Creative Crew: Sympathy

Often times when we need a sympathy card, we are just not in a creative state of mind. For that reason, I like to have a stash of sympathy cards available at all times. And they are my biggest sellers at work. So when the Creative Crew Holiday Focus for August was Sympathy cards, I was all over that!

I had bought the Heartfelt Sympathy set this spring, I think, with the thought that it would be a marvelous set for all of those sympathy cards I should crank out. And I paired it with Gorgeous Grunge this time, which is a must-have set in my opinion :)  Here is how I made it:

1. Cut a panel of watercolor paper to 4"x5¼". Create a 4¼"x5½" Soft Sky card base.
2. Squeeze your Soft Sky and Peekaboo Peach ink pads to create a puddle of ink on the lids. Use your Aqua-painter to dilute the inks and watercolor a puddle of Soft Sky. Heat set, then repeat in a different but overlapping pattern with the Peekaboo Peach. Heat set again.
3. Splash clean water on the panel, then dab the water off with a relatively clean cloth. This removes some of the ink in a spatter pattern. 
4. Then either load your Aqua-painter with leftover diluted ink from the inkpad lids and spatter onto panel by tapping the brush over the watercolor paper, or use the fine spatter image from Gorgeous Grunge to apply some spatters. Dry again.
5. Use Embossing Buddy over the water color panel, then test to see if any embossing powder sticks. If it sticks, brush off, then heat with heat tool and test again. 
6. When the embossing powder no longer sticks, use the embossing buddy again, stamp the sentiment in Versamark ink, sprinkle with Copper embossing powder, and heat set. 
7. Stitch around the panel with sewing machine and thread.
8. Apply dimensionals, (or trimmed coasters if you have a big stash of them like I do), to the back of the watercolor panel and adhere to the front of the cardbase. 
9. Stamp the second part of the sentiment in Soft Suede inside the card, then stamp the fine spatter image in Soft Sky and Peekaboo Peach from the right lower corner up towards the center. All Done!

 Soft Suede was about as close as I could get to the Copper embossing powder color for ink. Embossing inside the card on the cardbase tends to warp the card a bit, and I just did not want that for this card :)

What is your go-to stamp set for sympathy cards? And do you keep a stash of them?

If you have seen something you need for your crafting life, just click the image in the supply list below and it will take you to my store! If you order less than $150, please use this month's Host Code, which can be found at the top of the sidebar on the right.

And be sure to check the box allowing me to contact you when you check out. I can't send you a thank you card if I don't know your address! And I promise to only send you happy mail, no junk mail :)


Product List

Heartfelt Sympathy Photopolymer Stamp Set

[138764]

$17.00

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set

[130517]

$18.00

Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set

[130514]

$25.00

Watercolor Paper

[122959]

$5.00

Soft Sky 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[131203]

$8.00

Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad

[141398]

$6.50

Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad

[131181]

$6.50

Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad

[126978]

$6.50

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$8.50

Embossing Buddy

[103083]

$6.00

Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder

[141636]

$5.00

Heat Tool

[129053]

$30.00

Mountains of Sympathy

We all need a card for a sad occasion now and again, and I like to keep a stash of them so I don't have to rush to make one when I need it. But sometimes you need something a little more tailored to fit the person it is going to. Just such a thing occurred recently when one of my uncles passed away on Memorial Day weekend. He was my uncle-in-law for about 30 years as he and my uncle had been together for that long. I will miss Robert aka: Auntie Bo-Bo! He has had AIDS since the late 80's and had been doing very well, until this spring when pneumonia caught him. This card will go to Jerry and they have lived in the California mountains for a long time, so I needed something simple and masculine, serene. I hope that is what I achieved here.

I masked off the top and bottom of the cardfront and sponged on some Island Indigo, Soft Suede, and Whisper White. Then I stamped the trees in Early Espresso and Whisper White, and the sentiment in Early Espresso. After it dried a bit, I added the white gel pen frame.

• Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Love and Sympathy
• Ink: Island Indigo, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Whisper White
• Paper: Crumb Cake
• Other: Naturals designer buttons, Island Indigo Baker's Twine

Vintage Sympathy

A while back, I had a former co-worker die. I had no sympathy cards that I wanted to use for his family, so I made a couple different ones for me and my other co-workers to chose from. This is one of them.
I took my inspiration from Heather Nichols card. I changed it up just a little bit with different stamps and flipping the layout.

• Stamps: Field Flowers, En Francais, God's Blessings (retired), non SU sentiment
• Ink: River Rock, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso
• Paper: River Rock, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake
• Other: 1" Square punch, Calypso Coral Ruffled ribbon and Baker's Twine, butotns, dimensionals, Signo white gel pen

 Inside got some love too.

Free Tutorial with $35 purchase

Just place your order on my demonstrator website!
More details on the Virtual Stamp Club tab.

Love and Sympathy

I think this is the hardest kind of card for me to make, so I have been trying to make more of them. Unfortunately, they don't last very long before I, or someone I know, needs to send one of these. The layout and images of this card could be used for many different occasions too.

I was having way too much fun with the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack last week, lol! I have always loved the look of faux stitching so this is fast becoming one of my favorite new tools. The pack has a lot of fantastic guides. I hope you give them a try. I did find that using some pins to hold the guide in place to the mat worked great for keeping everything together while doing the piercing.
And did you notice how well the Extra Large Oval punch is framed by the square Apothecary Accent die? Love it!

Inside I used the coordinating sentiment from the Love & Sympathy set. More trees, and white gel pen to give it a nice finished touch.

• Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Love & Sympathy
• Ink: River Rock, Early Espresso
• Paper: River Rock, Early Espresso, Naturals White, Neutrals DSP pack-Very Vanilla type sheet
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelits, Extra-Large Oval punch, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack with paper piercer and piercing mat, sponge, Signo white gel pen, Stampin's Dimensionals, Mini Silver Brads

SA Blog Hop- Serene Silhouettes

Now that we have all had a chance to see the new annual catalog from Stampin' Up! , and some of us have gotten to play with the new toys, it is time to show it all off to you! There is so much to love about the new catty, it is hard to know where to start. I must confess, I made a REALLY long list of stuff I want out of the catalog. Then I went back and tried to make it smaller... I did n;t have much luck there, lol. Then I went back again and divided my wist list into 7 groups by theme with the plan to order one group a month. Sounds like a good plan? Maybe.
Now, allow us to make your list making harder ;)

If you  have just joined the hop, Welcome! Here is a link to the main thread in case you get lost. If you just came from Heidi's blog you will share in my delight in her projects! Who knew you could do that with The Great Outdoors set?

I will be featuring the Serene Silhouettes set. I am not sure why I chose this as one of the first sets to get, other than I don't have any other silhouettes sets right now. And these images are beautiful! I imaging more card ideas!

This is the first card I made with this set, and it has a vintage feel to it. See the Vintage Faceted button? They are so pretty! And next to it is a Naturals button. I love how they look so good together :) As you can see, I used a lot of new goodies on this card, lol.

How about some circles? And bright colors? And the under-used Sahara Sand. Every time I use Sahara Sand, I wonder why I don't use it more often. Add a little Woodgrain BG to the die cut piece, and some yummy little flowers with rhinestones, and I think it is a hit!

We all need a sympathy card or 3 in our stash. I know I am never in the mood, or inspired, when I need one of these cards. All of the images in this set, except maybe the round one, work well for a sympathy card.

My 3D project is a "Sweet Thanks" with milk cartons. This little holder has been around for awhile, and it is still so cute! The silhouette flowers and grass makes a pretty shadow effect with the White and Crumb Cake inks.

Now, on with the show! The next stop on this hop is Debra Burgin's blog where she will be featuring Fine Feathers, and she did a fabulous job! Go check it out!!

Next Blog--------->

<-----Previous Blog

Grassy Sympathy Card

There is just something about the image of tall grass swaying in the wind that makes me think of peace and contemplation. Both of these thoughts together make me think of sympathy cards. We are trying to convey peace to the bereaved, and are often contemplating the life that has passed, and how our lives will now be changed. Some passings are a thing of peace, and that in itself is something to celebrate. So says the ER nurse who has seen death in all kinds of forms.... I no longer fear death like I used to, and I am pretty sure it has more to do with my job than my age :)
Wow, these are pretty deep thoughts for a stampin blog! Better get to the Happy!!

I decided to use the  Adorning Accents Edgelit in the opposite direction this time, offering a peek at the cardstock beneath. It feels more masculine this way, don't you think? Really, what makes something masculine? It is sometimes not quite definable. But this feels like it. I was going to add some kind of embellishment to the right side of the oval, but decided I liked it this way just fine :)

• Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Thanks for Caring (retired)
• Paper: Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Naturals White
• Ink: Always Artichoke, Early Espresso
• Other: Big Shot with Adorning Accents Edgelits and Labels Framelits, Wide Oval punch, Always Artichoke Seam Binding ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

 You can almost hear the wind softly blowing, can't you. This would make a great masculine card for any occasion, not just a sympathy card.

I wish the Thanks for Caring set had not retired. It has such a wonderful sentiment, very timeless. If you have one, you have quite a little treasure in your stash!
And here is hoping that no one I know, including myself, needs a sympathy card any time soon....

With Sympathy Card with Sneak Peeks!

There is new stuff coming!! The Occasions Mini starts on January 4th, and boy, are there some great things in store for all of us!
I got my box of pre-order  goodies the first week of December and have been dabbling with the new stuff ever since. I am in LOVE with the Labels Framelits dies.

This is the first project I made with my new goodies. Someone had just ordered a sympathy card, and this was just perfect. The sentiment is from a retired hostess set from a few years ago, but the rest is NEW! I was able to cut the card base with the new dies to create a fun shaped card. SO much potential with these lovelies :)
I stamped the main image in Early Espresso on a scrap of Daffodil and then trimmed out the banner, then stamped the sentiment on it. It is popped up on dimensionals also. Lots of layers on this card. I ♥ layers.

• Stamps: Apothecary Art, Warmest Regards (retired), Woodgrain BG
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Naturals White, Daffodil Delight
• Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight
• Other: Gold Lame' Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink, Big Shot with Labels Framelits, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sponge, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint

It does fit nicely in an envelope also.
I believe this ended up going to the widow of one of the police officers that worked in the ER I work in. He had retired last year and had advanced Parkinsons disease. His widow is one of our receptionists and it has been a really tough year for her.

Ok, now on to some fun news!! The Stampin' Addicts Occasions Mini Blog Hop starts on Friday! Be sure to come back for all of the amazing projects with all sneak peeks of the goodness to come!!

  http://www.stampinaddicts.com/forums/general-stampin-talk/8666-join-us-2011-occasions-mini-blog-hop.html