Birthday card - grey/black + red

I made this card for a wonderful lady who recently turned 50.

I really love this stamp from Dina Wakley, so I decided to use the star as the main focus. (I later discovered that I probably stamped it upside down, but hopefully no one noticed... :-) )

I embossed the star with black embossingpowder, and also used a pencil to outline it. Then I used some water to smudge the pencil lines. A technique I picked up from DeeDee Catrons blog.

The papers are from Dixi Craft, and I used a thin layer of white gesso before I started stamping.
The small strips of text are from a 7 Dots Studio collection.

I love the combination of grey/black and red, so the chipboard is dyed with red Distress Stain. And finally some red enamel dots together with black splatters. And another favourite: the metal hearts from Finnabair.

Since I was really happy with how this card turned out, I made another one straight away. Same techniques, but different stamps and embellishments.

This time I used stamps from Joy! Crafts.

The sentiment is a die from Nellie Snellen.

I also used some strips of paper from an old book before I covered it with gesso.

Some splatters of white gesso mixed with water.

Have a nice day!