PAPERLICIOUS

A Special Sympathy Card

Decades ago I was truly blessed to meet Meg, a nurse/angel with the most wonderful British accent, who saved my life. Anyone who has ever suffered from clinical depression knows what a painful, difficult illness it is and Meg was there in ways that were transformational for me.  I owe my life to her.  More about that another time. 

I got a card from Meg earlier this week, letting me know that her husband of 50 years died last month.  She would be pleased if I could make it to the memorial service today.  Nothing would have kept me away.  And so I was there today for the most beautiful service.  What an amazing man.  I only met Meg's husband once -- at my wedding. Meg came to help me celebrate that day and brought her dear dear husband.  Died too young but lived more in his 73 years than most.

Meg is an artist, a watercolorist. So I was a bit nervous about making a card for her. But, I had to give it a try. This was the 4th attempt, but finally I was pleased. I hope she likes it.

And here's a closeup of the white silk ribbon that I soaked in Black Soot Distress ink stained water and then colored with some Copics in a random pattern.  

MOOD WHEN DONE = bittersweet

Heartfelt Sympathy

Glad I never sold Stampin Up!'s Close As a Memory set -- it is the set that I almost always use when I make a sympathy card.  In this case, I used the sentiment from the set and paired it some foliage from from Flourishes' Ferna and Fiddles and from a Hero Arts set.

Using Ranger Distress Inks in a variety of soft colors, including a bit of Milled Lavender, adds to the softness of the card.  The Lavender Moon border (PTI) is not a color that I use very often but it just fit here.

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Speaking of PTI, I sold a bunch of my PTI cardstock, almost all of the inks, and my ribbons.  When I did that someone wrote to me and said she assumed that I had switched over to all A Muse Studio.  Au contraire.  While this card uses A Muse Vanilla and I use my A Muse cardstock a lot, I kept a ton of Papertrey and Stampin Up cardstocks.  And I still have SU's ink spots and a host of other inks.  I could never stick to one company any more.  Variety keeps things fun and there are some inks that are perfect for one use that just don't work for another. 

*****

Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the US.  I was at work today (downtown DC) surrounded by Rolling Thunder.  Massive traffic jams but it really tugs at your heart to see thousands of motorcyclists in DC with American flags perched on the back, to pay honor to those who served and gave their lives so that the rest of us can be free. 

Simple Sympathy

A straightforward sympathy card, easy to make and mail. 

All A Muse Studio:  Stamps:  Loving Memories, Beautiful Botanicals, and Avian Notes, pairing French Roast (brown), Papaya and Sugar (white) cardstocks and ink.  

Three mini pearls help anchor the sentiment and don't overly bling the card. 

I think. 

Mood When Done = Wondering

Life is so complicated.  This week has been chock full of challenges and I'm wondering how to work on my attitude.  So I've decided to declare the week over.  Thursday starts a new week!

 

Thoughts on Sympathy Cards

Card Construction Details:

1.  4" x 5.25" cream cardstock.

2.  Stamp grasses and flowers in Antique Linen Distress ink.

3.  Stamp a retired Cornish Heritage music background in Tattered Rose Distress ink on a slight angle. Needed a background to soften the card and pull together the top left with the flowers.  Too much blank space would not have worked with a card full of distressing.  Chose a very pale color for the background so that it receded.

4.  Use colored pencils to color flower and stems over the ink.  

5.  Distress with a variety of Ranger Distress inks -- emphasizing the edges with Vintage Photo.

6.  Stamp sentiment in Fire Brick Distress.  Used my all time favorite sympathy set -- Stampin Up's retired Close as a Memory.  

7.  Punch holes in corners. Adds a little interest without making the sympathy card about the card and not the message.

8.  A little flat. Don't want bling on a sympathy card.  Think.

9.  Squeezed a bit of gold and pink Liquid Pears on the craft sheet and using a tiny paint brush, dotted the center of the flowers.

8.  Adhere to A2 cream card.  

More pictures:

 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Hero Arts Earth Flowers CL428; Stampin Up Close as a Memory; Cornish Heritage Farms Music Background
Cardstock:  PTI Vintage Cream
Ink:  Ranger Distress:  Tattered Rose, Milled Lavendar; Antique Linen; Fire Brick, and Vintage Photo
Other:  Ranger Liquid Pearls, Sponge, Ranger Craft Sheet, Prismacolor Pencils 

Waltzingmouse Stamps Preview Day One

Yes, October is just chock full of newness for me.

I am honored to be a member of the Waltzingmouse Design Team. (I'm also freaking out...)

Claire asked me to explain a bit of my background to those of you new to the blog.  I've been stamping for over 5 years.  My style is fairly simple, what I call "clean and simple, with a twist."  I use a lot of kraft cardstock and not a lot of embellishments.

I've been a huge fan of Claire's since before she started her company.  I am so glad she did.  WMS make up the bulk of my stamp inventory!  When I'm not stamping, I'm a Mom to a teenage son, a wife to a darling husband and a lawyer for the US Department of Education in Washington DC.  Oh, and my Mom lives with us.  Now, on to stamping!

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Today is the first day of previews for the October release by Waltzingmouse Stamps.  The previews will be through Wednesday, followed by a Design Team Blog Waltz on Thursday. 

The first card uses two new sets -- Big Bloom Poinsettias and Compliments of the Season.  Big Bloom Poinsettia is chock full of poinsettias (duh) in a variety of sizes and styles.  Compliments of the Season is sentiments, sentiments, sentiments -- with a few bits and pieces squeezed in as well.  I love bits and pieces!

I wanted a card that was inexpensive to make and mail but made a statement when removed from the envelope.

Card Construction Details:

1.  Stamped a portion of a poinsettia in Memento Tuxedo ink onto Kraft Cardstock.

2.  Colored with Copic markers.  Using Copics on Kraft lets you get away with murder!

3.  Rubbed the entire panel with an embossing buddy.

4.  Stamped sentiment in Versamark and embossed in white.  Missed a spot and threw more embossing powder over it.  Breathed a sigh of relief when the entire image came up embossed.

5.  Trimmed panel and adhered to A2 white card.  Colored in center of flower with white gel pen. 

HINT:  I have a very hard time trimming cardstock panels to fit an A2 card evenly.  Leaving a larger border around the panel hides small imperfections and gives a more contemporary touch. 

Mood When Done:   Pleased

 

This second card also uses Big Bloom Poinsettia, but not for Christmas.  Rather, since I needed a sympathy card, I opted for soft colors and a simple flower.  It also uses Frame It, a set for which I have been wanting for a long time!  Thank you Claire. 

Card Construction Details

1.  Stamped rectangular frame on Ocean Tides card with Memento Tuxedo ink.

2.  Masked frame.

3.  Using two of the small solid flowers from Big Bloom Poinsettias, stamped a background with Vintage Cream and Tuxedo inks.  Set aside to dry.

4. Watched part of the Little House on the Prairie marathon.

5.  Added sentiment (from Frame It set) in Tuxedo ink. 

6.  Stamped flower onto Sweet Blush cardstock and cut out.  Colored back petals with a Copic marker.

7.  Stamped leave three times onto Ocean Tides cardstock and cut out (finished up Little House while cutting).

8.  Added pink Liquid Pearls to center of each cream flower.

9.  Decided that flower needed something in the center to pull more of the Ocean Tides color.  Thought about adding a pearl colored with a Copic, but stamped flower on Ocean Tides cardstock and cut out inside and added more pink Liquid Pearl.  So easy to mail.

10.  Adhered leaves.

11.  Didn't like where leaves were.  Unadhered leaves.  Carefully.

12.  Adhered leaves again.

13.  Added flower with dimensionals.

Mood When Done = Satisfied and Amazed by Huge Mess Everywhere

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I've added the members of the Waltzingmouse Design Team to my sidebar.  Please check out their previews as well.  I am about to do so myself!

 

 

Perfect Sentiment, Sad Situation

I have a lot on my mind. Snow bound, worries about people in my life and I check facebook and see that Shannan Teubner's husband died.  Shannan is much younger than I am and has young children and it just took my breath away.  So here is a card that I hope to send to Shannan when I get her address.

Sometimes life is not easy is it?

The tree is from Waltzingmouse as is the sentiment. 

Sympathy Card Again

I cannot recall where the sentiment comes from....Let me know if it looks familiar!

Card Construction Details:

1.  Just fooling around with the pretty image (sort of like a snowflake, but not really...) from Waltzingmouse Little Box Labels.  Stamped two rows and colored inside with an SU Amethyst marker.

2.  Matted with black cardstock and promptly forgot about it.  Found under pile.

3.  Hmm...how about a sympathy card?

4.  Die cut Amethyst cardstock first.  Then placed small amount of double sided removable Scotch tape on table and placed die cut over the tape.  By taping it down, I was able to stamp the double line border from Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels No. 5.  

5.  Stamped sentiment inside.

6.  Stamped image with Versamark on lower part of Amethyst card.

7.  Added just a bit of black sheer ribbon, pearls and assembled as shown, popping up the die cut just a bit.

Mood when done = Appropriately subdued.

Do I like this card?  Sort of yes and sort of no. I love that die cut label!  Love the image.  Not wild about the color combo.   I think my customer will like it more than I do.  If I charged what this card really cost, it would be something like $3,461.23, but I'm not sure she'll like it that much.

Sympathy Cards/"BBF"

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, someone ordered 15 cards, including 5 sympathy cards.  I avoided these until I came upon a lovely card here by Nichole Heady and decided that, with a few substitutions, it would work well for sympathy cards.  

Card Construction Details:

1.  Decided to make 6 sympathy cards, figuring that 3 sheets of paper would make 6 cards and I'd have one left over.

2.  Cut and scored Stampin Up Almost Amethyst cardstock to make 6 A2 cards.   

3.  Stamped 6 borders from Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels No. 1 in gray ink on Stampin Up neutral cardstock (I don't have the name but it isn't white or vanilla -- it has small specks in it and an off white, almost grey tone).  Using gray instead of black made big difference, although you can't see it in the pic. It is a softer look.  Need to remember to use gray ink more often. 

4.  Stamped image from PTI Beautiful Blooms inside gray border and cut using Nestability Dies.

5.  Decided die cut was too big and started over.

6.  Flipped the 6 cut outs over, and die cut each.

7.  Using repositional Scotch tape, placed die cut on table and stamped border using a smaller label stamp from same Waltzingmouse set (I cut the stamps apart.  They work fine -- just be careful as you cut!). 

8.  Stamped medallion image from Waltzingmouse Little Box Labels inside the gray border with Amethyst ink.

9.  Masked off top and bottom of card and stamped multiple times the dotted swirl from PTI Little Lady with SU White Craft ink.

10.  Stamped sentiment from PTI Mega Mixed Messages in gray.

11.  Looked at card and something was missing.  Started "counting" -- hmm only 2 pieces of gray.  The darker color needed more presence on the card.  Added third grey by stamping double line stamp from PTI Faux Ribbon set.  It mirrors the double lines on the label stamp and sets off the label better than just the white dots.

12.  Added 3mm self adhesive pearls from Memory Box to center of each medallion and adhered label with dimensional.

Mood When Done = Accomplished!  

By the way, substitute a sentiment and this could be a cute Christmas card...

And for a bit of BBF, read on. Otherwise, have a great day!

Heartfelt Sympathy

Card Construction Details:

1. Stamped label from Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels No. 4 with Eggplant ink.

2. Stamped sentiment (each line is separate, but I put them on the block together) from Technique Tuesday's Thinking of You in center of label.

3.  Using the Big Shot and the Nestability Label 4, I die cut the image.  No need to apply tape. When using the Big Shot, I place the image and die on the plate, carefully put the plate above and it sort of forms a seal.  I get it right the first time (almost) every time!

4. Found pre cut Eggplant card in my cardstock folder and decided to use it.  Stamped french script in Versamark on top of card.

5. Cut a space for the white silk ribbon, tied and adhered label above ribbon. 

6. Added K&Co self adhesive pearls.

7. Card needed something.  Took the die cut paper left over from step 3 and trimmed to make white border as shown below.

8. Cut white cardstock to cover mess of inside of top of card and inside of top of bottom of card. Stamped sentiment inside the card. As you can see (I hope) the label forms the bottom of the top layer of the card. 

Mood when done = happy with card but outraged that this card is for the death of a 17 year old girl killed when she was caught in "crossfire" the day before she was scheduled to take the SAT.  Hug your kids today. 

Loss

There is a woman in my office whose husband has been battling a brain tumor for a long time.  He died yesterday.  Both he and my co-worker put up an amazing fight against a brutal illness.  He leaves behind two teenage children.

I hope this card, very much inspired by Debbie Olson's here, provides some small measure of comfort. 

Some supplies include:  Leafy Glade background, retired Stampin Up; sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps; Ribbon from Papertrey; heart charm; silver brads; black embossing powder.