Shell Beauty Embossed Card

I made this card with my new Spellbinders 3D M-bossibility folder Shell Beauty. The shading isn't as messy in person as it looks in the photos.

For this one, I didn't want to cover up too much of the gorgeous embossing on this folder, so I kept the embellishments to a minimum.

I began by using an ink blending tool to shade the embossing and give it more dimension. The ink is Delicata Golden Glitz. Next, I ran the ink pad around the edges of the panel to add a hint of a darker border. The card it is mounted on is an ordinary white CS card, but I also shaded the border of that with the same ink because it looked better mounted onto a shaded card than a plain white one. The shading is much smoother in person. I think the shimmery ink didn't work very well with the camera.

Both sentiments are from different stamp sets by JustRite, and were cut and embossed with Spellbinders dies, and shaded to match the card, then mounted dimensionally. I really wanted the card to say "Best Wishes", but the only sentiment I have that fits this die and would work with this card is "Happy Birthday". I think I need to look for some simple sentiments that are this size, because I use the die a lot.

I also wanted to use this ribbon, but it is too stiff to look good as a small bow. The ends don't like to lie gracefully, so I cut them shorter, and added the ends underneath the bow. I kind of like the effect, they make it look a little more interesting this way. Then I added a few pearls to finish it up.