HELP WANTED

Are you familiar with the technique called Black Magic?

BLACK MAGIC: On a dark-colored cardstock, stamp a solid image -- as opposed to an outline imaged -- in White Craft Ink. With your Heat Tool, make sure the white ink is completely dry, no shiny spots remaining. Once it is dry, use colored pencils to color the image, covering the white ink completely. After coloring, further decorate your design with white dots and lines. 

Simple enough, right?

I have tried this technique a handful of time over the years. I never got results I was proud of and wanted to use in a finished piece.

When I ran across mention of this technique recently, I thought I would give it ONE. MORE. TRY. 

I chose black as my dark-colored background, and stamped the lovely images from Fabulous Florets (page 93 of the Big Catalog) in White Craft Ink. Once the images were dry, I went to work coloring it with Stampin' Up!'s retired metallic colored pencils. I thought that would add some other-wordly elegance. 

After coloring, I added dots and dashes with the White Stampin' Chalk Marker (page 37 of the current Celebrate the Everyday catalog). That worked really well. 

Eh. It was okay. Just okay. 

Now, what to do with it. I pulled out the various Framelits I had. When I reached the Window Frames Collection (page 186 of the Big Catalog), the image fit perfectly. So I went with that, matting it against an Old Olive piece cut with the next larger Framelit from the same collection. 

I added this to a white card front. Yuk. Too stark. And no class whatsoever. So I grabbed Rich Razzleberry, which proved to be just the ticket. 

At this point, I walked away from the card for a day. I was sick of it, and not crazy about it. 

The next day when I came back to it, I knew pretty much how to proceed. I grabbed the birthday sentiment from Blooming With Kindness (page 65 of the Big Catalog), lavishly rubbed a piece of Rich Razzleberry cardstock with my Embossing Buddy, stamped it in VersaMark and heat embossed it with White Embossing Powder. 

Well, you can see how I finished it off with Whisper White 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon and some Basic Pearls. 

Since the card turned out to be an odd size -- 5" x 5" -- I grabbed my Envelope Punch Board and made a custom envelope with some of the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Parade DSP (page 154 of the Big Catalog). Cute!

Now, here's where YOU come in. I really am not happy with so many aspects of this card. 

Help Wanted: I would like to start a conversation of improvements/changes 

I could make to my design to help it become a more successful card. 

Please leave comments with your ideas. Be as brutal and honest as you want. I will take all "improvements" into consideration. With what you feed me, I will remake the card, and re-present it to you for your inspection within the near future.

So, please, please, please put your creative thinking caps on and harvest some of those Paper Seedlings and HELP ME!

I really look forward to your comments on ways you think I could improve this lovely mess!

Help

Wanted

Smiles.