Striped Sentiments

I've got 2 versions of the same card to share today, I liked the idea but wasn't so sure on the way the first one turned out, so I did it again!   I wanted to use the lovely big poster style sentiment in the new "quick cards- small" set from the latest Colorado Craft Company release and I loved the striped watercolour version they shared from Kristina when they released it.   I didn't want to get the paint out though so I decided to do something similar just with ink blending.  I've had a couple of card comissions from magazines for upcoming Christmas features using these colours - not a combo I would naturally go to but once I'd tried it, I loved the hint of pink with the other shades - gives it a kitschy-vintage feel.   I used oxides in Kitsch Flamingo, Candied Apple, Salvaged Patina and Peacock Feathers.

Now here's where the differences came in - for the first card, I stamped and embossed the sentiment in silver BEFORE I did the ink blending and the oxides seem to have taken the shine off the embossing powder in places.   So on the second one, I did the ink blending first and left it a good hour to dry before dusting and then embossing on top.  Much more sparkle!

On both cards, I tore the edge before embossing that with the silver powder too.

I wanted to add the little penguins from the Chillin's Gnomies set that I used at the weekend.  These little penguins are adorable but as I took my card to the north pole on Sunday, they had to wait!   Again this is where the difference came in.  I wanted to have the little dude sitting on the top of the sentiment, but on my first card, he just wouldn't fit so I went with just the dancing dude at the bottom.  On the second card, even though I dropped the sentiment down a little, he was still a bit tall, but I popped him over the word "the" as I think the sentiment still makes sense without that word and the two penguins then balance the card out.

Do you have a preference?   Either way, I have two more card for the Christmas card box so I'm happy with that!

Catch you on Sunday.

Tara