With Deepest Sympathy

Sympathy cards are always difficult for me, usually I only make them as I need, but that always puts me under pressure to get them done in a timely manner, so I thought I should make a couple to keep in my stash.

These poppies from Aurora Wings are really getting a work-out this month, this is the third time I've used them!

I coloured them in turquoise again, since that worked so beautifully last time I did it and paired them with a computer generated sentiment and papers from My Minds Eye in shades of turquoise. It's hard to tell on the picture but I fussy cut a second poppy image and popped them up on some foam pads to give a little dimension to the image. Otherwise, I kept it fairly simple and embellished with just a few clear gems.

I'm submitting this for:

- Crafting from the Heart #70 - Anything Goes
- Make My Monday Challenge - Flowers
- Digi Designs Challenge Blog - Monochromatic

With Sympathy Peacock

I don't usually use 'bold' colours on sympathy cards, preferring softer or more neutral colours, but I decided to give it a try with an all teal card and see what happened. I rather like the result, although I'm not sure I'd do a lot of sympathy cards like this!

I cut a card base from card from papermill directed and used paper from jillibean soup's neopolitan bean bisque paper pack. The peacock stamp is from Flonz and the sentiment from craftwork cards. I added white pearls on the peacocks tail feather eyes for some added interest, without over loading the card.

I'm submitting this to:
- Feeling Sketchy #43 - Sketch
- Craft Your Passion #146 - Totally Teal
- Craft Room Challenge - Monochrome
- Creative Creations Challenge - Keep It Simple

With Sympathy

The theme for CAS-ual Fridays #86 this week is 'Long and Short' (Create a CAS card that has one long side and one short side. 3 x 6, 4 x 8, etc. No standard A2's for this week.)

This card base is 3.5x8. I embossed slightly more than half the card with my swiss dots folder, then masked it off and stamped in a variety of blues, with stamps from skipping stones designs. I tied some button twine around the middle and added the sentiment from stampin' up and a few gems.

I'm also submitting this to:
- Twisted Tuesday Challenges #41 - Tic, Tac, Toe, Twist: Use a crafty machine (Twine, Sympathy, Colour Blue + Used Cuttlebug to emboss)
- A Gem of A Challenge #63 - Emboss It

CAS Sympathy

This weeks "Less is More" Challenge #101 is black and white + a touch of another colour. This is totally one of my favourite colour challenges! I just love black and white and a splash of colour!

I used a Hero Arts stamp and a sentiment from Stampin' Up, layered on black and added a white pearl to the middle of the flower. Then for my touch of colour, I used dark blue shimmer textured card from papermania and punched a single butterfly.

I'm also submitting this for Allsorts Challenge #188 - CAS.

Watercolour Sympathy

I've seen a few cards recently that use watercolouring and okay, it's not my strongest suit - I was that kid in school who got more paint on me and the floor than the paper (and I can attest that as of today, I still am! lol!) - but it's such a lovely effect I had to give it a go...

I went with soft blues and greens for my paint colours to give the effect of water, grass and sky (I hope!) and used a kraft card base with some thick textured paper to paint on - mostly because it was the only white paper I had to hand other than printer paper and I wasn't convinced that would hold the watercolours very well - but I think it actually added nicely too the effect.

The floral stamps are from skipping stones with a sentiment from Stampin' up, both inked in brown pigment ink from paper mania. I used some button twine from sew sweet and a button to embellish.

I'm submitting this to:
- The Crafty Pad - Twine
- The Pink Elephant #163 - Sympathy/Thinking of You
- Desert Islands Crafts Challenge #36 - Blue, Green, Something Wet (Water), No patterned paper
- LEJ Designs Challenge #18 - Anything Goes

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC52

CAS-ual Fridays challenge #52 this week is to make a CAS card with a bird.

I went long for this card with a 3.5x8 inch base card. The stamp is an old one - that I think is from Laura Ashley! - and I stamped it with black papermania ink.

I wanted to keep the colours very soft, so I used pencils to colour, only colouring the peacock and the flowers, to keep it all very simple.

I added the sentiment from Stampin' up and three small blue gems at the top - I was going to have black gems, but I thought the blue gems would just draw it in with the colouring of the peacocks body.

"Less is More" Week 65: Sketch

A very simple card for "Less is More" this week, following their sketch (below) I masked my card and sponged the center panel in a medium blue ink. I then stamped my hero arts stamp off-center, using a darker blue ink. And then re-inked only the center of the stamp to give the slight effect that its fading from darker to lighter towards the edges... it didn't work *perfectly* but I was pretty pleased with it. I then stamped the stampin' up sentiment in the same dark blue ink and added a dark blue gem to the middle of the stamped flower.

This is the sketch I used.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC36

*clings to craft stash* an unfortunate disagreement with the floor (and magazine rack) left me in a fair amount of pain this week so crafting has been out of the question because there was no way I could handle sitting at my desk for any period of time.

I probably shouldn't today, since I'm still a bit sore and my back doesn't like me right now after some of the positions I had to contort myself into to avoid further hurting my leg/hip, however having piled some extra cushions on my chair for something resembling comfort, I'm determined to do at least a couple of cards today!

The first one I've done is for this weeks CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

CFC36: Create a Clean And Simple Project that is only black and white.
*no other colors will be allowed-not even a speck

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. The Butterfly is from a small set I got ages ago at a £1 store. The card is from the Paper company. The gems are Mark Richards and the ribbon is from my stash.

I wouldn't usually use black/white for a sympathy card, I prefer to use soft pastel colours, but I rather like the effect and it's very simple, just as I like a sympathy card to be.

Die Cut Dreams Challenge #106 - Sympathy

Die Cut Dreams had a challenge this time for Sympathy Cards - not a card anyone enjoys having to use, but we all need them sometimes and it makes sense to keep a few handy.

I modelled this on one I did a few weeks ago (here) using the same basic layout and design and the same papers (K & Company), embossed the upper part with swiss dots, but instead of using petaloo flowers I used the lovely image of a calla lily from birds cards coloured with promarkers. I used the same stampin' up sentiment stamp and some ribbon from my stash and added a small bow.

I like this design for sympathy cards - it's very simplistic just like I like a sympathy card to be. I never see the sense in being 'showy' or over the top with a sympathy card - in fact I may make a few more like it in different colours at some point.