Muse Times Two

Happy weekend! If you're reading this in Canada or the US, it's not even over yet, thanks to the Labour Day long weekend! It just so happened I had a little time yesterday and today to play with stamps and ink, and made a couple of cards. My friend Ardyth runs two different card challenges, and I made one for each. 
First up, Muse Card Club, where Sarah Platt is the current Muse with this card: 

When being inspired by someone else's card, I almost always use the card design as one of my inspirations. This time, I decided to set myself an extra challenge by purposely not using the same layout. Instead, I primarily focused on the faceted heart with Brushos colouring it, and the layered sentiment. Here's my version: 

Faceted heart, check. Layered sentiment, not quite so much, but I couldn't quite get the layered thing to work for me with the supplies I had. Because I wasn't using Sarah's card design, I added a little interest by embossing the main white panel before adding everything to a white card base. After cutting the watercolour heart, I used a small heart punch from the same piece to make two faux enamel dots. (Remember when we would have said they were faux brads? lol) 
Onto Ardyth's other challenge, Muse: ChristmasVisions. Here the Muse is Kim Makortoff. Here's her card: 

this time I planned to go for a much more straightforward CASE (copy and share everything), but the stamp I initially thought would be perfect didn't work the way I wanted it to. Instead, I used a stamp from a set I bought last year but hadn't yet used. My version:

The evergreen garland was just the right size for the top and bottom of the panel. I was even brilliant enough (for me lol) to turn the panel in my MISTI instead of repositioning the stamp so the top and bottom images would be the same distance from the edges. A little brown pencil crayon for the pine cones was all the colouring needed. The big sentiment is embossed in red glitter embossing powder for some festive shine. A few red star sequins take the place of the berries in Kim's card. 
Since my evergreen bough is seeing ink for the first time, I'll add this to Darnell's current NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge. 
That's all from me for now! 

Supplies: (Happy Anniversary) white & blue cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, vellum, Simon Says Stamp Essential Greetings stamp, chipped sapphire distress ink, Zing clear embossing powder, Winnie & Walter Flawless Heart & unknown Happy dies, Darice diagonal stripe embossing folder, Magenta Nuance purple watercolour powder, Glossy Accents, pop-dot tape; (Merry Christmas) white cardstock, red Craft Smith card base, Stampin' Up Festive Fireplace & Hero Arts Lowercase Christmas stamps, Versamark, Stampin' Up garden green & real red inks, Zing red glitter embossing powder, MFT blueprints 24 stitched panel die, Prismacolor pencil, red star sequins