The card for this blog post and the idea that inspired it came about because of a big card failure! I was under some time pressure to make a card and it was not going well. I had no time to start over and had to come up with an idea to fix it.

I was making a multi-colour patterned background with blending brushes and a stencil and it looked like a mess. I decided to die cut circles with the Picture This Dies and rotated the circles to mix up the pattern. The result was a very cool looking background! I recreated the look with some nicer colours from the original and here is how I did it…

I used the geometric shapes stencil from Plenty of Patterns Decorative Masks by Stampin’ Up! and blended three ink colours on Basic White card stock: Coastal Cabana, Fresh Freesia, and the new In Color, Parakeet Party.

Then, I die cut the background with the circles from Picture This Dies and mixed up the patterns.

Isn’t that a cool looking background? My kids really loved the look of this technique!!

Because I wanted the background to be the star, I simply added a strip of Coastal Cabana card stock, a birthday greeting, ribbon, and some rhinestones to decorate it.

I know you are probably curious to know what the failed card (in my opinion) looked like so here it is. (Note to self – don’t blend orange and blues together because the overlapping colour is brown.) My kids actually liked this card, but it is not one of my favourites!

Some of the best ideas come from mistakes and fails, so even if you think your card is bad, some good can still come from it!!

On that note… have a great week of crafting!!

Leah