the theme, but the tone-on-tone color keeps it from overpowering the focal image. I also die cut that piece with a stitched rectangle die and then layered it on an A2 card base.

For the greeting I stamped two sentiments from the set (and added the little comma by hand) on a strip of Whisper White card stock. I trimmed each end of the strip into a V and then gently ran it along my bone folder to curl up the ends a bit. To give the banner some shape, I stacked a few Dimensionals together, placed them behind the middle of the banner and adhered it to the card base. Then I used a Glue Dot near each end of the banner.

For embellishment I placed a loop of metallic hemp twine -- to create the look of a lasso -- behind the upper left corner of the focal image. A few pink sequins add just a touch of sparkle. I love the end result, and even better, my mom did, too.

Thanks for stopping by!