I don’t even know if “lily livered” is a phrase, but it seems like something I’ve heard in cartoons.

I happened to like the first draft of my “Lily” card. I thought the lady I found to headline it was beautiful and wicked all at once. The card seemed cheerful enough and said “lily” to me — though I’d been staring at it the whole time I designed it.

But when someone on the forum where I’m also sharing my cards mentioned that it brought to mind “Lady” and that the lily wasn’t forefront enough, it got me thinking. Then my husband brought home some printouts of the cards I’d already done and mentioned that the Lily one didn’t really say “Lily” to him either (and he knows nothing about cards or art!). So I figured it was time to go back to the drawing board with that one.

So this is “finished” draft 2 (actually draft 4, but only the second draft I’m willing to post!). I think the problem I’m having is that there’s nothing particularly visually exciting about a flower. It’s just a lily. Big whoop. That’s the whole reason I wanted to make my own Lenormand-style deck — the ones out there didn’t get me all excited to read cards! A lily on a card doesn’t speak to me. Still looking for those talking flowers…

I’ve mentioned before (maybe not on the blog) that I’m limited by the source images I can find and my pathetic photoshop skills in putting everything together. And I want to stay in the realm of traditional meanings at least (though as I’m writing notes for the LWB that will go with the deck, I already find myself, er, revising a bit).

So this is the new version of the Lily card next to the old version (on the right):

Which one do you like better?