monochrome madness!

this week at shopping our stash we are madly manifesting our monochromatic magnificence! what do i mean? let's consult the official SOS brief, shall we? 

Challenge 63: Monochromatic

Use your favorite color and make a monochrome project; or any monochrome color will do even if it's not your fave (we won't tell!)

(vintage: fairy godmother image (backed with index stock); patterned paper: basic grey, making memories, doodlebug, fancy pants, sandylion, cosmo cricket;  floral: prima; heart bling: queen and co; rhinestone swirl: want2scrap; swirl stamp: rhonna farrer/autumn leaves; other: sparkly pink bow... NO IDEA where this came from... but it's supercute IRL! :) adhesives: staples permanent glue tape, 3m foam tape, glue dots, sewing machine)

this card features my favorite color (♥PINK♥*); my favorite "ingredients" (vintage cut-out, swirls, bling, cupcake); and some of my favorite papers (bg, fancy pants, etc)... and yet, somehow, i just don't really love it and i'm not sure why. but sometimes you've got time for a "remake" and sometimes you don't; and when the latter happens you just roll with it, right? (i've also found that a not-well-loved card will sometimes grow on me over time!)

one thing this card will most admirably allow me to do, however, is show you the kind of books i mean when i say, "i've cut something out of a book". i know that this concept** is worrying to some people, and frankly, as a reader, collector and lover of books, the idea of wanton destruction is not something i take lightly, either. the books i use in my artwork and in my ephemera packs and other etsy items are bought at book sales, where i am specifically looking for things which are NOT pristine and perfect collectible copies, but rather a bit more like this:

ok, yeah, i know books are meant to provide "food for thought" but this is ridiculous, lol! :) most people at book sales walk right by a copy like this. understandably, serious spine-chewage puts them off; but just look at the illustrations:

wait, it gets better: about half are full color, and the rest are greyscale + pink; plus the text is in a nice font, and the pages, though of a thinnish/cheapish paper, have not even yellowed much!

and, ok, yes, a few pages do also have a bit of scribbling on them or are torn or whatever... which makes this copy's old life AS A BOOK for someone's treasured collection pretty much over; but when i am lucky enough to find something as lovely as this-- despite it's shortcomings-- i feel like its happy new life as a source of "art ingredients" has just begun. which is awesome, don't you think?

in the meantime, there are monochromatic creations to be made, so let me ask you this: so what's ♥YOUR♥ favorite color? or your least favorite? or just a color that you think needs to be featured in a card? we can't wait to find out, so why not hop over to SOS and check out the design team's gorgeous work, whilst plotting your bid for single-shade supremacy?! 

*i feel like i should mention, at least in the fine print, that although ♥PINK♥ is my favorite color for creative endeavors, there are not, for example, any pink rooms in my home; nor is there any pink clothing in my wardrobe; though i will cop to a few cute pink totebags and i'm sort of eyeing a pink i-phone case! not that i'm defensive, but i've found that if you are a 48-year-old childless woman who publicly claims ♥PINK♥ as her favorite color, eventually you start GETTING LOOKS... :) 

**some time ago, i wrote what i think is quite a good-- and much more detailled-- post on this subject, and it is here, if you'd like to read it!