THAT'S LIFE

Over this past weekend, my husband and I had a little guest -- our precious granddaughter, Stella, was in our charge for a few days.. 

One of the best things that Stella and I do together when she is visiting is crafting. Frequently during her stay, she'll ask if the two of us can go downstairs and do some crafting. Being that she is a girl after my own heart, I am always eager to take her up on her suggestion. So down to the Creation Station we go.

Many times we work on projects together. But, every once in awhile, she will do her own thing with all of her art supplies that live at Grandma's house. And me? I find something to keep me busy too. After all, this creative camaraderie is a wondrous thing! And it's great just working together in the same messy space.

Usually I have lots going on, so that is not a problem. This time, however, I didn't feel like working on anything I had in progress. So, I dipped into my handy box of Project Life cards and came up with one that was covered with regimented gray dots with a black lined circle in the center. I know that's not a very good description, but I will show you a close-up in a bit.

When I saw this very neutral piece, my first reaction was to reach for colors in the red family to coordinate with the starkness. But, after looking at it a moment, I decided to keep it just the way it was: black, white and gray.

I set the card onto a black and white striped piece of Designer Series Paper. Which I really liked. However, the top and bottom begged for something different. But what?? I considered a few options, but I am actually really happy with what I eventually came up with. 

Two narrow strips of the same striped DSP, but with the stripes going the opposite direction, were added to the top and bottom. This alleviated the starkness of the horizontal stripes. 

I actually stamped the sentiment onto one of those white stripes, trimming it closely, and mounting it towards the bottom of the Project Life piece.

Now though the top of the Project Life card looked lonely. So, I trimmed a narrow piece of the black striping and added that to the top. There! That added a nice balance.

This small card -- all dots and the large framed white circle 

in the center was what I had to work with:

I realize that you are probably getting tired of me making flowers out of those same Botanical Builder Framelits. But, what can I say? I'm not! I adore those Framelits!

And it gave me the perfect opportunity to build upon the black/white/gray color palette. And it is a nice contrast to all the even rows of the printed designs. A bit of unexpected -- but appreciated -- fluff.

And don't you just love the dimension??

Just a note as to why I chose the title that I did for this post. To me, the color palette of this card is just the way life is: mostly gray, and not so much black and white. Do you see what I mean?

Philosophical

Smiles.