OWH Sketch #109

Can't think of a better way to spend the observed President's Day holiday than supporting our troops through OWH!  :)

OWH Sketch 109 is a great look. I was drawn to its simplicity and immediately knew the 3 main papers I wanted to use. And, I quickly decided to forego a cut-out star and go with a heat-embossed, framed star image.

After that, however, I felt like Goldilocks struggling to find just the right amount of detail and embellishment for the card shown below.

Paper: K&Company's Americana mat pad, BasicGrey kraft
Embossed Image: Stampin' Up!

• The kraft needed a little pop off the navy. So, I decided to go with a little white -- but I had to be careful not to use too much white and take away from the framed star.
• The framed star needed a little background to pop off the kraft and red -- but my first two choices of paper were too busy.
• The brads added nice texture and shine -- but the card still needed a little something more.
• I thought about red or navy corners for the top left and right corners of the kraft rectangle -- but, since the corners took away from the embossed star and red strip, the corners were too much.
• Hand-drawn stitching popped into my head. This looked nice -- but was still not quite enough. The kraft still seemed to be the dominating focus when I wanted it to be the star and red strip.
• Rubbing brown pastels intermittently on the kraft helped add more dimension -- but the kraft was still too dominant.
• Finally -- the card looks just right after adding the stamped sentiment!!!  The tone-on-tone sentiment nicely enhanced the kraft without detracting from the embossed star and red strip. And, since this is an Any Hero card, "Thanks!" was exactly what the card needed. [When hubby said he really liked this one, I knew I had landed on the right combination of details and embellishments. :)]

This was one of those times when there was a whole lot more involved in designing the card than will meet the eye. Isn't it interesting how some cards come together so quickly and others... well, not so quickly?

Happy scrappin'!