rhinestone cowboy

Hi everyone, the July Emerald Creek Dares Challenge is inspired by the song Rhinestone Cowboy. This month kicks off rodeo season in Calgary and the team at Emerald Creek is hoping you bring the western bling, paisley, country, anything!

I have created three cards to celebrate the rodeo and showcase one of my favorite Emerald Creek embossing powders, oil rubbed bronze. All of the backgrounds were created using distress oxide inks blended to create the look of gorgeous summer sunsets.
I used color palettes recommended by Kristina Werner Design.

The first card is fairly simple. When thinking about rodeo cowboys, I know that the season usually means traveling from venue to venue competing and showing off their skills. This seems perfectly suited to the "not all who wander are lost" chipboard compass piece from my stash. I started with a blended distress oxide background using chipped sapphire, peacock feathers and carved pumpkin inks. Once the background is complete, I coat the chipboard laser cut piece with embossing ink and cover it with a layer of oil rubbed bronze embossing powder. The powder is heat set and allowed to cool. I repeat the embossing process a second time to give an even coverage. When the embossing has cooled completely, I attach the piece to the card front.

The second card I have made uses a printable image of a fancy cowboy boot. I create another blended distress oxide background, this time using dusty concord, fired brick, ripe persimmon, and wild honey. A star in circle laser cut border piece is embossed with oil rubbed bronze embossing powder and is attached along the left side of the card front. Next, I print the boot image onto a piece of heavyweight card stock and then fussy cut it out. Using a VersaMark marker, I color one of the main interior sections of the boot and then coat that section with ancient amber baked texture embossing powder. I heat set the powder and then repeat the process for the other portions of the boot that are this color.

I color the trim and sole of the boot with marker, and then, using a water brush, I color the other areas of the boot with aged mahogany distress ink. The studs are embossed with oil rubbed bronze. When the boot is complete, it is attached to the card front with double sided adhesive tape.

The third and final card uses an Emerald Creek Horse Head stamp. I begin by creating a blended distress oxide background with blueprint sketch, wilted violet, picked raspberry, and squeezed lemonade. While I have the inks out, I stamp the horse head using the same colors, layering them as I did for the background. I use my heat tool to dry the stamped images and then cut them out with scissors. The horse head stamp is approximately one inch (1") square. I want the horse heads to mimic the background but also stand out. To achieve this, I cut nine, 1-1/4" squares. I emboss the edges of the squares with oil rubbed bronze, leaving the central area blank. The horse head squares are attached to the embossed edge squares using foam tape. Leaving the central area void of embossing makes it easier for the foam squares to adhere to the card stock. The layered squares are attached to the background in a grid pattern.

I hope that my trio of cards has inspired you to create something and join us in this month's challenge. We would love to see your rhinestone cowboy shine; enter the challenge if you dare!
 You can find all the details to link your project here.
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by,
 I truly appreciate it!
~Ann
  xxx



Emerald Creek supplies used:
oil rubbed bronze embossing powder
ancient amber embossing powder
horse head art stamp

other supplies used:
Distress Ink: aged mahogany
Distress Oxide inks:
chipped sapphire, peacock feathers, carved pumpkin, dusty concord, fired brick, ripe persimmon, and wild honey, blueprint sketch, wilted violet, picked raspberry, squeezed lemonade
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard pieces:
Banner Border Strips, Wander Title
Sookwang double sided adhesive
VersaMark embossing ink
VersaMark embossing marker
Wagner Studio Precision heat tool