Sunflower Sympathy

If you're thinking this looks an awful lot like the Country Birthday card from last week, you're absolutely right. I had some extra pieces left over from that project and I thought they would work well with the sunflower image from the Measure of a Life set. I stamped it with versamark on whisper white card stock twice, added the sympathy sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes to one of the images and heat embossed both with detail black embossing powder. I colored both sunflowers with summer sun and close to cococa markers.  I sponged the image with the sympathy sentiment with crumb cake ink. I then fussy cut the sunflower from the second image and attached it over the other sunflower with a dimensional for a little extra dimension. the rest of the card is pretty much the same as the Country birthday card except the crumb cake base was stamped with the netting background in crumb cake ink and the gingham was sponged with crumb cake ink.

Recipe:

Paper: crumb cake, basic black, whisper white
Ink: versamark, crumb cake, ruby red, summer sun and close to cocoa markers
Stamps: Serene Sunflower, Measure of a Life, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Netting background, Gingham wheel
Accessories: Floral Garden Burlap Ribbon by Greenbrier International, Border Scoring Plate and Stampin' Up! Scorer, detail black embossing powder, stampin' pastels

Dragonfly Sympathy

I really liked yesterday's color combination challenge on SCS and I was inspired by justampin, who made a gorgeous sympathy card using these colors. I never would have thought to combine these colors for a somber occasion, but they do work well with the dragonfly image from the Measure of a Life set.

For this card I stamped the image and sentiment in versamark and heat embossed both with detail black embossing powder. I colored the dragonfly using daffodil delight, wild wasabi, pacific point inks and a blender pen. I then used daffodil delight ink and the rough texture jumbo wheel to add the background.I added the background to the daffodil delight mat with the very vintage jumbo wheel and daffodil delight ink.

Paper: whisper white, daffodil delight, wild wasabi, pacific point
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, Versamark
Stamps: Measure of a Life, Close as a Memory, Rough Texture jumbo wheel, Very Vintage jumbo wheel
Accessories: Wide black organdy ribbon, detail black embossing powder, dazzling diamonds

Sad stamping night

I stamped a lot of cards one night this week, but it wasn't a happy occasion. We found out that a close friend of the family passed away last weekend. He had been sick for some time so the news wasn't completely unexpected, and yet we weren't ready for it. Since the friend in question had four daughters, I suddenly needed four sympathy cards ASAP. Now, sympathy cards are difficult for me on the best day, but having to make four of them that were all going to the same family so they couldn't be too similar or too different - that was a challenge, especially since I wasn't exactly in a great frame of mind.

I managed to get through it by making pretty basic, "old school" cards. No embossing folders, minimal punching and die cutting, no embossing folders and a lot of  reliance on designer papers. I even CASEd a card I made recently because by the time I got to the fourth card it was late and I was running out of ideas. Oddly enough, that card ended up my husbands favorite and I think it actually turned out better than the original. Go figure.

I'm posting all four cards together because that's the only way they make sense to me. None of them are unique or impressive enough to merit their on posts. Also, having four separate sympathy posts in a row on a stamping blog would be too much. This way, if anyone is looking for sympathy card ideas, they'll find several in one place.

The one lesson I took away from this experience is that I need to make some more sympathy cards soon so that I have them ready to go when I need them. It's not the kind of stamping I really enjoy, but it's far better to be prepared than to try to be creative at a time when creativity may be the last thing from my mind.

Recipes (all products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise indicated)

Card 1.
Paper: Perfect Plum, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Cambridge DSP
Ink: Perfect Plum, Always Artichoke
Stamps: Close as a Memory
Accessories: Slate baker's twine from Neutrals collection by We R MemoryKeepers

Card 2.
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Brocade Background DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers
Accessories: Word Window Punch, Gold ribbon from Cream City Ribbon

Card 3.
Paper: River Rock, Always Artichoke, retired SU DSP (don't have name)
Ink: Always Artichoke
Stamps: Love & Sympathy, Kind & Caring Thoughts
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Key Tag Punch, thick twine (don't know source)

Card 4.
Paper:  Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White, Vellum
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Stamps: Bloom with Hope
Accessories: Wide black organdy ribbon, pewter brads, corner rounder punch, Lori Whitlock Ornate Label Thinlits by Sizzix

Monochrome Sympathy

This card was for my neighbor, whose father passed away this week. It's pretty self-explanatory from the recipe (below). The only tricky part was stamping the sentiment on vellum, die cutting it with the ornate thinlit, and then trimming off just the "ornate" portion, and that's only because apparently I have a problem lining things up exactly straight under the cutter arm.  Took a couple of tries, but I got it pretty quick.

One tip - punching a hole for the brads through the ribbon with a hole punch can bunch up the ribbon. It's better to use the paper piercing tool on a paper piercing mat.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise indicated):

Paper: whisper white, basic black, vellum, dark gray card base from the Neutrals (5x7 pack) by ms. sparkle & co (tm)
Ink: basic black
Stamps: Creative Elements, Close as a Memory
Accessories: Diamond brads, corner rounder punch, wide striped black ribbon, Lori Whitlock Ornate Labels Thinlits by Sizzix