Back in June my friend asked me if I would be the third person on an ATC Jam.  I don’t know why, but I said yes. This is the card she then sent to me. The first person simply mailed out a piece of wallpaper. The second person stamped the little girl on a piece of cardstock that was a perfect match for the salmon pink of the background. I was in trouble, big trouble. The cutsie little girl isn’t really my style and the whole “matchy-matchy” of the pinks were just sucking the energy out of me. I set it off to the side so that I could ponder it for a while.

July came along with its medical problems and I completely forgot about these cards. Then August came and my friend asked what had become of them. I told her that I’d forgotten and would get right on it. I took them out, looked at them, felt my energy drain, and decided I’d better ponder them a little longer. Then I forgot all about them, again.

It is November now and my friend left a message onmy answering maching. She wanted to know what had become of the cards she sent to me so many months ago. I didn’t call her back but I did go find the cards again, look at them, and set them aside while I pondered them for a couple of days.

This was getting me nowhere, fast. The card just felt blah and heavy to me. I couldn’t figure out what I could add in the small area left that would give it some much needed contrast and interest. I was sorely tempted to do the old set aside and ponder thing, maybe even change my phone number so I wouldn’t be bothered by the inevitable call asking where the cards were. And then I threw caution to the wind and decided to try and deconstruct the card and start from the beginning.

Thank goodness my friend didn’t use a strong glue! I have to stop at this point and make a personal plea to people who are tempted to cut a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 piece of paper and then send it out as the start of an ATC – Don’t! The paper is flimsy. If you want to use it as the background, please mount it on a piece of cardstock.  OK, off the soap box now.

This is what I ended up with. Not my most favorite card of all time but it will do. I think the black provides a nice background so that the little girl becomes the focal point that she was meant to be. I am not going to say yes the next time. Of course, after taking so long with this one I doubt there will be a next time.