LIM10 - Focus on the Sentiment

It Saturday, and time once again for the Less is More Challenge.  Our challenge this week is to  make the sentiment the focal point of the card.  These challenges have really made me put my thinking cap on!  In fact, for this week's challenge, I couldn't make up my mind what to do!  I can't wait to see what everyone is posting for this challenge!  You really should pop over to Less is More and check out the challenge and all the beautiful entries!

Putting the focus on the sentiment is so different from what I would normally do.  So....off we go! I ended up making four very different cards, and I'm not sure that I'm totally thrilled with any of them.  So you can tell me if you have a favorite.

This card was the first idea that I had.  I stamped the sentiment (I think it's Hero Arts) in versamark and black and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Then I stamped the butterfly image (no idea who makes it!) with versamark, then with a paintbrush, I lightly brushed on some Pearl-ex in a teal-blue.  I thought it would be a lighter shade of teal, but I was wrong.  So...not completely satisfied, I moved on to the next one...

I found another stamp (the flowers - no idea who makes it) and decided to stamp it with versamark and brush lightly with a soft green Pearl-Ex powder.  I also added the butterfly stamped with versamark and brushed with the Pearl-Ex powder.  The trail of the butterfly was done with a versamark pen.  I was trying to get it to look more like a watermark than a stamped image.  Then I stamped the same sentiment as in the first card with Memento's black.

I'm kind of leaning toward this card as the one I like the best.  Remember the old brass stencils that you had to use a light box to emboss with?  Well, the border around this card was hand embossed with a stylus and one of those little brass stencils.  I had to keep moving the card around on the stencil to be able to do all the edges as the stencil is a rectangle of about 2 inches by 3 inches.  The sentiment is also from the same set as the first two cards.  When I finished stamping the sentiment, I decided that the card just need a little something else...so using a glue pen, I added glue and white glitter dust to all the leaves...I think it did add a little pizazz to the card. 

For my last effort, I made a cutesy card.  The sentiment stamp is from Paper Smooches and the cupcake is from Hero Arts.  I stamped the sentiment in SUs Tempting Turquoise. I stamped the cupcake in Memento black. I colored the cherry with a red Copics and the cupcake paper with a tan Copics marker.  Still a little blah....so I used my glue pen and traced the word celebrate and added some Martha Stewart teal glitter. I also added a little teal glitter as sprinkles on the cupcake. Then to bring it all together, I added a border about 1/2 inch from the edge of the card.

As you can see, I was jumping from one thing to the next, but I just couldn't make up my mind.  Therefore, you get to see all my trials! LOL! 

Oh! Sharing some happy news!  This past Monday, I was a featured designer on the Bo Bunny blog.  They featured a little bio on me and two of my layouts! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments are much appreciated!  Until next time....

Hugs!