Paradox Makeover

Looking at all of the beautiful entries to this week's Diva challenge, I was surprised at how many of them looked similar.  How very unusual.  So, I wanted to make some more, but I didn't want mine to look like everyone else's.  I thought it would be fun to make one with dewdrops all over it.  As Birdie said, "That one is a fail."  So, I thought to try some charcoal shading.  That made it worse.  OK, I thought, let's get the kneaded eraser and try to remove some of that color.  I know you can't rub on these tiles, so I thought I'd just press and lift.  Not good either.  I actually lifted the top layer in spots.  Ugh.  Out came the brush marker to fill in the holes.  And since I didn't like the dewdrops either, I took some white glue and filled each circle with a glop.  Now my dewdrops still don't look good, but they are 3-dimensional!

I started out Paradox 2 with an hourglass string, and thought it would be fun to use my brush pen to do a betweed-style line.  But I didn't like it either.  So, I kept adding more and more Paradox until practically the whole tile was covered.  Still no good.  I brought out a different, blacker brush pen and tried some shading.  When that didn't work, I got out the watercolor pencils and that finally did the trick.


So, what do you do when your tiles just don't turn out the way you want?  Do you keep going until you get something you like, or do you just put it aside and work on a new one?  Do you have a "trick" that will usually "save" a bad one?  Please share.  Enquiring minds want to know.