Runway Inspired Challenge 57 and Less is more 165

As soon as I started taking a closer look at the new dress given as inspiration for the Runway Inspired Challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and it fitted in perfectly with what I was already thinking of doing for the Less is More challenge which is called 'round and round'

Here is the dress….

As you can see, there are a lot of 'loves' written across it, but also phrases such as 'Have a Nice Day' and 'Love to the End'……this, combined with pastel colours made me think of one thing…..Love heart sweets!!!

I decided to base my card on this. I started by doing very careful calculations, marking out exactly where my circle die cuts needed. This was a card that was going to take a lot of time to prepare in order to get it just right. I didn't have suitable stamps for the actual love hearts and so I just used felt tip pen. This looked too bold and so I added a layer of vellum over the top which softened the look and also gave the chalky appearance of love heart sweets!!

Once my love hearts were in place, I had planned to leave the rest of the space clear….but it was too stark. I decided to make use of a set of watercolour paints I had just acquired and created some pink and purple paint splatters (this is fast becoming my favourite technique just now, especially after creating this card) and then some pink and purple crystals….This still didn't feel finished, even after adding a sentiment. I added some extra sequins (again, I felt not enough) and so I decided to go back to the drawing board and think about Love heart sweets…..I remembered that bright pink foil that the actual sweets were wrapped in and so I began searching the cupboards for something that might represent this……BINGO!! I found a Champagne chocolate (part of a christmas present) that was wrapped in pink foil!! I decided to carefully open the chocolate, eat it and carefully flatten out the wrapper. I used a heart die cutter and placed it on the card…..still not enough. Something I have been dying to try is a shaker card - so I decided to turn the heart in to a mini shaker.

Now that it's all put together - I kind of feel its too much!!! Ha Ha, Isn't that just typical! I'm not sure. I do feel the elements represent the dress well, but I'm just not sure I like it, but then again, I'm not sure I like the actual dress either!!!

Anyway, here is my card. Any comments always very much appreciated. Do you think its now OTT? What would you have left out?

Laura xxx

P.S. My Uniko Studio Guest Design post is on their blog right now so why not hop on over for a read.