With Sympathy (Reflection Technique)

Hello crafters!  Thanks for peeking into my blog again today for another card share!  Today I am sharing a sympathy card.  We all have to have them from time to time to show how much we care about our loved ones or friends on their loss.  They are a bit harder to make because you want them to reflect your heart - and it needs to be gentle in its message.

I think one of the best stamp sets to use when making a card like this is Stampin' Up Lovely As A Tree - its an oldie but a goodie!  I think this set is also one perfect for the "reflection technique".  I first die cut a piece of white card stock from my go to dies right now - the stitched frame from Femme Frames by Mama Elephant. I then stamped out the set of trees from the stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I stamped the image again on some clear acetate and turned the acetate over and upside down and "transferred" the ink from the acetate onto my card stock.  I, then grabbed a couple of my Distress Inks in Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint, and Iced Spruce, and inked around my trees to bring this scene to life!  

I, then trimmed a piece of vellum card stock, and black heat embossed my With Sympathy sentiment which comes from SSS - Handwritten Sentiments.  I wanted to used vellum because I didn't want to cover up my reflection scene.

And, here is the inside of the card, which I rarely show.  I thought the inside was finished off nicely by stamping just part of that same stamp.  I used the same black ink but stamped off once to give a softer image.

Hope this will inspire you to be able to take some of these ideas when it comes to Sympathy cards.

See you soon!

Kari

May AEI♥U Challenge

It is getting late this evening, but I have been having fun most of the day being creative and crafty.  My favorite past time! ( other than watching STL baseball of course).  So, one of the cards I made is for the latest Avery Elle Challenge.

OK - I didn't know WHAT I was going to do when I started making this card.  That is probably why it takes me such a long time to create one card most of the time, because I don't do sketches before hand or anything, I just wing it!  I knew I wanted to use my Avery Elle set All Squared Up, but from there, I had no other direction.

Here is the inspiration photo....

And here is what I came up with.....

I stamped onto a piece of white card stock the circle image from this set in five different Hero Arts Shadow Inks - Mint Julep, Tide Pool, Pool, Cornflower, and Navy.  I overlapped all of the circles, and then I took some Navy washi tape, and a bubble aqua patterned washi and adhered it down the middle of the circles.  Then, I took the Navy stamped circle and cut out the middle with a craft knife, and then punched it out with  1 3/4 in. circle punch and popped it up on foam adhesive turning it the opposite direction and placed it in the middle of the circle row.  I, then stamped the "Thinking of you" sentiment in Navy, and to represent the boat being tied up, I stamped a "friend" sentiment that goes with my jewelry tag punch from SU! and added that to my middle circle for a fun element.  I adhered that panel to a Navy panel that I embossed with an embossing folder called "Fancy Fan" and adhered that to my white card base.

I like how this turned out.  I think all the time it took for me to do this from start to finish was worth it for this fun design.

I hope your weekend is a relaxing one, and you are able to do something that makes you smile.  

See you soon :)

- Kari