Yee-Haw, It's Your Day Case Study DT Challenge

*This is my second post today, for the Serendipity Stamps Summer Release post, please scroll down*

It's good to try new things...right?  Today I have a card to share that I made for the Case Study Design Team Challenge.  Week after week the Case Study Design Team draw inspiration from a guest "Muse", letting their imaginations run wild and always creating something fabulous for those of us who enjoy playing along.  Who wouldn't want to be a part of that team?  I know I would and my card today is my "audition".

For this challenge we were to choose a personal Muse, anyone from the crafting world whose work we admire.  For me, I admire far more crafters than I can name so I flipped through my Pinterest gallery and came upon a card that has always been one of my favorites.  Here it is:

Card by Stephanie Wincott

This beauty was created by a super talented designer, Stephanie Wincott of Clearly Besotted.  I loved those beautiful pleats and decided that the pleats would be the inspiration for my own card.  I wanted to  use pleats in a different way than I have ever done before and I also knew I wanted to use my favorite stamp set of all time...Waltzingmouse Back in the Saddle.  I love making western themed cards with this set.  Enough talk, here's my card:

I made a pleated belly band for a gate fold card.  Before I give you the details of my card, here's a closeup of those pleats.

I stamped a subway style pattern using at least 7 different stamps from Back in the Saddle for my background and made a simple belly band from kraft card stock and stamped the tiny star image along the top.  I folded some patterned paper pleats and used scor tape to add them to the belly band.  Some denim ribbon was wrapped around it to hide the gathers and I tied not only a denim bow, but a jute twine bow embellished with My Favorite Things Country Charms to dangle from it.  I embossed the galloping horse rider in navy and added it for a little more interest.

The inside of my card is stamped with the beautiful Woodgrain background from Waltzingmouse Woodgrain.  Wow, is that a huge stamp!  Sentiments from Back in the Saddle are framed within a new image from Waltzingmouse My Kind of Guy.  I had to add those cute cowboy boots for no other reason than I love them!  A few denim stars finish off my card.

I would like to thank Stephanie for the original inspiration...I have cased more than a few of her cards in the past.  I would also like to thank the creative Case Study Challenge team for considering me for their Design Team.  Yee Haw!