Tuesday, March 23, 2010

My Sympathies

As promised, I've returned today with my sympathy card, though I have to admit, I'm not happy with it. I hesitated to even share it with you all, but I did say that I would, and besides, sometimes it's good to see others mistakes so we don't have to make the same ones ourselves.

The bottom half of the card isn't too bad, but the ribbon is just awful, in my opinion. I found this beautiful navy velvet ribbon and I thought it'd lend the card a formal elegance. I wanted to tie it in a bow, but the ribbon was so thick that it stuck way off the page and just looked heavy and wrong. Even just knotted as it is now doesn't really improve anything.


Unfortunately, I don't have any other ribbon that matches and I've already spent my meager crafting budget for this week (thanks to a one-day sale at Michael's on Sunday) so I don't know if I can do anything about it. The card has to be done by Thursday so that my writers group can all sign it (the friend who lost his daughter is a member) so that doesn't leave me much time. I might just scrap the whole thing and try to come up with something else.

I rolled up the edges of the petals with a pen to give it some dimention. I do like that effect. Maybe I can salvage the flower if I remake the card.

I also don't like how the sentiment almost blends in with the pattern on the paper.


You'll notice I darkened up the center of the flower quite a bit to try to get it to match the ribbon. I think I liked it the first way better though. I don't have any real deep blue copics, so I had to go with something in the blue violet family.

flower petals: B21 (Baby Blue), B06 (Peacock Blue), and BV13 (Blue Hydrangea)
center: Y11 (Pale Yellow), Y15 (Cadmium Yellow)
stem: G24 (Willow), YG03 (Yellowish Green), and G05 (Emerald Green)

I finished this up late last night, then spent this afternoon making another card to send from just myself. I'm fairly pleased with how this one turned out, though at one point I nearly threw the while thing in the trash! I wrestled with that stinkin' bow for like 20 minutes. Ever have one of those days? Anyway, the bow finally got tied decently and the card got finished.


I first picked out my papers -- I chose this yellow print from Cosmo Cricket, gray cardstock for my focal piece and yellow for the card base. I arranged the hydrangea stamp and the sentiment how I wanted them on the gray, then picked them up together with a large acrylic block and stamped them with Versamark ink. Then I sprinkled the whole thing with white embossing powder and embossed it using my heat tool. I wrestled with the silly ribbon until I was satisfied, and popped it off the card using 3D dimentionals.


I really like the effect from the white embossing powder. You could use that in so many different ways. It took a little bit for me to get the hang of -- at first I couldn't tell which part was melted and which was still powder, but I caught on. As with anything, you get better with a little practice.

Well, that's it for me tonight. If any of you out there have had to make a sympathy card, I'd love it if you could post a link in the comments section. I'm interested in seeing what other people have done with a card that requires such sensitivity.

Now go spend some time with your loved ones!

14 comments:

  1. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend's daughter. That's so sad.

    I'd like to figure out how embossing powder works. I love what you did on the card with embossing powder.

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  2. B, you just have to stamp using a slow-drying ink, like versamark, which is also used for watermarking. It's a clear, sticky ink that's perfect for embossing. Sprinkle embossing powder over the stamped area and flick the cardstock on the back once or twice to shake off any loose powder. Then heat set it until it melts. They sell heat guns for that purpose, but back in the day I used to hold it up close to my small portable space heater. I've heard that others hold it over their toaster. You just want to be really careful when doing something like that so that you don't start a fire. Whatever you do, don't use a blowdryer. It's too strong, and will blow the powder everywhere (so I've heard).

    If you want to see a video, let me know and I'll send you a link to one of Kristina Werner's embossing videos. It will only take me a few moments to find one so it's no trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's a good one for embossing backgrounds:
    http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=2836

    Here's one with embossing to get interesting details:
    http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=2954

    And here's another great one:
    http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=2097

    Just scroll down a little and click on the video screen to play.

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  4. These are all so beautiful. Gorgeous cards. xo

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  5. I always think it is the sentiment and the heartfelt way someone gives a card...these cards are actually very good. I am sure the person you are giving this to will feel the work and detail that went into the card and appreciate all the more. Everyone started out somewhere...I can remember the first scrapbook page I ever did. I still have it in the original state it was when I created it...I hae never changed it...looking back remminds me where I was and where I am now. I still say these are outstanding...feel proud. :)

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  6. Both of these cards are beautiful! I actually kind of like how the sentiment blends in a little bit with the background on that first card. Really, both of these cards are great the way they are! ~Jacqueline @ Scraps of Life

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  7. I think that both of these are wonderful sympathy cards........ I find them difficult to do anyways but you did a great job.

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  8. Both of these are are stunning.

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  9. Well, thank you, ladies. I really appreciate your comments. Maybe I'll just switch up the ribbon then and see how that looks before I decide whether or not to make another.

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  10. both cards are just beautiful.

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  11. I love both of your beautiful cards! Gorgeous!

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  12. I loved the white embossed on the gray- beautiful

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  13. Very nice sympathy card. These are always so hard to make.

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Thank you so much for taking a few moments to brighten my day!

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