twofer contrast (Wplus9, PTI MIM)

Pink, green, hand-lettering. Probably what you see when devouring Wplus9's Monday Mood Board #26.

I picked up on the embossed sentiment in a pool of watercolor and that snippet of PP up top.  See the Xs and Os?

Well, Dawn is also celebrating Wplus9's 4th Birthday with a "Comfort Zone" challenge. So I combined the two.  Heat embossed a sentiment made from die-cut craft foam and played with watercolors = comfort zone.  Pink and pearls, well that's more Mood Board ;)

So the first card pretty much turned out as it looked in my mind's eye (wouldn't that be a great name for a paper crafting company? - *wink*).  It's actually cream, we have gray skies so this was the best photo I could get. You have to look closely but you can see tiny pink flowers and green leaves that I stamped on the cardbase with watercolors.  Oh so soft!  And do you remember enamel dots' great-grandmother, pearls?

For my next card I feel compelled to share the journey that led to its creation...

Now, I've been a crazy person in my craft room lately as two submission deadlines came to pass (why does it always take me so long to get my butt in gear, or better, my ideas?) So yesterday was an update the blog, the flickr gallery and check out my reader kinda day.  Which led to my seeing not only the Wplus9 shindig but also the latest Make it Monday at Papertrey - #151 Drop Shadow Die Cuts.

I've been using that technique lately with the PTI hello die and decided to peruse my dies to see if I could do it with a different die.  I was thinking "thank you" (debossed all over the card front and shadowed on one in the sweet spot).  Well then I saw the speech bubble die and my mind went to a shadowed speech bubble and a sentiment along the lines of "many thanks".  And these would be neon speech bubbles cuz neon paper is still laying around waiting for me to put it away. And for some reason, I pictured a little birdie tweeting the sentiment.  Heat embossed white on black, cuz neon works well on black.  Hmmm. So off to see what little birdie stamps I have from PTI.  And sentiments about a lotta thanks (this is where Darnell's stamps-organized-by-theme theory would come in real handy...)

So picture this.  In a course of a few seconds as I'm flipping through my PTI stamps, I see a thank you sentiment in my NBUS Take Three: Spring set.  And then the little bunny image from that set catches my eye (my mind's eye that is) and the card design takes on a life of its own.  Neon speech bubbles shadowed and a white embossed bunny.  Hmmm. Where to put a sentiment?

Didn't like the idea of stamping on a speech bubble, and did a bunny have a lot to do with "thanks"? Nay. Bunnies are Easter. OK, it's gonna be a black Easter card. (Black?) With the sentiment subtly stamped in the BG with Versamark.  Which didn't really work on the black CS I used so I quickly added some clear powder and heat embossed it. But the bunny was a keeper.

And a card was born.

BTW, "shadowed " took on a new meaning as you can see. Cuz when I had die cut the speech bubbles and was playing around lining them up, I laid them down on the card which popped open thereby leaving them in a bit of a jumbled  "shadow".  Which I decided I liked.

Moral of the story? Don't know.  But after often spending countless hours on one card for submission in the past week, last night I created two that I'm happy with in one hour. I've said this before, but I love how cards "happen". At least sometimes.

Got a fun creative process blog post to share?  Link me up.  I'd love to see how other great minds work ;)))

Supplies for XOXOX:

Paper:  cream CS Bringmann

Stamps: Wplus9

Ink : watercolors, Versamark

Tools: die Wplus9, paint brush

Other: lace, thread, pearls

Supplies for happy Easter:

Paper:  black Bringmann, neon Grafix

Stamps: PTI

Ink : Versamark

Tools: dies PTI, corner rounder

Other: clear and white embossing powder