Chopped: Card Edition #1 // Hero Arts

Things have been pretty mum around here, I realize - this summer has been crazy so far! My oldest brother is getting married a week from today, I'm visiting Ireland with four of my siblings at the end of July for ten days, retreat soon after coming back, working with my brother and dad on marketing and graphic design for their business, a flight down to Denver - these are just some of the crazy things happening! And amidst it all, most of my eight siblings and their families are making their way in and out of the family house for the celebrations. :)

So, that's what I'm up to!

Now, for the card stuff...

Between all the usual craziness, a full-time job and freelancing on the side, I don't have a whole lot of time to card making. I usually only have time to make projects that I need to make for an assignment, and no extras for blog fun.
However, while I make projects for assignments, things don't always turn out the way I want them to right away. Actually, this is usually the case. Lots of experimenting with layout, colors, techniques, etc. Sometimes the experiment looks cool, but doesn't really display what I particularly want to focus on for a blog post.
Instead of throwing it away, I'll finish it up quickly. I don't usually post these cards, but I thought it'd be fun to share some cards that I made for an assignment, and just didn't make the cut.

Welcome to Chopped: Card Edition!

For this first edition, here's a card I worked on for THIS Hero Arts blog post. I needed to try to make the lovely Wallpaper Pattern bold prints shine, so I tried heat embossing it in white and then coloring in little bits and pieces with my ZIG pens.

If I have a really pretty background, I really want it to shine, so I usually end up white heat embossing a sentiment on a small black cardstock panel, adhering it to the base, and calling it a day. However, I do that so often, that I wanted to try spicing things up.

I decided to die cut a navy panel (big stretch from black, I know ;)) with the Rectangle Infinity Dies, and then use a smaller rectangle die to cut two small windows in the panel. I left space in the middle to heat emboss a sentiment from Color Layering Graphic Flowers in white, and then used clear sequins to "shake" things up. (ha!)

So why didn't this card make the cut? Honestly, I wasn't particularly happy with how either of my cards turned out, but I decided to nix this one because I wasn't loving the colors. 

What about you? Do you often have great ideas in mind that just won't translate well to paper? 

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson watercolor, Bazzill navy

Stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Graphic Flowers

Ink: Versamark, ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens

Other: Hero Arts white embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp clear sequins

Tools: heat gun, Cuttlebug, Hero Arts Rectangle Infinity Dies, water and paintbrush