Sad sympathy

The need for a sympathy card always denotes a sad occasion.

While there were a couple of weddings in our circle of friends this past weekend, it also marked the passing of another friend's father.

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{capture the moment} has a great tutorial every Monday morning, and this card was inspired by Make It Monday #166: Debossed Stamped Images.

Using cutting dies and an embossing pad, you can create some wonderful texture on an otherwise flat/one-layer card.

 Here's the back of the debossed panel.

I used matching stamps and dies from Paper Smooches:  Leafy Greens and Good Gab.

Two colours of Distress markers were used to "paint" the stamp, which was then spritzed with water to help the two colours blend, before stamping.

 Then the loopy leaf die was placed over each stamped leaf, and it was run through the die-cut machine with a rubber embossing mat.

After matting the water-colour panel, I decided to flick some watered down distress ink and some Perfect Pearls solution onto it.

Also added some Pretty Pink Posh flat sequins in Bronze.

Sadly, I can't link this up to the Make It Monday blog, as I didn't use any Papertrey Ink supplies.  However, you can try out the technique; the link is open through Monday morning, June 2nd. Have fun!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

With Sympathy... H2H Challenges

It is always difficult to know what to write when someone you know suffers a loss. But sending a hand-made, heart-felt card conveys your compassion perfectly.  This is the challenge at Heart2Heart Challenges this week:

make a sympathy card.

I chose to go serious, although I have seen some great silly commiseration cards recently, at the Paper Wishes website.

This is a card sketch I have used before--love the window and the dimensional flower (see details below).  This time I added a scripture verse and some dandelion images to the front,

and "sympathy" on the inside.

 I promised in my last post to share how to make the "flower" (last time it appeared as a sand-dollar).

Circle-punch flower tutorial:

Punch out five or six circles using a craft punch. I used a 1" punch here, but the CTMH 1-1/4" punch works as well--just results in a larger flower.  Both sides of your paper will be visible, so using a double-sided paper ensures a beautiful result.  Cut out an extra circle in a contrasting colour.

Create a template to help with folding the petals, by trimming the contrasting circle into the shape shown below. You will cut off a similar amount on both sides of the circle, forming a point on one side.

Fold one side of the DP circle over the cut edge of the template; score.

Fold the second side of the DP circle over the template, score. Remove the template and fold your remaining petals in the same manner.

Arrange the finished petals into a flower-shape and glue to your project. You can create a five-or six-petal flower (or even more) depending on how "fat" you make your template. Some space between the petals looks okay, too.

Have fun with the double-sided paper; you could make a flower using the reverse side of the paper on the same project.

You can add a centre to the flower, using brads, gems, glitz, buttons, etc or choose to leave it un-adorned.



Happy crafting,
Caroline




CTMH Supplies:
Circle Punch:  Z1311
Piercing Tools Kit:  Z1114
Corner Rounder:  Z578
Make it Count stamp set: D1257 (discontinued)
Dreamin' WOTG: stamp set and DP paper X7142B (discontinued)
Kraft paper:  Z1375
Colonial White card-stock: 1388
Paradise Collection Twine:  Z1702 Sunset
Metal Assortment:  Z1366 copper brad
Chocolate:  Z2111 and Saddle:  Z2171 inks.

Other Supplies:
Paper Smooches: "Good Gab" sentiment stamp set.

All supplies indicated available for purchase using the "Shop with me" CTMH link at the bottom of this post.