Extreme Make Over #2

Here's the inspiration for my second Extreme CAS Make Over. (Please ignore the copyright...I'm too ditzy to turn off the automatic copyright in Picasa. I shot this photo of part of page 32 in Papercrafts Holiday Cards and More.)


This wonderfully rustic, country card was made by Alli Miles, whose wonderful work has inspired me numerous times before. The design of her card here seemed so balanced and perfect, I just had to make it over to be more CAS.

In this case, my main job was eliminating pattern because the design itself isn't overly embellished or complicated to start with. I did removed a few layers and made essentially an OLC, but removing the cute sentiment flag meant the button also had to go away (trust me, it looked dumb on my remake). To preserve the balance of Alli's card, I replaced the bow with a big brad and three small brads on the third tree. The gingham ribbon is a nod to Alli's original country feel, which is lost with just plain cardstock.

The trees I cut were a bit big for a standard card and looked squished, as did the sentiment. When I tried to cut the trees smaller, they got all crooked and skinny. So I started again and adjusted my card size to fit the triangles. (I seriously want a triangle punch.) The card is a 5.5-inch square, and now everything has room to breathe.



If I remake this card, I'll add a ribbon piece under the big brad to make a faux bow...the brad alone seems a bit plain to me. I might also add faux stitching to the trees to get more of the country feel that's so integral to Alli's card. Other than those two tweaks, though, I'd leave it as is: clean, simple, and sweet.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts sentiment
ink: real red
paper: PTI white, SU olive, artichoke, and cocoa
accessories: brads, dimensionals, ribbon.