There have been some cool materials entering the paper-craft market, such as wood veneer and chalkboard-like cardstock. I came across something I hadn’t seen before: cork. Not wine corks – although, there could be some fun 3-D crafting with those – but pieces made out of a thin layer of cork.

I found a 12-by-12-inch sheet of cork at a local scrapbooking store. It has a film backing, which keeps the cork from crumbling apart when it’s cut (it’s supposed to be adhesive, but mine’s not sticky). Hmmm, what to do with this stuff? I looked through my latest stack of papers, — Fancy Pants Designs’ Trend Setter set — then back to the cork, then to the chevron pattern, then to my scissors … and this is the result:

Here’s how to make it:

Make a card from a 5-by-10-inch piece of light-pink cardstock. Cut a 4 3/4-inch-square piece of navy-and-white, polka dot cardstock (I used the reverse side of “Glamorous” from the Trend Setter collection by Fancy Pants Designs) and adhere it, centered, to the card’s front. Cut a 4 1/4-inch-square piece of sea foam-green cardstock (I used the reverse side of “Vogue” from Trend Setter) and adhere it, centered, to the polka dot piece.

Cut a 4-inch-square piece of multicolored, chevron-patterned cardstock (“Posh” from Trend Setter) and adhere it, centered, to the green piece.

Using a piece of scrap paper, trace one of the chevron stripes from the patterned paper. Make sure the tracing is at least 5 inches long. Cut out the tracing. Trace the cutout onto a piece of cork sheet (mine’s Corkstock by Canvas Home Basics).

Cut out the tracing from the cork. Affix a tag that says “just a note” (I created mine using part of “Strips” and the reverse side of “Haute” from Trend Setter) onto the cork strip using a silver-colored brad.

Adhere the cork strip over one of the chevron stripes on the card. Trim any excess from the card’s edges.

Affix a wood veneer die-cut of a pointing hand (mine’s from the Hipster collection by Basic Grey) to the tag. Affix sea foam-green and light grey enamel dots (such as from Bluebell “Smile” from The Sweetest Thing collection by Jen Allyson for My Mind’s Eye) over the chevron paper.