Does it ever happen to you?  A card or project looks great in your head, but when you try to translate it to a real life creation it falls way short of your vision.  Well I have a whole box in my craft room dedicated to just such disappointments…  I can’t quite throw them away, but something about them just isn’t right.  So they get tossed into “the box”.  Well in an attempt to do a little house cleaning today, I pulled out a couple of these rejects from long ago to see if I could salvage them.

This was one of my very first attempts at card making.  Here is what it looks like now.

I completely removed the sentiment and the green strip of card stock replacing it with some wide grosgrain ribbon.  The bottom section was embossed with the Swiss Dots EF.  Some Kaiser flatback pearls were added as well as a taffeta bow.  The next photo shows it slightly open so that you can see how the sentiment is actually popped up with a dimensional on the inside of the card.  It peeks through the hole punched on the front.

I’m much happier about this card now!  Phew!

The second card wasn’t quite as desperate, so the changes are more subtle.

It just needed a little more interest.  I sponged around the green card stock to rough up the torn edge and help “pop” the panel.  The ribbon was changed and a knot added.  The flame got some glitter and a little more shading was added around the candle base.

Yup, I like this one now, too.

Now if you are like me and have one of “those boxes”, give this a try.  Sometimes coming back to a card or project after leaving it for awhile really helps enable me to see what it is that it needs to become that vision I had for it in the first place.

Happy stamping!