One Stamp, Four Ways: Sweet and Simple Sympathy Card

I have a terrible habit of making tons of cards at random and never actually doing anything with them. When I found myself needing 4 cards to be in the mail and delivered by Thursday, ironically I didn't have any on hand that worked! So I decided to challenge myself. The Flower Patch stamp set had just arrived in my mailbox, and I was dying to bust into it. It's one of the photopolymer sets in the new catalog - and it is huge! The combinations of flowers you can stamp are endless! I thought it would be fun to see if I could make 4 different cards - for completely different occasions - using that one stamp set. Fun!

So here's the first card I have to share with you. There's a really sweet woman who is a patient at the medical office where I work, and she always asks for me when she calls. Her husband had been very sick, and passed away a few days ago. We live in an area with a lot of older people, and sadly, we have patients passing almost every day. I certainly don't often send cards, but with this kind woman, I just felt called to reach out and let her know I was thinking of her.

Sympathy cards can be very difficult to make, so I decided to keep this one very simple. The pastel color palette is bright, but appropriate. I kept my stamping simple too - I didn't do much of the two-step stamp layering that this set is designed for. And you can see that I still achieved beautiful flowers just by stamping one layer!

The colors I chose for this card are Crisp Cantaloupe (which is way more of a peach color than shows in this photo), Pool Party, So Saffron, and Pistachio Pudding. I used a layer of Sahara Sand to create a small border accent, but this could very easily be a stunning one layer card. The sentiment I chose is from A Dozen Thoughts, stamped in black ink.

So that's it for today. Stay tuned for my second card, coming soon!

Happy Stampin'! :)

Start-to-Finish Sunday #17 - Watercolor Butterfly Sympathy Card

Another Sunday is coming to a close. My goodness, the weekends go by fast! Far too fast, if you ask me! This week I wanted to share the Watercolor Background technique - one of my faves and so much fun to do! It makes a mess though, so if you're squeemish about inky hands, you may want to get yourself a pair of gloves. Anyway, I decided to use this technique to make a sympathy card. I was thinking the watercolor look, plus a few simple butterflies, was well suited for this type of card.

The video shows how to make the watercolored panel, plus a little bit of my thought process that went into putting the card together. You can watch it below, or over on my YouTube channel.

Have a great week! Happy Stampin'! :)




Watercolor Butterfly Card Supplies
 

InLinkz.com

Start-to-Finish Monday? :)

It's been so busy around here lately! So I apologize for not posting a Start-to-Finish Sunday video last week, and now getting around to it a day late. Now that - hopefully - the busy season will be winding down, I'm hoping to be a little better about posting videos and projects.

For today's project I wanted to make a sympathy card - not because I need one, thank goodness, but because I liked the idea of matching the Summer Afternoon and So Sorry stamp sets. Plus, I really wanted to sit down and do some watercoloring! :)

So, as always, you can watch the video below, or on my YouTube channel.

Hope you had an awesome long weekend!

Happy Stampin'! :)


Summer Sympathy Card Supplies

InLinkz.com

Clean and Simple Cardmaking

 
Today is day 2 of Kristina, Jennifer, and Julie's Clean and Simple Cardmaking online class and I am already loving it! They started out on day 1 with three sketches - what a perfect way to start for those of us who really struggle with CAS cards! And I actually sat down and made a card with one of the sketches! :)

I really struggle with white space, so instead of leaving it actually white, I used some large stamps to create a background.

In her post and video, Kristina talked a lot about using masking to create interest, and also ways to use die cuts creatively. So I decided to use both these techniques on my card.

It may be only day two, but so far I'm really loving this class and I've got high hopes for a lot of learning and improving on my part! :)

with a heavy {heart}

I'm posting today to share a project every card maker dreads: a sympathy card with an intended recipient. On Monday, a wonderful family and a close-knit community lost a loved one. John Stewart was my 8th grade "Central Subject" teacher at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (CS is basically social studies - history, geography, politics, a little language arts, etc.) He died suddenly of a heart attack on Monday morning. He was truly an amazing teacher, and a wonderful person - one of those people who helps shape who each of his students will become. Middle school is a tough time, and middle schoolers can be tough kids to work with. The thing that was so incredible about Mr. Stewart was his ability to relate to and connect with his students on their level, and on his. He held everyone to a high standard of academics, critical thinking, and living life. He approached every interaction with respect, valued our 14-year-old opinions (and taught us to back them up!), and helped us to always respect each other. And he had a superior funny bone.

So I hope you won't think me tasteless for sharing the card I made for the Stewart family. I know how much we all struggle with these cards, and it's cardmaker solidarity that made me want to share.

Thank you for visiting.