Monotone Cards

The ladies over at City Crafter Challenge Blog have challenged us to make monotone cards.  I was so inspired by what I saw (and in desperate need to some crafty time), I decided to whip together these cards based on the challenge.  I tried to play with different depths of color using my Mission Gold watercolors.  The backgrounds were made on Strathmore watercolor paper and the flowers were made by coloring some white cardstock with darker versions of the same watercolors, stamped with dye ink and then die cut using my Heartfelt Creations Birds and Blooms stamp and die set.

Some of the backgrounds worked better than others and I meant to have a scattering of flowers, but now look at them thinking they might be fuller or more closely spaced.  Either way, I think they turned out pretty and the recipient should feel my gratitude.

The sentiment is from the Honey Bee Bless Your Heart stamp set.

I ended up not liking how the flowers I colored for this darker background turned out, so I deviated from the challenge to create contrast.  I can't say which I like better...

I ended up with some cards I can use to bless someone for blessing me - a win-win since I also spent a considerable amount of crafty time and feel much more relaxed because of it.  Hoping your holiday (in the US at least) weekend has a little bit of crafty time.

I'm going to link up to the following challenges:

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Monotone Cards

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Simon Says Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday's Week 298/299 - Anything Goes