I have a real love/hate relationship with sympathy cards. On the one hand I know (from personal experience) that they provide real comfort to the recipient – just knowing that someone is thinking of them but on the other it means that I was close enough to the person who passed or the bereaved to send a card. Unfortunately this is one of those heart ripping cards where someone too young lost their lives. It was only several days ago that the General Manager of Stampin’ Up! Australia, Dave Abbott passed away and left a hole in many people’s lives. He was one of those remarkable people that everyone genuinely thought the world of.

To make this card I started with a piece of watercolour paper and I stamped the row of trees from the Stampin’ Up! stamp set called ‘Lovely As A Tree‘ using Jet Black Stazon Ink. Now I’ve probably raved about this stamp set before but I’ll rave about it again, it’s extremely versatile and can be used for many occasions – the single tree in this set (not shown here) is also perfect for Christmas so I’ll post a Christmas card with that stamp soon. Back to the cardmaking, after stamping the trees I coloured them in using an aquabrush (this is a brush which has a barrel that you fill with water) and some watercolour crayons. The grass was lightly coloured with chalk and the sky has just a touch of colour, barely visible but just enough to take the starkness of the paper. This stamped and coloured piece was then layered onto some brushed copper cardstock and then Chocolate Chip cardstock.

The background is Kraft cardstock which has been sponged around the edges with Creamy Caramel ink and then stamped with the French Script background, again using Creamy Caramel ink. The right hand background is Old Olive cardstock stamped with Old Olive ink using the Crackle background. I went around the Old Olive cardstock dragging the Old Olive inkpad not just around the edges but also very lightly over the top of the Crackle stamping. These two backgrounds were layered onto some Chocolate Chip cardstock and the stamped trees mounted on top using double-sided foam tape.

To finish off, I wrapped some Chocolate Chip ribbon around the piece threading a Hodgepodge ribbon charm and securing the ends of the ribbon with two Antique Brass brads. This whole piece was then mounted onto a folded piece of Old Olive cardstock.

Here’s the list of products I used:

All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through Angela Sargeant (that’s me ) at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Lovely As A Tree stamp set
French Script Background stamp
Crackle Background Stamp
Old Olive cardstock
Old Olive inkpad
Kraft Cardstock
Brushed Copper Cardstock
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Creamy Caramel Inkpad
Watercolour paper
Aquabrush
Watercolour Crayons (Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Garden Green)
Chalks (Old Olive, Bashful Blue)
Sponge Daubers (for sponging both ink and chalks)
Chocolate Chip Ribbon
Stampin’ Dimensionals (double-sided foam tape)
SNAIL Adhesive
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (ribbon charm & brads)

If you’d like any more information on how I made this card or any questions on the products, please feel free to contact me on angelasargeant@gmail.com. In the meantime, I hope I’ve provided you with some inspiration on what is usually a difficult task.