Spring flowers brings lots of tear showers!

Okay so I didn't really cry over this card, but I did agonize a bit. This one was specifically for The Cats Pajamas challenge TCPTUES284. It was a color challenge, and while the colors were quite pretty together, I just didn't have anything in those colors!!!

To make matters worse, the Cat Pack did such lovely, dainty cards that I didn't want to make anything substandard. I am my own worse enemy!

Conveniently, the theme for Splitcoaststampers CAS313 challenge was 'Spring' so that fit in nicely as well. I decided this week that I was going to take a look at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge, and fortuitously the theme was Anything Goes! At least I didn't have to add to my stress level over the color challenge.

I wanted to step up the difficulty level (for me) of my cards. I was inspired by Kristina Werner's distress watercoloring. She only stamped a very faint outline to make it look as though there were no lines. I'm sure somebody has done this before, but I came up with this on my own, lol: I dry embossed some flowers, and distress watercolored both the flowers and the background. This was my first time painting in any shape or form, and it took me SIX tries before I was finally happy with it. :) That's okay, because I actually really enjoyed the painting part. Part of the difficulty was not having watercolor paper. I learned a lot, and I got to practice some basic shading. I definitely want to do more of this, I just need proper supplies! Sooner or later I will also get my hands on some watercolor paints, muahaha.

I was also encouraged by some of Sandy Allnock's Operation Write Home videos. One was about 'Card Sneeze', and another was all about using matting to elevate it out of card sneeze territory.

There are two incarnations of my card. I need some serious feedback. I was pleased when I was first done. I took a ton of pictures, edited them on my computer, and then I felt like it was just so plain. So I went back to my craft room, and tried to figure out how I could 'gussy' it up. Here's the first version:

Now looking back at it, I think it was just fine and I'm worried that I shouldn't have touched it further! Here is version number two:

I need some SERIOUS feedback please! No "oh they're both nice'. I need some pros and cons about both. Also, I'd love specific feedback about the watercoloring, particularly the shadowing.

All this brought me to thinking that I should have just skipped this challenge. I was so stressed about 'getting it right', it kinda took the joy out of it. I think I need to just make cards, and not pay too much attention to challenges for awhile. I literally had nothing in aqua. I ended up using Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distress ink to make some paper. I splattered away at it with water, and then I mixed in some Perfect Pearls and splattered some more. I think that part turned out alright. The sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas's Spring Fling set. I thought the black was too harsh, so I tried Versafine Smokey Grey but that looked too washed out, so I stuck with Onyx Black. You can't tell but I clear embossed it as well.

Believe it or not, I started out with something entirely different. I rummaged through the die cuts that Jan sent me till I found some that were lime and purple. I was just going to use those with some butterflies that I 'self-glittered' using Ranger Sticky embossing powder. I still have all the pieces, I may just assemble that card and post it for further feedback, i.e. why did I feel it wasn't good enough?

I apologize for my verbosity. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. :)