Vintage Cowboy Card

Hello Friends --

Sneak peak of today's card

There are two challenges going on right now that I've been thinking about and wanting to enter (The Kraft Journal and Gingersnap Creations).  Somehow they both became combined and these two cards are what I've created.  

Let me back up.  For any of my readers that were around back in November, you will remember a picture of a little slice of paradise.  You can see the post I'm talking about here.  This is my brother's place in Granby, Colorado. If you want some gorgeous pictures and a real look at a working ranch I recommend checking out his website.  If you go to the bottom (just keep scrolling, it is a long ways down) you can see a slide show of the ranch.  There are some great shots of one of my nieces and some other fantastic pictures.

One of the barns on the Strawberry Creek Ranch

My brother's office

So, back to the crafting, my friends over at Gingersnap Creations have an Old West theme this month.  When the first challenge was Cowboys and Cowgirls I HAD to play along (You can find the challenge here.  It doesn't close for awhile so you still have plenty of time to join in the fun).  I mean how could I not?  So, I started searching for a nice little digi with a vintage feel.  I found a couple that might work but not perfectly.

So, then I thought about all the wonderful pictures of my brother.  You see, he is the real thing.  An honest to goodness cowboy.  I thought about the tons and tons of pictures we have of him but none were quite what I wanted.  So, I ran over to his website here. 

This picture at the top of his website was perfect for what I wanted, well almost.  

photo by Emily Kitching

It doesn't have much of a vintage feel, now does it?  So, I went about turning it into this.

Now that is better, with a bit of a sepia modification with one of my favorite tools, Picnik it looks like a fantastic vintage photo.  

This is the first card I made with the photo.  I reprised some cardboard from last week's Christmas Gift Tags.  You can see that post here (in case you missed it with all the blogger issues).  The design paper is some I bought a LONG time ago.  In fact, I think I might have purchased it in Montana with my sister-in-law.  The button is a wooden button I dyed with Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I used the same ink on the twine wound round the card base.  

The photo at the top shows a close up of the button and some of the twine.

Here is the second card.  This one was made specifically for the ladies over at The Kraft Journal.  They wanted to see Buttons and Bows.  While my first card has a button and a bow, I didn't know if they would find one sufficient so I worked up a second card just for them.  It doesn't have quite as much depth to it, it is a bit cleaner than the first card but still has that dramatic photo. 

What do you think of the two cards?  Do you have a favorite?  Do you get that vintage feeling?  Are there any special changes you would recommend to make either of them better?  

Finally, just a little warning for all those folks thinking they want to chuck it all and move to this bit of paradise, it comes with a price.  When I called my brother today to confirm the photographer of the photo I learned that the day had been nice but they were getting ready to drive through a snow storm.  For my readers Down Under remember we are heading into summer and here in Atlanta we were forced to turn on the air conditioning this week and have had quite a few days in the 90's already.  I love visiting the ranch but for longer periods of time, I'll stick to summer in the mountains (the months of July and August).