Art Deco Tea Party Card with Photos

I am a big Art Deco fan (art style from the 1930's?) and so when I saw this elegant lady having tea rubber stamp at Viva Las Vegastamps(http://www.vlvstamps.com/), I just HAD to buy it. (If you're ever in Vegas and want to do something more fun than gambling/losing money, go to Viva Las Vegastamps and you will be blown away by the 17,000 rubber stamps in the inventory. If you can't get there, check out their website and you'll see a webcam view of the store and be able to order their stamps online.) Okay, back to my story. Not only was the stamp in one of my favorite art styles; it was a subject matter which was perfect for making a thank you note card for my sister. While visiting my sister in WA, I had the opportunity to have an elegant tea lunch with her and our husbands. (Our husbands did look out of place and I think the tea sandwiches were a bit too light for the men. LOL!) Anyway, because the Art Deco era did concentrate on simple geometric lines, I decided to make the card using mostly black and white. (Printed paper from DCWV La Creme pad.) This meant that there was basically no coloring.....a real time saver. Because I was planning to include some photos I decided to heat emboss the black areas of the stamp image using black detail embossing powder because the embossed areas would be glossy llike the photos. (You could use clear embossing powder over black ink which keeps the card from getting stray embossed bits.) Originally, I was going to put three photos on the front of the card but because the rubber stamp image was so large, I settled on putting the other two photos inside the card. On the back of the card I adhered a Tim Holtz die cut easel back so that my sister can stand the card up like a framed photo. The die can be purchased from Ben Franklin Crafts and is a Sizzix Bigz so it will fit the regular size die-cutting machine. The easel back for this card was cut from regular cardstock and should be able to hold up most cards except those overly embellished ones. This die can also cut through heavier matboard so a larger album 8x8 page can be turned into a display. Thank you for being a reader of my blog. I'm glad that you came and hope you will visit again soon!