I’m back again… 3 days in a row!   I’m sharing a sympathy card today that I made for a friend.  It’s one of those cards that no one ever wants to do, but I think it’s really what cardmaking is all about – showing someone that they are in your thoughts even though you live far away.

To make this card I adhered some patterned paper to the Vanilla cardstock then adhered another strip on top of coordinating paper.  You could cut three strips to save paper but I find that a little fussy and time consuming.  The oval in the centre was cut out using the Big Shot and a die.  I then lightly stamped the Fine Flourish stamp in the background with Crumb Cake ink then stamped over the top with the sentiment using Early Espresso ink.  That Fine Flourish stamp is one that I showed in a previous blog post about my Top 10 rubber stamp images.  I think it’s handy to have something that you can stamp as a background when you feel the white space is going to look a bit stark, and despite the flourishes in the main image and on the patterned papers, I think it works well.

I wasn’t sure of what embellishments to add to the bottom as I wanted to keep the mood somber, then I remembered I had this Sizzlet with flowers and I found that if I positioned the flowers vertically then they’d resemble a bit of a modern style cross.  Yeah, a bit of a stretch… but anyway!  So I die-cut the flowers in three colours (Vanilla, Espresso and Crumb Cake) then layered the ones in the middle and added a brad.

Well that’s it for today.  This card will be off in the mail in the morning and hopefully my friend will feel that virtual hug from afar.

If you have any questions about how I made this card please feel free to email me.

And here’s a list of Stampin’ Up! products that I used to create this card:

Rubber Stamps:
Thank You For Caring
Fine Flourish (that’s stamped lightly under the sentiment)

Cardstock & Paper:
Very Vanilla cardstock
Early Espresso cardstock
Crumb Cake cardstock
Mocha Morning Specialty Paper (both patterned papers are from this pack)

Inkpads/Markers/Paint:
Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) inkpad
Early Espresso inkpad

Tools:
Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine
Ovals Die
Fusion Flowers Sizzlet
Sponge Dauber

Accessories:
Vintage Brads (brad in the centre)
Neutrals brads (the two small ones)

Adhesives:
SNAIL adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (foam dots)