this has a LOT of layers... (even for ME!) :)

it's biiiiiiiiiiiiiig for a card, as well, at nine inches square! i'm not worried about mailing it, as it's my mom's birthday card, and i'll be seeing her on the day. though if it had to be posted, some corrugated cardboard and a padded mailer would see this safely to its destination; another strategy i employ with "lumpy" cards is to save them for the folks to whom i am also mailing a gift... then everything just goes in a box together and you're golden!

you'll notice that whilst this card OVER-achieves in almost every other category, what it doesn't have is a huge range of color, and that's because my lovely blogging friend linda robinson is hostess at the city crafter challenge blog this week and she's invited us to go monochromatic. so i did!

(vintage: advertisements and text from "the deliniator" magazine published by butterick patterns, 1907; sheet music (also early 20th century), trading stamps, sewing pattern, lingerie lace, beaded trim; patterned paper: basic grey; vintage style embellishments: tim holtz, girls' paperie, pier one; pearl flourishes: want2scrap; giant rhinestone (on a pebbles xl brad): glitz; lace tape: love my tapes; flowers: from michaels' silk flower dept; other: feathers, lace; leaf dies: cuttlebug; inks: ranger, colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick, gluedots, 3m foam tape and double stick tape, hot glue, sewing machine)

i went with shades of cream because it's my mom's favorite color, and also because this week at inspired by laurel seabrook is embracing earth tones:

this is yet another week in which "inspired by" did not turn out to mean "looks like the picture" lol! but that is one of my favorite things about laurel, that she STARTS with a photo, but is willing to go wherever it takes her; and willing to follow us there, as well! in this case, my primary inspiration wound up being the color, the idea of texture, and a lot of fabric/sewing details, also i've worked in a little bit of an autumnal feeling by using die cut leaf accents!  (as a bonus, that bit of sheet music is a song entitled "falling leaves" though, sadly, in the end the title just stuck up too far and got trimmed off!) 

for placement i used this fabulous sketch from cherry bits, the blog for the online papercrafting store a cherry on top; i've rotated it 90 degrees clockwise, and taken a few liberties, so i may not actually qualify, but it's a corker of a sketch and it was a big inspiration to me, so i'm giving credit where it's due!

i'm also jumping in on this cool tic-tac-toe challenge at a new (to me!) challenge blog called come and get it, i've done the top row across: pearls, lace and die cuts!  

here's a closer look at my tic-tac-toe elements, and just generally at the wide range of embellies, lol!

finally, my apologies to miss patrice: i've been linking my jingle belles card to her 52-card-pick-up challenge each week, but last friday i totally forgot, so here's a different link in lieu, missus, i hope you like it! ♥♥♥