Remarkable You Sympathy Card

All too often these days, I find myself needing to make a sympathy card. I am ever hopeful that by designing a heartfelt card, it can bring the recipient of the card some measure of comfort.

Inspiration for my card actually came to me while I was working at Walmart.

In the last couple of days, several people have purchased Calla Lilies. We have yellow ones as well as purple ones that are almost black in color. I think that they are one of the most elegant looking flowers I've seen and I thought they would work well for my card.

Though a lot of sympathy cards utilize muted colors, I decided on strong, rich colors for my card.




Though I knew what stamp set I wanted to use as well as what techniques I wanted to employ, it still took me awhile to bring the card to completion as I tried out different matte sizes and embellishments. I also had a hard time deciding what color to use for my sentiment piece.

I remembered that there were a lovely pair of Calla Lilies in the The Remarkable You stamp set. I chose to stamp these on watercolor paper using Versamark and then heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I used Blackberry Bliss reinker with my Blender Pen to color the flowers. The blend of colors from the dark, rich blackberry to the lighter, fruitier pink made me very happy!

I adhered the lilies to a very thin matte of Mossy Meadow using Fuse Fast adhesive. I inked the edges of a slightly larger Mossy Meadow matte with Versamark and then heat embossed with gold. I adhered the thin matte to the embossed matte. Then, using Dimensionals, I adhered these mattes to a Tip Top Taupe matte.

Using a Stampin' Spritzer, I prepared a mixture of Rubbing Alcohol and a couple of drops of Rich Razzleberry reinker. In my makeshift spray booth (an old shoe box) I sprayed some Jute Ribbon to match my card. Once the ribbon was dry, I wrapped it around the matte, adhering it with Sticky Strip and tape.

Earlier in the day, I had rolled out a piece of the now retired Simply Pressed Clay (Why on earth did Stampin' Up retire this product? It's wonderful!) and pressed my sentiment stamp, from the Best Thoughts stamp set, into the clay. This is one of my favorite techniques for using the clay! I then pressed one of the Oval Collection Framelits into the clay to provide a shape to cut out the sentiment when it was dry.

I trimmed the dried clay with scissors, following the outline left by the oval framelit. I pressed the dry clay sentiment into my Old Olive stamp pad, being sure it was well inked on both sides and edges. I then wiped off some of the ink until I was pleased with the distressed look of the sentiment.

Using a sponge dauber, I applied Mossy Meadow ink to the edges and rubbed a little bit over the words themselves to make them stand out more. The sentiment was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

Close up of Simply Pressed Clay sentiment

The mattes were adhered to the Blackberry Bliss card base using Dimensionals.

For the inside matte, I used a piece of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I stamped a portion of the Calla Lilies in the bottom right corner, using Sahara Sand. The edges were inked with Versamark and heat embossed with gold.

I think my card turned out well though I wish I had rolled the piece of clay just a little bit thinner so that it didn't look so thick on the bottom of the card. There's always next time to get it right, isn't there?

Drop me a comment below letting me know how you have used Simply Pressed Clay in your projects!

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Remnants of Easter

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a good Easter. We had a great day!

Courtney, Steffan and Raine had been out at Lee River for the weekend but arrived in the early afternoon on Sunday. Raine had slept a bit in the car but not as long as her nap would have been so she was a little out of sorts for awhile.

My husband picked up my mother to bring her over. At first, Raine was scared of her but by the end of the evening, she had given her THREE hugs–unheard of before this!

I tried rather unsuccessfully to get some good pictures of Raine in her fancy Easter dress but she was not happy to be in it and generally let me know that! I did manage three cute shots, even though the backgrounds are not great.

We had a nice dinner and then everyone left and it was quiet once again!

I have my Easter projects to show you today.

The first card is the one that I made for my mother. It was CASEd from this card. I loved this on sight because of the shabby chic style.

I enjoyed coloring the Whisper White Seam Binding to match my project by using a few drops of Rich Razzleberry reinker with Rubbing Alcohol and then spraying the ribbon with my Stampin' Spritzer.

I also enjoyed using the Simply Pressed clay to create the little roses. I worked a few drops of either Coastal Cabana or Rich Razzleberry into the clay before placing it in the molds.

Besides the items listed below, I used the now retired En Française stamp, Regal Rose ribbon, a leaf punch from Michaels, and the bunny was cut from a Silhouette file using my Silhouette.

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This next card was for my daughter. It was cased from this card. Everything I used is still available with the exception of the paper from the Best Year Ever which was in the Sale-a-Bration catalog.

It was fun to use my Blendabilities to color the little bunny! I will miss these markers when they eventually dry out.

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For my granddaughter, I CASEd this cute little bunny created with the Curvy Keepsakes Die. I filled the bunny with miniature Cadbury eggs. The only thing that I used not listed below is the now retired Pretty In Pink card stock.

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Lastly, I made little treat baskets for my mother and daughter that were CASEd from this basket. I placed EOS lip balms in each basket, matched to the paper colors. The "grass" was created by first crimping card stock and then cutting it with Fringe Scissors.

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I hope you have enjoyed viewing my Easter projects! Now, on with Spring!