Less is...a pain in the proverbial

This morning I decided, in my wisdom, that it would be fun to join in with a blog challenge.  I only get to play occasionally and, because 'Bloglovin' had put up Simply Less Is More , that became the challenge of choice.  Today's 'Less is More' challenge is predominantly black.  Simples!   I'd already seen Jen Nelson's entry as I am a huge fan of her blog.  She makes Clean and Simple look so easy.  This should be a walk in the park! Yeah, right!

Well, I started by looking for the perfect stamp - and I found it, really quickly.  It was a parcel that had come as part of a set free with some magazine purchased long ago and I'd never gotten around to using.  It was a simple image that wouldn't need colouring and would be perfect in black ink on white card.  OK, let's stamp. And I did - about a dozen times!  Finally, I managed to stamp an image I was happy with.  Yippee!  Next, in order to add a little detail to the card I decided to emboss a diamond pattern on my card blank.  My main idea involved a square embossed in the centre of my card blank.  Guess how easy that turned out to be, not!
Anyway, I persevered.  After several attempts I got one I was happy with.  Fabulous.  I picked up the finished result to take a photograph and...managed to put an inky mark on the side of the card. GRRRR!  I couldn't believe it.  Oh well, if at first you don't succeed etc, etc.

Having struggled to get my square panel in the centre on my first attempt I got wise and decided a matted panel would do just as well.  After all, I had matted the stamped image onto black.  I was just carrying on the theme.  I had seen a card with a negative sentiment in a black panel and thought it would look different on my second attempt. So I cut out the 'Congratulations' word from my Tattered Lace word dies and started to fiddle with all the little bits...which turned out to be far more of a faff than I thought it was going to be. So hay ho, I gave up and stuck the sentiment on.  I finished off the stamp with a single red gem stone to add a little something and I had my finished card...which looked a lot more complicated than I had intended, GRRR!

So, I went back to my first attempt.  I thought, if I turned it around and added some ribbon and a bow, I would hide the inky spot and get away with it.  However, it now looked unbalanced so I added another ribbon and bow to the top of the card to balance it up.  Stuck a couple of red gems on to key it all in and had a nice card for the challenge.  But it wasn't what I had originally intended, GRRR!

So, I went back to the drawing board.  I embossed the whole front of the card so it could be seen more easily and added my matted, stamped image with just a single red gem.  There, simples!

But, do you know what, despite the frustration of not getting it right first time.  I actually enjoyed my morning and I finally ended up with three similar cards which all fit the criteria and which, in the end, I actually liked. So here they are.

Take your pick folks.  In the end, I really couldn't decide.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x