Think fast! (CPS Day #15)

As you know, ideas for cards can come from anywhere...well, this idea actually started with a piece of trash that blew into our backyard. It was one of the first bitterly blustery days of Winter, and when I took the dogs out I found an empty package for a nylon Ninja Face Mask, which sparked my imagination... Originally I was going to use the actual packaging for this card, but it proved too fragile. For better or worse, if you can imagine it you can find it on the internet, so I found a Ninja Clipart download site with great free images. My husband helped me settle on the sentiment:

CPS Sketch #231

I used Sketch #231 from Day 15 of the CPS 5th Anniversary Celebration, which worked perfectly for my sliding sentiment. (All my cards for the CPS Celebration are archived here.)

I decided to go with a black-and-white scheme, and I wanted it shiny so I printed it on photo paper. I designed it all in Adobe InDesign... I even worked the Gradient tool! The diamond pattern is actually a series of lines ("Strokes"). The footprints are from the Ninja Clipart download site, as are the throwing stars that I used to make the little flower (this makes me SO happy!) I resisted the urge to use a ninja-style font and went with Pea Whitney Rae, one of the free handwriting fonts available from Kevin and Amanda.

I printed the ninja image twice, and popped it up with foam tape. The ribbon is white silk, which seemed appropriate!

This was inspired by the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #61: Monochrome Magic
CPS 5th Anniversary Day 15: Sketch #231