Pearly Gates Sympathy Card

It's a terrible thing to lose your mojo. Even though I wanted to craft and I loved looking at crafting ideas but actually sitting down and crafting myself just didn't seem to be in the cards (pun intended) for me.

This summer has been productive in other ways but not so much for card making. However, I was in need of a sympathy card and there was no way I was going to buy a card so I sat myself down and made one! My card is CASEd from a card by Janet Wakeland.

I began my card by cutting a piece of Watercolor Paper to 4.25 x 5.5". I used the clouds from the Up & Away Thinlits to die cut cloud templates from Thick Whisper White. Using the templates alternately, I sponged Soft Sky onto the watercolor paper to create a cloud-filled sky.

Next, I die cut Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper using the Detailed Gates Thinlits. To make this easier, I first removed the protective covering layer from the back of the sheet of glimmer paper. I then used the dryer sheet method for die cutting using my Magnetic Platform.

Because I wanted to adhere the gates to the sky panel, I scored each side of the gates at about 1/4" from the edge. Finally, I used my Stampin' Trimmer to slice down the middle of the gates so that they would open.

On a strip of Vellum, I stamped the sentiment from the Rose Wonder stamp set and heat embossed with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder. I wrapped the sky panel with the vellum strip, folding it crisply at each edge, and then taped it to the back of the panel.

I then used liquid adhesive to adhere the gates to each side of the panel. The panel was then adhered to a Soft Sky card base using Fast Fuse adhesive.

I heat embossed the inside sentiment on a Whisper White matte and then sponged the edges with Soft Sky before adhering it inside the card.

To finish the card, I die cut a dove from Thick Whisper White using a die set from Impression Obsession. I used Mini Dimensionals to adhere the bird to the front of the card.

If I made this card again, I would die cut one gate from the Glimmer paper and one from Whisper White and adhere them together. This would prevent the gate from curling at the top. Other than that, I am pleased with how my card turned out!

Hopefully, this is the kick start that I need for my mojo!

Blogging Hiatus and Sympathy Cards

In returning to my blog, it seems that I have been on a blogging hiatus for a little while. Believe me, it is not because I was away on holiday! I have been busy crafting and preparing projects for a new stamping group and just haven't been able to keep up with the picture taking, photo editing, and blogging for each project I have created. I don't know how some of these other bloggers do it–they must never sleep!

The next little while will be dedicated to the blogging of those projects but first I must post two sympathy cards that were necessary to create over this time period as well.

Both cards involve feathers because somehow, my mind associates sympathy cards with feathers. In both cases, the feathers used were from the Feather Finery stamp set from Papertrey Ink.

For the first card, I stamped the largest feather from the set using Early Espresso ink on Early Espresso card stock and then die cut the feather using the coordinating die. The feather images in this set are ethereal in nature (probably why I chose them for sympathy cards) and stamp beautifully. The coordinating dies make sure that these images can be cut out for even more versatility. The sentiments in the set are also lovely!

On an Island Indigo matte I stamped the sentiment from the now retired Love & Sympathy stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The matte was adhered to the Thick Whisper White card front and then the feather was adhered using Dimensionals. A small feather was stamped inside the card in Early Espresso.

A few Rain Stones were added to the card front to complete the card.

For my second sympathy card, I chose to use the Feather Finery set again but in a slightly different way. I knew that I wanted to use a vellum overlay but didn't know what I wanted to put behind it. Luckily, the Serene Scenery DSP came to mind.

I chose a piece of the DSP which had a kind of beach scene on it and cut it to completely cover my 4.25 x 5.5" card front. I cut a piece of vellum to the same size.

Prior to embossing a small feather on the bottom of the vellum I tore a strip off the bottom to allow me to stamp a sentiment on the DSP as well as to add a little textural interest. I used the now retired An Open Heart stamp set and stamped with Crumb Cake on the bottom right of the DSP.

Versamark was used to stamp the feather on the bottom of the vellum and then it was heat embossed using Pearlustre Pearl White embossing powder from Stampendous. I chose to use this rather than Stampin' Up's White embossing powder because I wanted a warm tone to the embossing. Unfortunately, the embossing doesn't show well in any of my photos :(

Next, I used liquid adhesive to run a line of glue near the top of the DSP and adhered the vellum to it. I then wrapped a piece of the Pool Party Stitched Ribbon around the vellum and DSP to hide the glue line. I also wrapped two pieces of Linen Thread over the ribbon and knotted them. These mattes were then adhered to a Sahara Sand card front using Fast Fuse.

For the inside of the card, I chose to use a leftover strip of the DSP down the side of the card. I stamped another sentiment using Crumb Cake and then used Sahara Sand to stamp the same small feather inside the card. In addition, I stamped a feather in Pool Party on the envelope.

In retrospect, I wish I had stamped the feather on the vellum using White Stazon rather than embossing it because the detail of the feather was lost when the embossing powder melted.

For the most part, I am pleased with how both cards turned out but I hope that I don't need anymore sympathy cards for awhile.

My Least Favorite Card To Create

Though I am always excited to be creating a new card, I dislike having to make a sympathy card because it means that someone is hurting. This time, the father of the Head Customer Service Manager at Walmart passed away.

Because Michelle is such a special person who is always striving to be cheerful and encouraging, even under the most trying of circumstances, I wanted to create a special card to give to her.

I decided to use the Painted Petals stamp set along with the coordinating Designer Series Paper, Painted Blooms.

I cut a standard card base from Rich Razzleberry and a matte from Blackberry Bliss. I cut a piece of Vellum Card Stock and a piece of the DSP to 5 1/4 x 4."

I used my new MISTI (Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented–more on this tool in the future!) to position my sentiment from the Love & Sympathy stamp set and stamped it using Jet Black Stazon ink. I next stamped the stems of the flowers in Wild Wasabi and the blooms in Rich Razzleberry.

Once the ink was dry, I used some Crystal Effects along the left edge to attach the vellum on top of the DSP. I knew the adhesive wouldn't be seen because I was going to attach a strip of card stock down the left side of the card front. I adhered the DSP to the Blackberry Bliss matte using Fuse Fast adhesive.

The Decorative Dots embossing folder was used to emboss a 1 1/2" strip of Rich Razzleberry card stock. I wrapped a piece of Mossy Meadow ribbon around it and adhered it on the back using Sticky Strip. I then tied a small piece of ribbon around the existing piece and knotted it. I secured the ribbon to the front of the embossed strip using a couple of glue dots.

I placed three Candy Dots down the top right side of the card front and added some Crystal Effects to the underside of the vellum, beneath the Candy Dots, to further secure the vellum to the card front.

I adhered a matte of Naturals White card stock to the inside of the card and to echo the front design, I stamped three tiny flowers.

Drop me a line below to let me know how you like the card! Also, please let me know how you like the scrolling list of products used compared to the large gallery display of products I was using previously. I thought that the scroll takes up a lot less space while still allowing you to view all the products used.


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