See, what had happened was...

I was minding my own business, admiring some cards, when I happened upon this current trend (or pendulum swing) of shadows on die cut sentiments.

Cathy Zielske's dies

Concord & 9th Stamps and Coordinating Dies

Honey Bee Stamps Dies

This reminded me of when I started considering buying sentiment stamps.  "I can write that myself," I said.  "Why would I buy a stamp?"  I soon realized that sometimes a stamp is quicker, cleaner, and more convenient.  But not cost-efficient.  One stamp makes maybe three cards unless you are in mass-production mode.  But we (yes, "we") get caught up in the cuteness factor, watch a Jennifer McGuire video, and suddenly need "all the things."

Lately, I have decided that this cycle is ridiculous.  Case in point: Concord & 9th has a turnabout stamp concept that is ingenious.  However, there are things that they have decided are important must-haves that they did not conceptualize before production.  Now, they are trying to sell things that make using the stamp set easier.  The stamp set, mind you, that cost $24 to the average crafter.  Now buy these two other things as add-ons?  Nah.  Or the wreath builder from the wonderful Gina K.  While I purchased the original wreath builder, I have since cut several different sizes of it on my own with my Silhouette Cameo.  It's two squares, people.  For real.

Back to the shadows: When I saw some of my favorites using shadows with their sentiments, and when I was ever so close to buying some of them, an epiphany hit: Hey, JoLynn.  You can make these.  And the tinkering began.  Please forgive these photos.  In my excitement, I literally did not wait for the glue (which dries clear) to dry.

First, I wanted to get a serif font look going on like my girl, Cathy Z.  Two things: kerning and cut blade.  I did have to go in to Photoshop to get the letters as close as I wanted.  The Silhouette software had its limits.  Second, I used a pre-cut that was in the Silhouette Studio software.  The white paper did not have as smooth of a cut as I would have preferred.  And, let's just say I need practice gluing a sentiment to a shadow.  It's a little wonky, but a good prototype.

Then came this beauty.  I was like, "Hmmm, let's use some script fonts."  A couple of tutorials later, and voila! Script font, with shadow, and a smooth cut after some tinkering with blade depth.

So, it may be completely real: I might never buy a word die again.