Tag Archives: sympathy card

True Love Sympathy Card

Leave a reply
True Love Sympathy Card

If there is one card we all hate to make, it is a sympathy card such as this True Love Sympathy Card although at the same time we hope it expresses our feelings and sends comfort to the family. I’m pretty sure I got the idea for this card from someone else but I don’t remember where I found it and haven’t been able to find it again. I do think I changed it up at least a little bit. I didn’t originally plan to post it but I came across it in my photos and I think it is a pretty card. Just change the greeting and you can use the same card design for almost anything else.

The card base is Blushing Bride with several layers on top. Let’s start with the flowers. The flowers are from the True Love Designer Series Paper in the Spring Mini Catalog. All the papers are black and white, but if you want to, you can color in the flowers and cut them out. That’s what I did here with the Stampin’ Blends, my favorite way to color. Behind the flowers for an embellishment is a loop of the 3/8″ Fine Art Ribbon, which is a natural-colored ribbon with gold in it. It’s very pretty!

The flowers are layered on a diecut from the Ornate Layers Dies to make a frame. Underneath the frame is another Basic White layer that is edged in the new Gilded Leafing. I applied Tear & Tape on all four sides of the white cardstock and then applied the Gilded Leafing. That stuff is so fun! Then this piece is layered on Basic Black Cardstock to help the gold leafing stand out plus to go with the black and white of the True Love Flowers. And finally all this is on a layer of Basic White adhered to the Blushing Bride pink card base.

The greeting is in the Prized Peony Stamp Set. It is die cut with a circle in the Tasteful Labels Dies. It really didn’t need any layer underneath it on this card.

I think just the True Love Designer Series Paper will be retiring when the Spring Mini retires as usually most designer papers retire, but I think most of the rest of the supplies I used will be sticking around in the new catalog.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Sympathy Card With Gold Foil Cross

Leave a reply
Sympathy Card With Gold Foil Cross

Three weeks ago today I had a need for a special sympathy card so I created this Sympathy Card With Gold Foil Cross. A dear friend with whom I’d grown up since 4th grade lost her husband to the coronavirus. While I saw lots of pretty ideas for sympathy cards online and almost chose one of those, I ended up somewhat copying a card I’d made myself several years ago.

Around Easter I had posted some past cards I had made and I noticed my friend commented on a card like this one. She’s also has a strong religious faith so I thought a card with a cross would be appropriate.

I first thought of making an all-white card but in the end, I used Gold Foil for the cross and the scalloped layer. The card base is Whisper White with a layer that is embossed with the Tin Tile 3D Embossing Folder.

The cross is made with two die-cut pieces from the Flourish Dies. It is the long piece that is not a leaf or flower! I cut two but then cut each down according to the size I wanted. Just use Paper Snips to cut carefully either with a straight line or perhaps following the curve, depending on where that end is going to end up.

I had to put a lot of thought into layering the cross, whether to emboss that background piece, what shape, what color, etc. Finally, I settled on using the Layering Ovals Dies because I needed something large. I chose to use one of the scalloped ovals for the gold foil layer under the white oval. To glue the cross together and to adhere it to the oval, I used the teeniest drops of Multipurpose Liquid Glue. It IS possible to get teeny drops out of the bottle but if that doesn’t work for you, put a small puddle of glue on some scrap paper or wax paper or your Silicone Craft Sheet and dip something like a toothpick or corner of a scrap of cardstock in it to pick up the glue.

Last, but not least, I had a difficult time deciding on a flower. Whether to stamp a flower and punch it out with either a current punch or retired punch and what flower stamp to use, etc. etc. Finally, I settled on this flower, stamped in Memento Ink and colored with Stampin’ Blends. The stamp is in the Ornate Style Stamp Set. I even added a little Rhinestone Jewel to the center of the flower.

This is the card I copied from. It doesn’t hurt to look back at your older creations and see if something in your own collection inspires you! I just changed up the colors to what feel I wanted this sympathy card to have and it was easy to duplicate. Of course the personal note inside a card like this is the most important part, but I know for us cardmakers, making a card for a situation like this takes some thought about the design, colors, greeting, etc. in hopes we will get the tone just right and bring comfort to the recipient. I’m afraid we could all need to have some sympathy cards on hand or ideas in our heads for one with the virus ravaging our country in this way.

Always look through your stash of cardmaking supplies, even older ones, and you will likely find something, even the perfect something, with which you can make a card like this sympathy card. It’s a shame we have to send them to people we know, but we do and we’ve been given a special opportunity with our supplies and our talent to hopefully ease someone’s sorrow with our cardmaking and papercrafting.

Ornate Garden Gold Sympathy Card

Leave a reply
Ornate Garden Gold Sympathy Card

We saw a story on the news the other night showing card racks at the store being sold out of sympathy cards which is so sad that people need those kind of cards, but the fact is, we all need to send them throughout the year, pandemic or not. It’s the most difficult card to make so it’s probably a good idea to make several at a time and hope that you don’t need them, but if you do, you will already have one ready to mail.

My original idea was not even to make a sympathy card but I planned to do something with the Ornate Garden Suite if only to use the dies. But when I looked through the Ornate Garden Specialty Designer Series Paper, I decided to use this floral sheet with foil accents and then use Gold Foil for the die-cut somehow. And even then, I wasn’t planning on a sympathy card. I was sort of thinking of a wedding card. When I looked through some stamp sets with sentiments, I settled on the Peaceful Moments Stamp Set. Somehow I couldn’t get past the sympathy sentiment so I went with that. Here’s another example of a sympathy card, simple but elegant with the designer paper and a nice ribbon.

To match the other gold, I felt like the greeting needed to be embossed with Gold Emboss Powder and the Heat Tool. The greeting is stamped in Versamark Ink, a clear ink that can be used for embossing or for the watermarked look in your stamping. Heat embossing is one of those things that is like magic when a new stamper sees it done for the first time. You stamp with Versamark Ink, sprinkle/dump on the embossing powder, shake off the excess, then heat with the Heat Tool and watch the magic happen! The powder melts and you watch it happen right in front of your eyes as the Heat Tool moves over it.

The very fancy die is one in the Ornate Layers Dies. Be sure to run it through your die-cutting machine three times to get the best cut. After cutting that, I measure the solid inside so I would know what size to cut my Whisper White Cardstock for the greeting.

If you would like to get your hands on brand-new product coming in the next Stampin’ Up! Catalog June 3, you can purchase any or all of the products in the Ornate Garden Suite. And if you want even more choices early, you can sign up to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and choose some of the preorder products to be in your Starter Kit or order them separately after you sign up!

I certainly hope you do not need to send a sympathy card any time soon, but they are an important part of what we do. When you make a card for someone, especially a sympathy card, you are putting your heart and soul into it with your creativity and that will mean something to the recipient. You might even consider making some cards that could be for different occasions but don’t put greetings on them yet. Then if you need one to be for sympathy, you will have a nice card ready to go when you add a greeting.