"who are you and what have you done with lauren?!"

the title of this post represents what i figure everyone will say when they see my card for shopping our stash this week. i should mention, before i show it, that the challenge is called, "color me monochromatic" for which (i suspect you'll have guessed) we'd like you to choose ONE color you love, and use just that color... plus neutrals, of course; and the sort of minimal additions you need to make when coloring, say, a stamp. i don't think anyone will be shocked to discover that i chose (gah!) pink, because, well... i always do, lol! something i don't always do is make a minimalist masterpiece (well, it's minimalist, anyway!) and i have NO IDEA what happened to make this card occur, but i kinda like it:

handmade (gah-PINK!) cherry blossom paper: pearl river emporium, chinatown, nyc; dark (gah-PINK!) hexi background paper: recollections; light (gah-PINK!) floral background paper: my mind's eye; beautiful sheer all-but-hidden (gah-PINK!) ribbon: may arts; 3 sizes of (gah-PINK!) rhinestones: recollections; skinny skinny dark brown (phew, not PINK!) cardstock mats: core'dinations; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, scotch gluestick

in retrospect, i suppose i kind of *DO* know what happened: i found a small leftover piece of that gorgeous handmade, handpainted cherry blossom paper, which i bought in chinatown a while ago; and then i saw this week's layout from sketch saturday (#393), which is a bit like this:

i had the intention of adding more collagey bits: extra paper layers, some little dimensional cherry blossoms, and maybe a sentiment. but nothing really worked, and i realized it was because that gorgeous paper HAD TO be the star of the show. so eventually i gave up and went with the uber-simple design you see here. but with some bling o'course. because hey... i'm still me! :)

the SOS dt have outdone themselves this week; it seems we ALL decided to honor leslie with cards of her favorite (NOT!) color: (gah!) PINK!!! go and see! go and see! ♥♥♥