Big Shot Challenge

Today's card was another challenge on the Paper Wishes Message Board.  I was to make a card that used only card stock - no patterned papers.   This became an even greater challenge for me when my Big Shot broke!  As you can see, I DID get to use it for the focal itself, but couldn't use it for the mat or for embossing or anything. (I'm really grateful Ellison has a 3-year warranty on this.  They're sending me a replacement part and hopefully I'll be up and running with it soon.)

Anyway, I ended up cutting the matting with a scalloped blade in my paper cutter. Then, to add texture for the background, I scored my card stock and then sanded it to let the white show through. (I used card stock from Hot Off the Press that has a different color on each side.  You could also use ColorCore from Coordinations.  Many cardstock pieces have a white core, so this technique should also work with them.)

For those of you who like to see process, here is my first pass at this card.  As you can see, the black mat I used in the finished one, above, adds a lot.

The pumpkin stamp is from a little stamp set from Hot Off the Press, and the sentiment is from their Tiny Words and Phrases set.  I colored my stamp with metallic water colors, and then spiced it up a bit with metallic cream chalks.