Pastel Paisley Thanks

Paper choices are so important in determining the overall impact of a card.  This card is nearly identical to the one I posted yesterday (I did change the sentiment) but I used pastel colors from the Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock for all of the cuts.  Instead of white pen stitching, I used tiny gems.  All of these choices make a big difference.

Here are the pieces of the card.  The blue card base is Papertrey Ink "Spring Rain" cardstock.  For an A2 card, it is cut at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches and scored and folded in half.  The pink layer is cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches.

I used Design Studio to figure out the sizes I needed but then cut the images directly from the machine.  (Yes, I actually pushed buttons on the keypad both today and yesterday!)  The paisley pieces are cut at 3 1/2 inches and the sentiment at 1 1/2 inches real dial size- if you forget to push the real dial size button you will get a teeny tiny cut like the one at the top left!  You need the real dial size for the sentiment because the cuts on the Wild Card cartridge are calculated to cut at the proper size for a card made at the size set on the dial.

Here is the assembled card - once again, it is a bit plain and needs something to give it some spark.

First, I added a five petal flower with sparkly accents.  This flower is from the Creative Charms Dream Garden collection - here is a LINK to the page on the site where you can see more of these embellishments.

I used three glue dots in the center of the flower to be sure that the sparkled flower would be securely fastened to the card.

For the next stage of embellishing, I used these gradient gems from Creative Charms.  They come in many colors and can be found on THIS PAGE of the site.

First, I added a small, clear gem to alternating "bumps" on the paisley.

Next, I added pale pink gems in the opposite set of bumps.

I used one of the larger gems at the pointed end of the paisley.

Finally, I found a pink, heart shaped gem in my stash and placed it in the heart shape in the sentiment.  I showed you all the incremental changes so you could see that it is possible to make this card very simply or add more and more bling - depending on the degree of decoration that you find pleasing.

This photo of the two cards together shows what a dramatic difference color choices and embellishing can make.  Which card do you like better?