Bear market rose

No, I'm not telling you that stock prices are going up, I'm telling you that my IRA is doing lousy.  I could tell it was doing lousy before I even opened the annual report, because of the cheap, flimsy paper.  When things are going well, your companies send reports on gorgeous, high quality paper, and when there are negative numbers on page two, the report is tiny, and printed on thin cheap paper.  This paper looked like dress pattern paper.

I will say that when I saw the Fun with ATC's challenge, money, I thought it was an impossible theme.  Then I saw Vicki's take on it, using chinese coins just like the ones I have, then I felt really stupid.  It was still bothering me when I saw the flimsy paper, so the sudden inspiration to use it for this ATC was inevitable.  It may be a stretch of the theme, but at my age, my retirement account balance matters!

 

This is one of those crumpled paper roses, made with about a dozen layers of punched scalloped circles.  There is a brad in the middle, but you can't see it.  Once I made the rose, I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I kept adding aspects from different challenges until I liked how the ATC looked. Some touches are subtle, like the little bit of fine glitter on the rose, or the clear embossing on the word, but I don't think this card would be half as nice without the inspiration each challenge provided.  Here is a list:

Fun with ATCs - money

AI Factory - garden

ABC - glitter

Cook it up with Katie - black/texture/swirls

Creative Cottage - embossing

Oldie but Goodie - old stamp, distressing

Doodle Palace - sketch

Eat Sleep Stamp - sketch (yeah, it was the the same sketch!  I took it to be a sign)