Sympathy Cards

11th April 2012

Recently I've been asked for a few sympathy cards, I guess as we grow older, those requests are going to come more often. Sympathy cards, like Men's cards are not as easy as a child's card or a feminine card. The urge to be very creative and fancy I feel has to be toned down to the sorrow of the recipient.  The three cards I made today are I hope in keeping with the sorrow of the event. Each is different and somewhat subdued, but I hope not bland.
They are after all for someone to give to a dear one or friend at a very sad time to let them know they are thinking of them in their sorrow.

The first card has a background of white roses in a diagonal design with greenery, layered onto a gloss base card. The topper has been cut with a spellbinder die set called Fleur De Lis Rectangles, I used gloss card and the two middle sized dies. The stamped sentiment is from Stampin Up's 'Thanks for Caring' set.

Card 2 is again a gloss card,  with a centred layer punched on the long edges with a Martha Stewart border punch called 'Floral Lace', then inked with Stampin Up's 'Pacific Point', the very centre is another strip which I cut to 3.5cm wide and punched both long edges with the same border punch, but this time sponged Pacific Point all over the gloss card surface. The sentiment is stamped with Pacific Point and then die cut using a Spellbinder die from the labels Twenty set. which I embossed and then inked the edges. The Sentiment is mounted using Stampin Up 'Dimensionals'.

The third and last card is again gloss card, and I strongly resisted the urge to emboss it. The Image and Sentiment are from Stampin Up's Hostess set called "Because I Care', I inked the Hydrangea image using Stampin Up's 'Stampin Write ' markers, I used 4 colours, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Garden Green and Always Artichoke. I stamped onto gloss card, then stamped without reinking directly onto my base card.
The Head and leaves of the Hydrangea are fussy cut then mounted using dimensionals.
The sentiment is stamped in Pacific Point, and cut using Stampin Up's Designer Label punch. the edges of the sentiment and the hydrangea head are inked with Pacific Point.

I'm really pleased with the way the flower head looks to be quite dimensional, due entirely to the use of the five colours. (the inked edges really added to the look, while taking away the white cut edges)

I hope this has given you some small inspiration for those difficult cards.

Happy Crafting.

Hugs.

Beth