Party Patterns in Gold

I was inspired by this awesome card by Deb Valder:

Although I don't have that same background stamp, I do have My Favorite Things Party Patterns which has similar images. I figured I could recreate this card no problem, I'd just have to stamp the circles separately. How hard could it be? Well, first off, I only had two different sizes of the outline circles, which made me have to really think about placement of all the circles since the above card had several different sized circles. Also, I wanted to enter ColourQ Challenge #351, so I decided to make my circles gold. Then I got fancy and decided to emboss them in gold. Well, I did use an embossing buddy before I embossed, but the pretty gold ep left a shimmery film EVERYWHERE on my card. Not the look I was going for, but the card was still usable, so I continued on by adding my bold SU inks for the inside of the circles. I have such a love-hate relationship with these ink pads! I LOVE the coverage you get and all the pretty colors, but I just can't seem to use them without making a big inky mess of things. I'm getting the hang of tapping lightly, but I need to be more careful and not get my fingers all inky because I end up ruining my cards. After all my planning and embossing and stamping, my card was filled with inky splotches. UGH! Rather than start over, I decided to cut out all the white (and white-with-ink-splotches) out and paste this fussy-cut image onto a card base that I adhered a gold frame to. But when I went to put my sentiment in the perfect spot, I realized I had pasted my image on UPSIDE DOWN. UGH!! Now I had to cut the card front off and paste it onto another card. It's a little thick, but now I was able to put the sentiment right where I wanted it, so I am quite happy with the result. But holy moly did it take me a long time to finish this!! I will try this background again - I am sure it will be much quicker if I don't emboss and also if I remember to be more careful when stamping! Thanks for stopping by!

Ink Splotches

Fussy-cut pieces

Second Card

Supplies Used:

Stamps: My Favorite Things: Party Patterns, Close To My Heart: Celebration (sentiment)

Inks: Stampin' Up: Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay & Rich Razzleberry; VersaMark w/gold ep