Sharing in Your Sorrow

It continues to be a very sad week for me as I think about and pray for my dear friends who suddenly lost their 36 year old son. One feels so helpless in the face of such overwhelming grief. All we can do is make sure their basic needs are met, help with baking and such for the service and out of town guests and just be available to cry with them. As a papercrafter, I automatically choose to express my feelings of sadness and support with a card. I wanted this one to be very special and I knew I could achieve that with the Awesomely Artistic stamp set. It is so suited to a sympathy card and I chose to sponge on the center panel by masking the rest of the card front.

• I used a palette of Bermuda Bay, Elegant Eggplant and Silver, with a little Pool Party thrown in to soften the others a bit. I love that combination and it reminds me a bit of the iridescence of dragonfly wings.
• I masked off the sides of the card with paper and sticky notes to hold them down. I then applied the sponged colours as you see them here. The paper gives you a straight edge, almost like you had applied a strip of designer paper.
• I stamped the images from Awesomely Artistic, using Bermuda Bay and Elegant Eggplant Ink. I dried it with the lowest speed of the Heat Tool, then went over it with the Embossing Buddy to make sure it was really dry and static free. I then used the spatter stamp fro the same set and stamped it inside and a bit outside of the center panel with Versamark Ink. I added Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder and heat set it with the Heat Tool, on high this time.
• I stamped the sentiment from Thoughts and Prayers in Bermuda Bay and did a bit more sponging and stamping. The shape is created using the Lots of Labels Framelits.
• The dragonfly is stamped on vellum with Versamark and embossed using Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder again.

Here's the inside:

I entered this card in the Pals Paper Arts Challenge this week.

Tuesday again, and time for new Weekly Deals:

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Awesomely Artistic Wood-Mount Stamp Set [138694]	Awesomely Artistic Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139950]	Thoughts & Prayers Clear-mount Stamp Set [127805]	Thoughts & Prayers Wood-mount Stamp Set [128751]	Vellum 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101856]
Elegant Eggplant 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105126]	Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131197]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad [126969]
Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171]	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982]	Stamping Sponges [101610]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder [109131]
Heat Tool [129053]	Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies [138281]	Big Shot [113439]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

With Sympathy in a Vertical Easel Card

One of my customers lost her brother this past week, and I wanted to create a beautiful sympathy card to let her know that I cared.  I found a vertical easel card created by Jackie Bowman of Kreate With Me 2, and I knew right away that I wanted to try that fancy fold for my sympathy card.  So this sample today is a CASE of her original design.

• I've kept some of her elements, like the En Francais script on the lower panel and the embossed back panel, but I've changed the stamps and colours as well as the embossing folder I used.
• The flourish in Smoky Slate and the flowers in Crisp Cantaloupe and Perfect Plum are from the stamp set, Everything Eleanor. and if you've read my blog much, you'll know that it is a favourite of mine!
• The sentiment is from Thoughts and Prayers and on the inside is another verse from that set.  It is stamped in Perfect Plum as well.

• All the panels were sponged in Soft Suede to age them and give them that vintage look without going to all the trouble of distressing the edges.  It gives you a kind of old but well-preserved look!
• The ribbon is 3/8" Taffeta in Soft Suede and it adds a little more Soft Suede to the design.  It's an unusual colour scheme:  Very Vanilla, Crisp Cantaloupe, Perfect Plum, Soft Suede and Smoky Slate, but it works.  It's another one I got from Pinterest so this is the week of Pinterest palettes for sure!

• Here you can see the Z Fold and how the vertical easel card works.  I cut my card base from Very Vanilla the long way 4 1/4" x 11".  I scored it on the 11" side at 5 1/2" and 8 1/4" and folded up on the first score line and down on the second score line, to form the vertical easel.
• The little Perfect Plum banner, die cut with the Hearts A Flutter Framelit, keeps the card front in place.  The Very Vintage  Designer Button, with it's tiny bow of linen thread, adds weight that helps the banner hug onto the front panel and keep the card from collapsing.

Have you tried one of these upright easel folds?  What other fancy folds have you tried?  Leave me a comment, and it will be kind of like a poll for the favourite fancy fold card!  I'll let you know the results next week, after people have had time to consider and comment!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

131987	124164	128751	127805	128562	127790
101650	115318	101889	131298	126978	131176
131179	126963	130917	118402	130159	129327
104199	119247