Sympathy Card Using Zig Markers

More and more, it seems, I am in need of sympathy cards. I don't keep a surplus of them because I prefer to personalize the card for the recipient.

This time, the passing was of a former stamper in our stamp group and the mother of one of our stampers. She had been ill for some time and she hadn't attended a stamping class in at least a year. She was a special, one-of-a-kind lady and will definitely be missed.

The card I designed uses images from the Open Heart Stamp Set.

The stamping of this card gave me some difficulty! Because I wanted the leaves to appear to be behind the bird, it was necessary to mask the bird after stamping it with Basic Black Archival ink on Watercolor paper.

I didn't want to have to fussy cut so instead I chose to use my Molotow 2mm Masking Pen. Unfortunately, it was dry and I had to use my 4mm one. I colored in the area of the bird that needed to be masked and then waited for it to dry. I then stamped the leaves.

It was when I tried to remove the masking that it was apparent that I hadn't fully dried the masking fluid and it ripped off part of my bird!

So I re-stamped the bird on another piece of Watercolor paper. This time I decided to use Miskit Masking Fluid. I had it in a bottle with a fine precision tip but I still had trouble applying it to the area I needed to mask. After applying I again waited for it to dry and then stamped my leaves again.

Disappointment again as my bird ripped when I tried to remove the masking. :(

Now my only option left was to fussy cut a mask. I re-stamped the bird on Watercolor paper and then on ordinary copy paper. I fussy cut the bird on the copy paper, just cutting enough for where the masking needed to be. I then used my Scotch Restickable Glue Stick to apply to the back of the bird. After allowing it to dry for about 30 seconds, I stuck it over my bird on the Watercolor paper and stamped the leaves.

Then came the critical moment–removing the mask. It was no problem this time! This is the first time that masking has worked well for me in getting my image stamped the way I need it to be!

I used my heat tool to zap the stamps to make sure they were completely dry and then proceeded to color the images with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. When I was finished coloring, I stamped the sentiment.

Next, I knotted a piece of Ruffled Pool Party ribbon around the right side of the colored panel and then adhered the panel to the Pool Party card base using Dimensionals.

I'm hoping I won't need any more sympathy cards for awhile.

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