Best Friends Secret

     Here is the second card for Creative Expressions this month. I'm really enjoying working with these silhouette stamps, it gives a chance to play around with some interesting backgrounds. This Bokeh background was made using a technique I learnt from my fellow DT member Tracey Heaton.
     This stamp is called Best Friend and it comes with a great sentiment which I have used inside the card, read on and you'll find out why.
     This was going to be an A6 card but things went wrong and rather than throw it in the bin I decided to try and save what I could use. The background went well, using Distress Inks I coloured the base card stock and then following Tracey's instructions used the Snowcap ink and made my circles, so far so good.
     The image stamp went well, I stamped in black Archival ink and used Cosmic Shimmer Clear embossing powder, still on track......then it happened!......I stamped the sentiment and it all went horribly wrong!!!
     I had inked the stamp with black Archival again, looked at it to make sure all was well, (note to self- need to get eyes tested!) and so stamped it at a jaunty angle on the card....OMG!....where did that lump of fluff come from?   result - big black blob over 'be' and 'friend'. Now what?
     After a little huffing and puffing and a strong cup of tea I decided to cut the top off and make a square card, it meant loosing some of the great background but I really couldn't leave that mess on there, you couldn't even cover it with an embellishment!
     That was not the end of it, oh no. Taking a closer look at the image I noticed a nice little finger print on one girls arm, this just wasn't my day. By this time I was loosing the will to craft, but I will not be beaten without a fight. I had by now adopted a determined attitude, no four inch square of card was going to beat me, one of us was going to win and the bin was not an option.
     How to fix an embossing mess up? Eureka!...use a Perfect Medium pen.....very carefully draw over the damaged area and sprinkle some more embossing powder on it, get the heat gun nice and hot and then quickly heat the touch up area being careful not to over cook the rest and guess what?......it worked!!
     Having got this far I then had to decide how to mount this challenging piece of work, thankfully this is when it all calmed down and flowed rather nicely. I chose black to set off the image but I didn't want much of the white card blank showing, this meant a wide black border that had to have some small interest on it, so I used my Tim Holtz ruler to prick holes along the edge and yes I did practice on a piece of copy paper first, wouldn't you after how things have gone so far?

     The corners of the image panel are rounded inwards with a punch and I have put tiny gems in the corners, trying to match the colour of the card at each corner means they are all different.
     So now you know why the sentiment is inside the card on a thick paper insert that has the corners rounded to match the outside panel. I have added some coloured circles to the sentiment area to mirror the Bokeh circles.
     Well there it is, finished at last. This card has been a mini challenge to complete but I hope it shows that we all make mistakes but you can overcome most of these little hiccups with a good cup of tea and calm determination.
     Please leave a comment and tell me about how you have saved a creation from the bin, I would love to hear your hints and tips.....and lets face it, I may need them!!!

Materials used
Best Friends single stamp
Archival Ink Black
Adirondack Ink  - Snow Cap
Distress Inks - Salty Ocean / Picked Raspberry / Evergreen Bough
Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder - Clear

I would like to enter my mini challenge in the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes

Lisa B Designs - Inked Backgrounds