Making A CASE Your Own

I've discussed here before that I don't ever really CASE a card 100%; I always change something to make it my own. Most of the time that's because I don't have the same materials - card stock, dies, stamps, whatever; but it's MORE because I feel I have to change it. I HAVE to.

To show you want I mean ... this week I saw two cards that sent me into CASE mode. First is this one from JoanB. It sent me off in search of a flower die-cut I could use. I REALLY wanted to get my paws on that Silhouette cut file, and I eventually found it, but not until after I'd finished my card. I even spent a few hours trying to draw my own in Silhouette Studio! In the end, I used a die from poppystamps and made this:

Not bad, not bad. The letters are from my MFT alphabet die set. I love the font!   There was still something that bugged me about this, and I realized it was the horizontal black strip ... it's wider than the letters, so it's "off". Of course, I needed a re-do:

Much better! And brighter! O-O For this one I used tiny black buttons in the flower centers.

I called it done.

Next was this card from Wendy W. Yeah, it was a green week. Here's my version, then I have a sob story for you:

I switched out the green she used for some Pool Party. This was crazy-easy to make and genius on Wendy's part. Ready for my sob story? Notice the ribbon I used? See how it's NOT black with white dots? That is because in my V A S T collection of every color ribbon but the one I need, I do not own a black ribbon with white dots. I KNOW!  So I thought I'd show you. :)

Here is my box of Every Color Neutral Ribbon But The One I Need:

I pulled out everything that looked like black with white dots:

From left to right:
- too skinny
- taffeta
- taffeta
- grey

Then I spotted this:

Nope - brown.

And oh, look - two whites with black spots:

But No. Black. With. White. Spots. Sigh. I called it a night and went to bed.

So this morning I convinced myself I needed to go to Mike's to fix this problem. I even showered before 9 am! Then I talked myself out of it, because I don't need no stinkin' black ribbon with white spots. I CAN BE DIFFERENT! So I layered a scrap of white taffeta dotted ribbon over a piece of black satin:

It's different, and I like it! :) You can also see my sentiment is different. I used (FOR THE FIRST TIME) my Four Frames set and used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the sentiment. I punched the flowers from Pool Party.

I kinda like my versions of both of these cards. :)

Oh, and mark your calendars for next weekend: the March VSN weekend over on Splitcoast is Friday and Saturday, March 9th and 10th! I'm hosting one of the challenges, so be sure to stop by and play!

Thanks for stopping by!