Experimenting with Monochromatic Cards

Every month, there is a different color challenge for the Fiskateers.  During February, we were asked to create something inspired by a box of chocolates.  My mind immediately went to See's.  My absolute favorites are their raspberry truffles, lemon truffles, mint truffles, dark chocolate chip truffles, maple walnut, and dark Bordeaux.  Yum.  

I knew I'd be making a card for the challenge.  But which particular chocolate to use as my inspiration?  Rather than introduce the pinkish red of raspberry or the pale yellow of the lemon, I decided to challenge myself and keep my color palette monochromatic.  I further challenged myself to use only scraps.  I dug through my "neutrals" container and found two beautiful browns.  Together they reminded me of chocolate covered caramels.  So that became my official inspiration chocolate.  See's makes an excellent chocolate covered caramel.

This is what I made:

Obviously, the colors echo those of the caramel, but so does the rectangular shape.  The scalloped accent behind the sentiment was inspired by the little swirls See's puts on the tops of the candies.

After I made my card, I still had a pile of scraps left over.  I was curious to see what would happen if I reversed all the colors.  I made exactly the same card, but it looks completely different.

Neither scan turned out all that well, but you get the idea.  (Steve thinks it's time for a new scanner bulb, as colors don't scan true anymore.  I correct scans in Picasa until they look close to the original.)  It is fascinating how simply reversing the colors creates such a different look.  I greatly prefer the first.