It’s always sad to make a sympathy card but at the same time, creating a sympathy card makes me feel like that’s what cardmaking is all about – letting someone know you are thinking of them.

Interestingly, while I’ve heard some cardmakers say that they like to have one or two specific sympathy stamps in their collection as you just know they will be needed, I have heard others too say that they prefer not to specifically buy sympathy stamp as it makes them feel uncomfortable.  I hope this card will provide some inspiration for those of you who feel a bit strange about buying a sympathy specific stamp set.

The stamp I’ve used here is from the Pendant Park stamp set and the ‘With Sympathy’ sentiment is from a set of stamps that has sentiments for many different occasions.

Tips/Hints for making sympathy cards: I like to stick to one simple image rather than make the card too busy or fancy.  Also, I was able to keep the sombre tone to this card by stamping the sentiment at the bottom of the main image rather than making it another focal point.  You can add some embellishments, but as I’ve done in this card with the pearls, you’ll want to keep the embellishments small and elegant.

All products are by Stampin’ Up!

Rubber Stamps:
Pendant Park
Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Inkpads and Markers:
Early Espresso

Cardstock & Paper:
Very Vanilla
Crumb Cake (formerly known as Kraft)
Early Espresso

Accessories:
Basic Pearls (self-adhesive pearls)

Adhesives:
SNAIL
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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I’m not sure what I’m going to use this card for but I feel it could make a masculine card or sympathy or thinking of you or just ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ for someone who enjoys warm autumnal colours.

It’s coming into Autumn now in Australia and the day I made this card was quite a gloomy cool day so I felt like using some warm rich colours for a change.  The tree image I’ve stamped here is from the Le Jardin Botanique stamp set by Stampin’ Up! and I’ve stamped it using Basic Brown inkpad onto watercolour paper.  To colour in the stamp I simply applied some watercolour crayon onto my aquapainter and then dabbed it randomly over the tree.  The colours I’ve used to watercolour are: Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red and More Mustard to try and give the tree an autumnal feel.  For the background I stamped other images from the same stamp set randomly over some So Saffron cardstock then scrunched the cardstock up several time to create lots of creases on the cardstock and then ran the So Saffron inkpad lightly over the top of the cardstock to ink up any creases that were prominent – this gives the background a worn vintage feel and it’s just so easy to do.

I feel like I’ve warmed up a bit now so I’m off to make myself a coffee and pull out some more warm colours to see what else I can make.  Do you find you start to use different colours in your cardmaking depending on the weather or season? Please comment and let us all know if you do or don’t.

(All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and can be ordered through me – just email me for more details.

Rubber Stamps:
Le Jardin

Inkpads & Colouring:
Basic Brown
Creamy Caramel
So Saffron
Watercolour Crayons

Cardstock & Paper:
Watercolour paper
So Saffron
Old Olive (smooth and textured)
Bravo Burgundy (textured)

Accessories:
Playground Designer Buttons
Linen Thread

Tools:
Aquapainter

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Glue Dots

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Sympathy cards are difficult to make, not only for humans but also for pets.  These little fur-babies are so much a part of our lives and families that it’s absolutely devastating when it’s time for them to leave us.  So when I heard that a friend of mine lost her dog recently I decided I really needed to make a card for her.

The Stampin’ Up! stamp set I used here is called “D for Dog“. I found this stamp set really easy to use because I knew the doggie would be the main image accented by a little paw print and of course the sentiment.  It helps immensely that the Stampin’ Up! punches match the paw-print image and the sentiment perfectly so I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to incorporate them on the card.

By the way, one of the other sentiments that comes with this rubber stamp set says: “a dog wags it’s tail with it’s heart” – I’m going to use this sentiment for scrapbooking my little doggie dude, Ralph who’s a a King Charles Cavalier x Shitzu (Shavalier).  Any other dog lovers out there?

If you have any questions about this card or the products I’ve used, please email me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Rubber Stamps:
D for Dog

Inkpads:
Chocolate Chip
Creamy Caramel (to sponge around the edges of the neutral cardstock)
Old Olive (to sponge around the edges of the Olive cardstock
Baja Breeze (for the colouring of the dog collar)

Cardstock & Paper
Naturals Ivory (to stamp on)
Old Olive
Chocolate Chip
Baja Breeze
Kraft
Parisian Breeze Textured Designer Series Paper (stripy cardstock)

Accessories:
Twill Tape
Styled Silver Hodgepodge
Earth Elements Brads (Old Olive used here)

Tools:
3/4″ Circle Punch
1? Circle Punch
Paper Piercer and template (to make the holes)
Sponge daubers (for all the sponging)
Blender pen (for the tiny colouring of the dog collar)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to pop up the paw print image and main image section)
Crystal Effects (used on the inside of the metal frame to adhere the cardstock – I use this because the point of the glue is the same size as the ridge on the inside of the hardware so it’s super easy to apply the right amount)

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Hmmm, I don’t know whether I should post this as a masculine card or not.   I think it could be for either a woman or a man, it could be ‘thank you’ or ‘sympathy’.  I purposely left off a sentiment so that I could make up my mind later what I want it to be.

I just wish I could take photos so that the colours show true to life – this is sooo much nicer in real life.  But right now I’m just happy I could take one that’s not got a big shiny patch in the middle from the flash.  I still struggle to take photos of cards using gloss cardstock.  Aaaanyway, on to the card….

The trees in this card are gold embossed onto white gloss card and then I sponged some Sage Shadow for the grass, Soft Sky for the Sky (genius!) and then sponged some Blue Bayou over the top half of the sky to give some depth and extra colour.  When I finished sponging I just ‘buffed’ up the card with a tissue to remove excess ink on the embossing.  The background on the left is my old favourite that I can rely on anytime – Weathered background – I find as long as I have a crackle-type background and a script background then I’m confident I can make any type of card.  The Weathered background stamp was stamped in Blue Bayou over Soft Sky cardstock and then sponged around the edges with Blue Bayou.  The striped paper on the right is from the Spring Silhouettes Designer Series paper and I sponged the edges of that too then pierced holes around the border.  The golf dots on the background are simply made using a Blender Pen very lightly dipped into Encore Gold reinker – you only need a tiny bit and I’m amazed at how well it cleans off the Blender Pen too… I’ll definitely be using the gold a lot more in the future now I know how easy it is to use.

So that’s it.  I hope you like today’s effort.  As usual, here’s the list of products I’ve used and if you have any questions about the card or the products I’ve used then please feel free to email or phone me (details on the top right hand side of this page).

Lovely As A Tree stamp set (ye olde faithful that gets dragged out over and over and over again)
Weathered Background stamp (another work-horse)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Soft Sky Cardstock
Blue Bayou cardstock
Blue Bayou inkpad
Spring Silhouettes Designer Series Paper
Brushed Gold cardstock
Gloss White cardstock
Versamark inkpad
Gold Embossing Powder
Heat Gun
Encore Gold Reinker
Blender Pen
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour on the background of the trees and around the cardstock)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (to make holes around the patterned paper
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (square metal clip)
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots (to adhere the ribbon with the clip)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to mount the centerpiece onto the card)

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