ENCOURAGEMENT

Sometimes life seems a little dark. Wouldn't you agree?

I created this card with just this thought in mind, wanting to get the feeling of hopelessness across.

My original intent was to emboss the row of leafless trees on Smoky Slate cardstock. So I did just that -- in silver. I started to sponge on grays and gray-blues as a resist. No matter what I did, the sparkle of the silver embossing seemed just too cheerful. Blech. Not at all what I was hoping to accomplish.

The answer to the quandary seemed so simple. Stamp it in black. Right? Black/dark mood, feelings

. When I sponged across the black image with gray and the retired Bordering Blue (gosh, I miss that color!), the mood seemed to darken. Perfect!

A helpful reminder to try to put that dark mood behind comes in the beautiful words, Just Breathe.

I embossed the phrase in black onto vellum, then wrapped it around the tree trunks before adding it to a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of black cardstock.

I think I know just the exact right person to which this card needs to go:

me. 

Dark

Smiles.