Thinking outside the box - fall card

I've been looking at ways to add some more texture or 'pop' to my cards and scrapbook pages.  Pop Dots are wonderful tools...but there are lots of other things out there.  Today I am using raffia.  Here's what I came up with.

I am using one of Paper Piecings By Nikki's new fall files.  Here's a peek at the whole file:

After piecing my image, I used a standard paper punch to punch two holes in the dark brown paper.  Then, I threaded the raffia through.  Raffia is a great medium..you can tear and manipulate it, in all manner of ways.  Then I used pop dots to place my piecing over it.  I really like the way this "pops".

On the sign, I ran it through my cuddlebug and then ran some ink over it to distress it a bit.  I'm really happy with the way this came out! 

I would love to hear some other ideas for making my designs "POP".  What do you use? 

Thanks for taking  a peek at my project today!  I'm entering this in some challenges. 

First is Cooking With Cricut - their challenge is to add texture!  You must use your cricut in some way - and I used it to cut out these files from Nikki!  The texture is my cool raffia!

Second in Shopping our Stash - their challenge is embossing.  I used my embossing folders on this one in two places!!!

Third is Tuesday Taggers - their challenge is anything goes. 

Fourth is Tuesday Throwdown - using cut corners, edges, etc...  I love my Martha Stewart edge punches!

Fifth challenge is by My Craft Spot - usinga wild animal in your project...lucky for me, crows are wild!