Wheat Thank You

I work for Nebraska Agricultural
Statistics Service. One of the many
different thing that I do is called
Wheat Objective Yield.
This involves me going out into
15 to 20 wheat fields every summer and
setting up small sample plots.
Every month I do counts of the
stalks of wheat, check maturity and
send small samples to a lab for examination.
From all of this data that I send in,
Nebr. Ag Stats and USDA can
make a fairly accurate estimate of
the wheat harvest.
While wheat harvest is over,
I am now involved in
Corn Objective Yield and am preparing
to go out into some corn fields and
set up sample plots.

The above card is the thank you
that I made and sent to every
farmer that allowed me to play
in their wheat field.

The wheat in the oval is embossed
with a goldish emblossing powder that
I got years ago from Think Ink.
Then the shadow wheat
stamped on the card base are
Distressed Ink Straw.
These where ink, stamped on
scrap paper and then stamped on
the card base for a very light shadowy image.

All of the sponging was done first with
Rangers Archival Russet and then just the
very edges with Rangers Archival Coffee.

The thank you is an unknown stamp.

I used two different Spellbinders Label dies
to cut the corrugated cardboard.
I think I like the second one better.

Using Corrugated Cardboard

Yesterday I showed you a quick and easy way to turn your cardboard boxes into great embellishments. Today I am showing you how to use that corrugated cardboard on a card.

One side of the corrugated cardboard is torn. I gently rubbed a dark brown ink pad over the corrugations and then sponged the torn edge heavily. This was layered over a striped vellum. The vellum was cut with a mega Fiskars decorative scissors, then the cut edges were lightly sponged.

The image of the fisherman and the phrase are by a fantastic Montana stamp company, Sweet Grass Stamps. Stampers Quest showcased the quality and versatility of their stamps in their last Design Challenge. The image and the phrase were both stamped with black Archival ink by Ranger.

The fisherman was colored with Rose Art colored pencils. Yes, Rose Art, the inexpensive ones that you find with the school supplies. As you can see from the picture of the card the fisherman image was cut out on three sides and torn on the fourth. The phrase was torn on all sides. Lighter brown inks were "swirled" in a short distance on both with the final touch being a heavy sponging of dark brown ink and the very very edges "burned" with black ink sponging.

Pheasant feathers were placed at both ends of the phrase. Three bronze colored brads were used as a masculine accent on the fisherman.

Tutorial - Making Corrugated Cardboard

This is a very inexpensive embellishment. You will need a piece of a cardboard box and a plastic floss pick as shown in the photo on the left.

Insert the pointed end of the pick between the first two ribs that are glued together. Shown in photo 2.

Holding the pick at a 45 degree angle between the already freed corrugations and the top layer of the cardboard, gently push the pick downward. (photo 3)

It may take you a few tries to find the angle and pressure that work best for you.