Before I "File" It . . .

I'll show it to you. This is one of "those" cards, the ones that don't turn out. In fact, it's butt ugly and nothing like the beautiful card I attempted to stamplift from Beate's very cool Fresh & Fun blog. What attracted me to Beate's card was the color combination - Stampin' Up's Basic Grey, Soft Sky and Purely Pomegranate. If there's a CTMH color that's close to Purely Pomegranate, it might be Watermelon. In her photo, I thought it looked red, which appealed to me, so I substituted the Purely Pomegranate for Cranberry. The red isn't the problem. First of all, had I read her directions, I would have realized that she worked with only one shade of gray rather than two. She distressed the piece that backs her stamped image, which is why it is darker. The Gray Flannel background is my card's biggest problem. Grey Wool would have been better. My paper piercing is crooked, too, because I thought I could do it fast - not! - and it looks shoddy. Although I thought her stitching around the Purely Pomegranate piece was real, it's not. It's a stamp, and she pierced the stitched holes of the zig-zag stitch, which certainly makes it look real - in the photograph anyway. Beate also used silver brads instead of white ones for her flower centers, and her ribbon has small dots instead of the big dots on the ribbon I used. She also distressed her blue piece with gray ink. There are other differences as well, and the bottom line is that my card is ugly, and hers is awesome. I'm not giving up, however, and am going to try this card again tomorrow night after salvaging my brads and ribbon and dumping the rest of it in the wastepaper basket. Good, bad or ugly (again), I'll post my results. Part of the reason I like paper crafting is that it's "just paper." Tossing a card that I don't like is much easier than throwing out a wool skirt that cost me and an arm and a leg that I wouldn't wear. I've such experiences. Tomorrow night, I'll review Beate's instructions and try again. If I still don't like the results, I'll scrap the idea and go on to something else. If you're so inclined, stop to see what I come up with. 'Til then . . .