"Trying to find the place I just left"

Because of my numerous failed attempts at the Make it Crafty Distressing challenge last week, I was very happy to see their new sketch & Vintage theme challenge. Another opportunity! I learned a lot following their instructions on distressing, mostly that it means more than I thought it did. I had made some really pretty paper with Tim Holtz distress inks, but then I messed it all up trying to use acrylic stamps on it. Too advanced for me (thus far!) This time I knew better. I embossed watercolor paper using a texturing plate and then "distressed" it using different inks. The key here applying the ink with a wet-nap wipe. For the orange stripes I spread on ink straight from the pad, which was risky but came out well.
For whatever reason, I decided to use the cover of a book for the main image. Not just any book; a book I had the honor of designing. The whole experience was very important to me: I worked with the press's editors to design the cover and the poet is a favorite of mine. The card contains several elements that together tell the story of the cover's design: the smaller images are the two postcards I used as reference in the final design, the brads spell PB (for Passager Books, the publishing company), and the embossing plate and tool I used were gifts from the other designer, a good friend. I feel like the Crafter Me made a card for the Designer Me. She really appreciates it!

Inspiration: Make it Crafty sketch FUN challenge
Main image adapted from cover of Perris, California, poems by Norma Chapman (Passager Books, 2010)
Vintage Greetings from California postcard images: Travel version and Historic version
Supplies: brads from Around the Block, Tim Holtz Mustard Seed distress ink, ColorBox pigment ink, textured watercolor paper from PLAZA art stores, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, embossing texture plate & texturing tool
Blog title from "I'm Pedaling Backwards," Perris, Califonia, pg. 54