Altered Playing Card Challenge, week 3

I'm once again joining Claudine at Claudine's Art Corner with week 3's entry.  If you were here yesterday, you read how I (and much of my neighborhood) was without water all day Tuesday.  I wish I could blame the problems I had with these two cards on that, but I fear that would not be entirely true.

Of all the products that Claudine suggested we use this week, this was the ONLY thing I had that was even close to meeting the criterion.  And I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for some gears I thought I had that my friend Kathy had let me cut from her gears and cogs Sizzlets.  However, I must have used all of them in a swap, because I could find NONE.

Since I had no alcohol inks that would work, I decided to make my own, using Staz-on reinkers and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol.

I fear I made a mess of the inks.  They didn't blot like AIs do, but spread over the playing card.  Since I had no gears, I decided to make this one my own.  I used one of my stamps I bought years ago and colored it with black pigment ink.

Next, I made the mistake of thinking the red pigment ink would show up well on the card.  Instead, all I got was another mess and a poor stamping job.  This is also a very old stamp I was gifted with years ago.

I decided to compound the problem by using another pink pigment ink on this stamp that looked a bit like it could replace the gears.

Now I was left with a mess on top of another mess.  And none of it was legible.  Why I had used black on the script stamp is beyond me, but it's what threw the entire spread off as a result.  I kept asking myself how was I going to get out of this mess, the whole time knowing I had only 52 cards and wishing I could wash my hands.

With all that pink on the page, I decided to stamp over it using black pigment ink.

Just as I was trying to call this one acceptable, I added the copper leafing pen.  But, as you can see, the pen leaked on the card, the mat, and the cap when I shook it.  I tried to clean the extra leafing ink from the mat and the card, but I had trouble getting it cleaned up.  Regardless, I had lost my patience for this card, and declared it finished.

For my second card, I had no distress inks, but I had pan pastels.  These are the only two pan pastels I own, so I thought they could replace Claudine's distress inks.

I decided to use a clean sponge dauber to spread these.  Since I also had no die cuts, I decided to use some metal leaves I found in my stash.  The vine had been a die cut, but it was fabric, so I wasn't sure how well it would work on the card.

Here they are before I added the sentiment.

I wanted "Fall" to have a bit of humor to it, so I used a stencil to have the word tumbling down the vine.  I'm rather happy with this one.

I can't say the same for this one I call "Mess."  One has to admit, it lives up to its name.

Thanks to everyone who visited last week and left such nice comments.  This is the only place you will see these playing cards, since I'm not on Facebook.