This week’s CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers proved to really be a challenge for me.  It’s a sketch challenge, and I usually enjoy doing those.  But the crafting mojo just wasn’t flowing this week.

My first attempt turned out all right for the most part, but after I had the card all assembled I felt it would have looked better if I’d stamped the sentiment in a different color.  I was afraid I’d mess up the whole thing if I tried overstamping it so that the first color looked like a shadow.  Oh well.  But the card is still good enough for Operation Write Home, so it’s in my box of cards waiting to be shipped later this month.

For my second attempt, I thought I’d try using the colors from this week’s Splitcoaststampers color challenge.  But because I re-inked my ink pads recently, the colors turned out pretty dark on the cardstock and didn’t have as much contrast as I thought they should.  So even though the card itself is basically OK, it’s definitely not one of my better creations.  So I just put it in my OWH box and moved on.

I tried stepping out of my color comfort zone for my third attempt.  Once again, it’s not one of my best looking cards but it isn’t so bad it needed to be trashed.  So it’ll be going to OWH too.

Even after three cards I wasn’t happy with, I wasn’t ready to give up on this sketch yet.  I decided to give it one more shot.  This time I decided to use heart-shaped punches in place of the square elements on the sketch, and I chose three coordinating shades of pink cardstock.  A white Prima flower with a half pearl added to its center worked out nicely for the embellishment.  And finally I was happy with what I created for the sketch.

I’ll concede that it looks very Valentine-ish for the middle of June, but it’s definitely my favorite of the four attempts.  I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll go ahead and include it in my box for OWH as part of the Start the Second Million Challenge, or whether I’ll hold on to it until it’s time to send them Valentines. What do you think – send it now, or save it for later?

Supplies:
Stamps: Short & Sweet (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate (SU)
Ink: Purely Pomegranate (SU)
Other: flower (Prima Marketing); half pearl (KaiserCraft); heart punch (EK Success)