Stamp A Stack Card #1 - Bears

BONUS UPDATE: My cohort in crafting crime brought me her "altered" version of this card. We both weren't thrilled with the subject matter. You can see it below, it is the last picture. I like that she took the provided brown base and ran it through with a wood grain embossing folder. Then she used  a generous amount of dark brown sponging on both the base and the pink. I like her vertical treatment of one of the satin strips and the sequins offset by the bow tie clip and the bow tie on a small piece of ribbon. Well done! 

UPDATE: I found a picture of the actual class sample card. it is the last picture.

I will start off with my least favorite card from last month's Stamp A Stack (SAS - Jan 30th). I like the colors alot, who doesn't like milk chocolate and pink. But I just don't have anyone in my family/friends who would appreciate a valentine with bears on it. This is the first SAS that I went to with the intention of completing only one of the three cards so I can play with my own variations at home. I was bad and in a weak moment, I did distress the pink edges AND colored them with the Tip Top Taupe... so now I do not have the class version. At home I made even more changes. I chose to really distress both layers edges, I then took my mini Tip Top Taupe and went around the edges to get them quite dark. I finished the edges with some sponging. I popped the two layers up off the base for more depth. I thought the base was a bit plain so I doodled on it. The bears look hand drawn and I thought that would give it a more finished look. I posted the class card image first and mine is the image below. Thanks for looking!

Small note: Stampin Up currently has no alcohol markers in their product line, so we were given water based markers to color the pearls. Mine never did dry. At home I matched the pink with a copic color RV34 and the pearls were usable in only one minute. Big difference!