The Evolution of a Card

Over the weekend, I was able to browse through Paper Crafts "Go To Sketches," which got the old creative juices flowing. I decided I wanted to try the sketch on page 24 - it seemed pretty straightforward, and I thought my new Dear Lizzy stamps would be a great fit. Well let me tell you, this one gave me fits! First, I thought I'd do a mix of stamping directly on the cardfront with one or two circle-punched images adhered with dimensionals. Then, I tried all circle-punched images, some popped up, others adhered flat to the cardfront. When that still didn't look right, I decided to emboss the cardfront, then add the punched circles. I fiddled and fiddled with this thing, and this is what I ended up with:

(The more I look at it, the more "hot mess" comes to mind, lol!) I really wasn't happy with it, but it was late and my bed was calling. Unfortunately, it didn't look any better in the light of day, so I decided to just start over from scratch:

Ah, that looks much better! So much easier on the eyes: cleaner, crisper, but still visually interesting. I used my circle Nestabilities with my Cuttlebug to cut circles in a piece of 3 5/8 x 5" cardstock, following the sketch for placement. To stamp my images, I used temporary adhesive to attach the circle panel directly to the cardfront, masking off the edges of the two partial circles with post-its. After everything was stamped, I removed the circle panel and re-attached it using foam dimensionals. For the scalloped sentiment strip, I punched both sides of a  1 1/8 x 3 5/8" strip with an edger punch, then stamped the sentiment - easy peasy! Popped the sentiment strip up on foam dimensionals, added rhinestones to the stamped images, and voila!

Now, my first instinct was to just act like the first card never existed, and only show pics of the second card. But then I figured, hey, why not show how I got from one to the other? So, in the interest of full disclosure, there you have it - the good, the bad, and the not-quite ugly. Hopefully someone will get a kick out of it!

Card Supplies:

1) Stamps: American Crafts Dear Lizzy "Warble," Hero Arts "All Occasion Messages;" Ink: SEI Bordeaux, Cumquats, Ivy; Brilliance Graphite Black; Accessories: circle punches, EK Success Open Scallop edger punch, Cuttlebug, Quickutz Polka Dots (Large) embossing folder, corner rounder punch, rhinestones, foam dimensionals (varying widths)

2) Stamps: American Crafts Dear Lizzy "Warble," Hero Arts "All Occasion Messages;" Ink: SEI Bordeaux, Cumquats; ColorBox Chestnut; Accessories: Cuttlebug, Circle Nestabilities, EK Success Open Scallop edger punch, foam dimensionals, rhinestones