New card Share

Hi everyone!! Just thought I'd drop in to show a couple of cards I've made.  Received quite a few new stamps and dies over the past little bit...too many really :)
I really wanted to use the new Paper Smooches Paisley dies, they are fab!!  I also need to improve my ink blending skills, love the look and I rarely do it.  I have an incredibly heavy hand and that IS NOT what you want to have while blending!
So I started by partial die cutting the paisley images onto watercolour cardstock (I initially thought I would watercolor this piece).

I changed my mind and decided to ink blend the background instead.  I picked out four shades of Distress Ink:  

Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold and Tattered Rose

I started from the bottom of my card base with the darkest color and worked my way up to the lightest.

 Now this is where things got tedious..applying itty-bitty Glue Dots to these die cuts. I wanted some dimension and I thought this would be easier than cutting foam tape.

Now this is where things started to unravel a bit.  I put a strip of washi on the base of the die cuts (the edge was a bit ragged).  Well, I didn't really like that so I found an orange piece of patterned paper from Avery Elle's Brights collection and cut a thin strip.

Well, I didn't get the hearts entered and I didn't like that either.  So I trimmed that little section away, which created kind of a neat look....don't get too excited.

So this is how it used to look!  I liked it!!  Then I wrecked it.  I chose the "miss you" sentiment from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler.

Now I didn't want to use enamel dots or sequins.  I should have because they are removable.  So, instead I chose the Lots of Dots stamp set from Simon Says Stamp (love this set!)  I stamped the top three by the sentiment first...good.  Then thought the bottom right looked too bare.  Stamped three there as well.  Aaaand, not a fan.  Looking it at it now, I really don't mind it but at the time I just didn't like it.  

 So, I ended up adding a strip of black cardstock to the bottom and finishing it off with some stitching lines...which got very crooked!!!  So, thats the finished card.  I like it but I think I should have left well enough alone.  What do you think?

And I thought I would share the card I entered into the Simon Says Stamp current Flickr Challenge (#24)...Favorite Technique.  Did a bit of ink blending (again) and this time some Double partial die cutting.  I used the All Seasons Tree die, Stitched Squares dies and the "be" die with coordination sentiment set.

Hope you enjoyed!!

Stay Crafty!!

Simon Says Stamp

Paper Smooches Stamps

SSSflickrchallenge