A Gem of a Challenge DT Card - Lots of Layers

It's Saturday, so it's challenge time at A Gem of a Challenge, where our theme this week is "Lots of Layers".  This one suits me down to the ground, I love layering, the more the better, we'd love for you to get your papers out and play along.

 The schools in Inverness broke up for the holidays a week ago, and this is the card I made for my son to give his teacher.  It's pretty large at 8x8, but it needed to be to accommodate my embossed layers, which were done with Tim Holtz and Papermania folders, using Core'dinations, which I sanded after embossing.
The cute image is one of Janet's newer ones, called School Boy Andy, you'll find him in the store here.  I've coloured him with Promarkers to look like my son, Robbie, in his school colours, which I've used throughout the card too.  I computer generated the sentiment for a personal touch, and added an apple brad to echo the image.
The only printed paper I used was some Stampin' Up dictionary print paper, which I used for the base layer, I added some silver Card Candi to the top corners to look like drawing pins.
I created a faux chalkboard effect by using white embossing powder on black card, the more porous the card the better, you want and uneven finish and stray specks of powder give the appearance of chalk dust.
The pencil was simply made from scrap card, I scored the lines along it's length for realism, and I finished off with a few paper clips. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges -
Crafty Catz - #190 - Childs Play
Creative Corner - #26 - Many Thanks
4 Crafty Chicks - #149 - Dry Embossing
Bearly Mine - #93 - Anything Goes
LEJ - #60 - Recycle, Upcycle, Use Household Objects, I used paperclips
Top Tip Tuesday - #104 - Office Supplies, I used paper clips