adventures of perseverance

I need a masculine birthday card this week, and I was excited to use one of my newest stamp sets with the sketch at IN{K}SPIRE_me.  I spent over an hour trying to make it work, but it just wasn't coming together.  First the colors weren't right and when I needed a background image for the top part of the card, the whole stamp set changed:

stamp set - The Open Sea; ink - Lost Lagoon, Crumb Cake; card stock - Hello Honey, Very Vanilla, Lost Lagoon, Crumb Cake; designer series paper - Typeset; tools/accessories - Bitty Banner punch, Big Shot with Circles Collection framelits, Stampin' Sponge

Now that it's done, I love that the banners echo the ones in the ship's rigging, and that they begin with B so that I can link up at Cardz 4 Guyz, too!

After that struggle, I thought I needed something that involved fewer decisions.  I checked my challenge calendar and realized that CASE-ing Christmas closes tomorrow, and Donna's card is so beautiful it would be a shame if I didn't participate.  This was almost easy since Donna did all the design work - layout, colors and a theme.  The snag for me came when I started sponging - I thought I had spoiled it and would have to ink and emboss a second front panel - aack!  I stuck with it, though, and I'm glad I did:

stamp sets (all retired, sorry) - Four the Holidays, Endless Wishes, Warmth & Wonder (hostess), Berry Christmas; ink - Versamark, Wisteria Wonder, Soft Sky; stampin' emboss powder - Iridescent Ice; card stock - Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder; tools/accessories - Stampin' Sponge, heat tool, embossing buddy. Stampin' Dimensionals