Jingle Belles RECYCLE Challenge

I'm playing along with another Jingle Belles challenge. This time the challenge is all about using a recycled item on our cards in honor of Earth Day. For my card, I used a large cork stopper with a 1.5" diameter. The cork arrived in my craft studio many years ago when my husband brought a bag of them home from his lab. He knew that I would eventually find a purpose for them so he brought them home rather than throwing them out. I've used them for several projects over the years and when I saw the recycling challenge at Jingle Belles I  knew that it was time to use one on a card. So, I  used a band saw to slice three thin layers from from the cork stopper. I punched the tree, Santa and snowflakes from cardstock and adhered them to each cork slice. The most challenging image to use was that Santa. It started out as just the shape of a Santa which I found way too boring. So I cut the tiny details out to make it look more realistic and added outer rings to each cork slice repeating the colors of the punched pieces. I also added a border to the left and used a corner punch to create round edges on the right hand side of the cardbase. In the end,  I like the contrast of the cork on the clean white background and the rustic feel of the cork.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!