Which one...

do you like better?  I've been admiring many of the cards I've seen with these very softly sponged (perhaps air brushed) backgrounds and I just love how subtle and pretty they are.  So I tried to do it but my hand was too heavy - and then I went ahead and added more color and ink (Distress colors Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, and Broken China). until I had a nice deep background.  I then splattered some water on there.  I trimmed it using Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics A and then adhered my new die cuts Memory Box Diving Dolphins and Oceana Corner.  On the bottom, I added a verse from ODBD Under the Sea with white detail embossing powder.

I tried again with a slightly lighter hand and came up with this second card.  It's still a little darker than what I've seen but I wanted the white die cuts to pop more.  And since everything was on the lighter side, my verse was done in silver detail embossing powder this time.

So... which one do you like more?