Mr. Cardmaker Just Can't Leave Things Alone

This week I am jumping into the shaker card challenge at Virginia's View. This one is nice and colorful, so I'm also joining the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, too!
I have some shaker cards that I am holding back, because the hubby reads my blog (good hubby), and they're Valentines for him, so...

I made a new card! I found some stamps that I wanted to play with, and with no more planning than that, I got started. 

I first came up with this--

Pleasant, fine, whatevs... But, snoozeville.  Whomever I sent this to would probably appreciate it, but I wasn't happy, really.  (And, when Mr. Cardmaker ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.  Ask the hubby.)

Basically, there was too much negative space, and the pattern was really overwhelming.

So, while I was thinking about what to do, I went and did the inside.
It looked like this--

I stamped the You, and then grabbed my white gel pen and highlighted it, and added a few dots.
So, yeah, that happened. Whoopie, but not much.

Anyway, I had to add SOMETHING before I fell asleep on this thing ,so I did this--

Better, right?  RIGHT?! Some little white dots on the frame, the veneer hearts, and extra chevron....
Better! (Scroll back up and compare. You'll see...)
But....
Yeah...
Meh.
Still not there.  

Meanwhile, on the inside---

Can I just say what a difference a few white dots makes??? For reals, though.

Before--

After--

Crazy, right?  Moving on...

Okay, so I FINALLY was able to get this thing where I wanted it, and all it took was a couple more little pieces of paper--

I made (and finally walked away from) THIS--

Ahhhhhh......Sweet, sweet, artistic relief. The pattern of the background paper has been broken up and balanced, and there's enough visual interest overall. Ta-DAHHHHHHH!

Wait, let's do a quick recap of this journey, shall we?
Oh, come on, you know you wanna....

 

ZZZZZZZZZ....

 

Better, but, not really....

 

Now , THAT'S what I'm talking about!!! (Are we still saying that? I'm thinking not, actually....)

All I had to do was change the chevron at the top, and add those striped pieces.  SO crazy how the simplest things work to your advantage...

 

So, there's my (VERY LONG and SUPER picture heavy) tale of how my card happened.

I guess, in a nutshell, the lesson here is --don't give up on these crazy things. Unless you rip it, or maybe light it on fire with your embossing tool, you can probably make anything work in the end. WORK IT!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard