Is it a mess, or not?

Yesterday I had one of those crafting days, you know the ones, when you don't really know how the card is going to turn out and you keep going in the hope that it'll be alright in the end .. .. .. well that's what happened with this creation.  The image is one of Nellie Snellen's new stamps called Christmas birdie and I'd coloured her up last week with the aim of creating something with her using the Marianne Warm Winter Wishes papers - so at least the idea was there!  The best match for the papers, imo, is kraft cardstock and I loved how this card turned out the last time I used the papers.  Then when I saw the Incy Wincy blog yesterday I thought it would be the perfect challenge: it's a recipe - 4 patterned papers (base knitting pattern, crochet pattern on middle layer that's almost obscured, poinsettia flowers diecut from 3rd, and then the top left corner all but obscured by the greeting and the little deer embellishment are both cut from the 4th paper).  In addition there's the 3 brads in the centre of my flowers, the 2 ribbons (pink across middle you can just about see and a little red bow) and of course the 1 image. I've inked the edges of everything, papers and mats, with Sahara Sand chalk ink, added lots of Stardust Stickles to my image (and got p'd off that the red Copic colour's run into it especially on her shoulder), stamped a PB greeting in Poppy Red pearlescent brilliance ink and then cut out lots of Marianne skeleton leaves, LRO156, and the big snowflake I'm addicted to at the moment!  I still wasn't happy so added the pearls with my Wacco pen .. .. so .. .. too many big embellishments for the small scale image?  Perhaps I should have gone for smaller leaves and a smaller snowflake - I dunno .. .. it's growing on me .. .. .. and I've learnt that Stickles will dissolve Copic ink!

I certainly don't expect to win any prizes with this card, but thought I would share with you anyway and link up with Incy Wincy as their challenge was the inspiration for how it turned out!  It's going to be a pottering about kinda day today, waiting for Jason to do a bit more tiling before we start grouting another area in the bathroom.  I did get the final gloss coat on the door frame yesterday so no hold up there .. .. still have to paint the door but I'm going to leave that until the work is all done otherwise it's only going to get knocked about and grubby.  I still have a carrier bag full of spring bulbs to get planted so if it stays dry I might get that job out of the way - oh and I have my DT card to make for Thursday, so I'll not be bored!