With Deepest Sympathy

I've mentioned it before, but I really hate making sympathy cards.   I normally stamp most of the card and leave the sentiment for last, but since I needed a sympathy card, I added in the kanji stamp for it.  I think that stamp is by Stampettes or Mari & Me (sorry I can't remember).  The butterfly and fern stamps are by Penny Black and are my new favorites!  Decided to go with a distress background and then stamp the butterfly using gold paint.  Stamping with the Ranger paint dabbers are awesome!  It stamps really nice and because the applicator is right on the bottle, it is not so messy.  Makes me want to get more!

Anyway, this card is on it's way to Italy.  RIP Piero... Glad we go to meet you when we visited.  You will be missed!

Ugh- More Sympathy Cards!

Yes, unfortunately I had to make a bunch of sympathy cards again, mainly for people we work with. Did a bunch up in the same layout, just used different colors... Here's a close up of my favorite one...

Copy Cat

Yes, I'm a copy cat. I couldn't help myself. I saw a card made by Robin ("cardrageous") on the Hero Arts blog, which took me to Flickr where I started browsing her cards. I totally fell in love with the card that looks like this one and got inspired to copy it. I love the colors she used too, so I used the same colors. She used the canvas stripe stamp for the lower half of her card, but I don't have that stamp (yet), so I just left it as is. Added some scattered pearls to my card and just stamped the sentiment over the flowers. Since its been at Island Scrapbooking, this card has caught the attention of our regulars. Unfortunately I can't take credit for the design, so I'll happily give credit where credit is due. Thanks Robin! I love your work!

More Sympathy Cards

I hate making sympathy cards, but I've had to make a handful over the last month. It really sucks to have to make these types of cards, so I don't normally post them. Just wanted to share my favorite stamp which makes making sympathy cards quick, easy and painless. The sentiment is by Paper Inspirations and is a great focal point for the card. I distressed both cards using my Ranger Distress Inks and then just accented the cards using my fern stamps. Don't know if you can tell, but images were stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder then distressed. Just stamped the sentiment directly over the embossed image and it seemed to work fine. Paper Inspirations makes all different types of sentiments using this layout. I love them all since it makes making a card fast and easy.

Another Sympathy Card

Had to make another Sympathy card recently for my dear friend's mother who passed away. I've been eyeing this stamp set by Fiskars everytime it comes into Island Scrapbooking... it comes with several asian stamps including some kanji. I love cherry blossoms and thought this would make a good background for the sympathy card. Distressed the background using two shades of purple before stamping the cherry blossom background. Covered the background stamp with white mica powder this time and I'm loving the results! Topped it off with a sympathy sentiment from the sympathy set by CC's Designs. Hope you can see the cherry blossoms- its so hard to get a good photo of mica powder projects. Thanks for visiting today! We have our first Furlough Friday today and I'm so looking forward to it. Not the loss in pay- but the time off is desperately needed! Supplies:

• Cherry blossom stamp- Fiskars
• Sympathy sentiment- CC's designs
• Distress inks- Ranger
• white mica powder
• Cardstock- Bazzil

Distressed Sympathy

As you already know, sympathy cards are my least favorite type of card to make. I finally broke down and bought a few sympathy stamps "in case". This is my favorite one by far- its by Paper Inspirations and there are all types of sentiments aside from sympathy. My friend's father recently passed away, so I wanted to make a card to send to her and her family. I decided to go with the distressed look again but kept it more subtle. Used some of the colors that I haven't played with yet (weathered wood, bundled sage) and then stamped it with the fern stamp using versamark and applied mica powder. Also got a sympathy stamp set by CC's Designs from Island Scrapbooking. This set has a great variety of sentiments- I'm sure you'll find one that is appropriate in this set. Used one of the sentiments for the inside of the card. Supplies:

• Distress inks- Ranger
• Sympathy stamp (cover)- Paper Inspirations
• Sympathy sentiment- CC's Designs
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Fern stamp- Stamp Yourself Silly