Skip to main content

Sympathy Cards

I never thought I would need to create a bank of sympathy cards, but in these unprecedented times, it seems as though I am needing them more now than ever before.  
I was inspired by Cathy Zielske's video on making brayered backgrounds using Distress Oxide inks on a gel plate.  I liked the appearance of her card panels when she sprinkled water droplets onto her gel plate.  To make things quick and easy, I used the same ink colors shown in her video and the same water droplet technique.  



I love all the different panels I created from my gel plate pulls.  There were a couple of background panels that didn't capture the water droplets.  These panels needed a little extra TLC in order to be turned into beautiful card backgrounds.  I ran the panels through a floral embossing folder.  Then, I sanded down the raised portions to allow the white of the cardstock to show through. The transformation of the panels was amazing!



I mass-produced sympathy sentiments using two different stamp sets.  I embossed these sentiments in gold and copper embossing powder since these colors coordinated nicely with the pink, orange, and yellow inks of the background panels. I die cut several wildflowers out of gold and copper foil cardstock.  


On each card, I glued one wildflower and a sentiment to the front.  I wrapped a piece of brown and white twine around the card and tied it in a bow near the top of the card.


The gel plate allowed me to create 8 unique backgrounds out of 2 pieces of paper in a relatively short amount of time.  This was a quick way to create several simple, yet beautiful sympathy cards. 



Sympathy Cards
Supplies:
  • Cathy Makes a Card with a Brayer, Oxides & Die Cuts (and some mistakes along the way!) https://youtu.be/5HyVBTTy6no
  • Accent Opaque White Cardstock 100lb
  • Recollections Gold and Copper Foil Cardstock
  • Gel Plate
  • Rubber Brayer
  • Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks - Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Twisted Citron
  • Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer
  • Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing Folders by Sizzix
  • Sand Paper
  • Hero Arts Prayers Stamp and Die Set
  • My Sentiments Exactly! Silhouette Peacocks Sympathy
  • Versa Mark Ink
  • Copper and Gold Embossing Powder
  • Tim Holtz Thinlits Wildflower Stems #2
  • Sew Easy Fancy Floss Neutral Baker's Twine - Cream Soda


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ready Player One

Today's card is a fun virtual reality birthday card created in Cricut Design Space and features a vibrant title backed by an alcohol inked panel. A couple of years ago, my son and I read the book Ready Player One,  a science fiction book about humanity's use of virtual reality to escape the real world. Fast forward a few years and now he wants his own virtual reality headset for his birthday.  I created this card for him to celebrate our love for this book and to serve as a precursor of the birthday gift that was to come. While creating this card, I wore the movie T-Shirt I bought last year so I could mimic the movie title font and colors.  I needed an easy way to make the title out of rainbow colors so I placed a few colors of alcohol ink on a felt pad and swiped it across Yupo Paper.  I downloaded and installed the font used for the movie title and cut the title out of a black A2 card panel using Cricut Design Space.  I backed the black card panel with th...

Hero Arts Citrus Cards

Today I had fun playing with the Hero Arts Fresh Citrus Bold Prints background stamp and the Hero Arts Zest Wishes Stamp Set to create these fun and fresh set of cards. I started by creating the backgrounds.  I used white cardstock and stamped it with the background stamp using VersaMark Ink.  I heat embossed the panels with white embossing powder.  Then, I used a foam blending tool and blended Scattered Straw, Squeezed Lemonade, and Twisted Citron Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks to ink the card panels.  For some panels, I used only one ink and other panels I used a combination of all the inks.  I cut the inked backgrounds down to 4" x 5.25" and matte each panel on a black card base.   For one card, I used the excess strips from when I cut down the inked panels, and adhered these strips to a black card panel, leaving a little of the black background showing in between each of the strips. I stamped all the citrus fruits, leaves, flowers, and branches on w...

Tim Holtz Spencer Halloween Card

I can't get enough of Tim Holtz's Colorize Spencer die set.  The detail and dimension of this image is absolutely amazing.  Today's card features Spencer, 3-D embossing folders, and a few other Tim Holtz Halloween dies sets. The main card panel was made by embossing a piece of silver foil cardstock using the Sizzix 3-D Textured Impressions Pinwheel embossing folder.  I watered down a few drops of black acrylic paint and used a paint brush to brush the paint onto the embossed panel.  I let the paint dry for about a minute and then took a paper towel to rub off the excess paint.  I adhered this panel to a black card base. The smaller card panel was made by embossing a piece of black cardstock with the Tim Holtz Sizzix 3-D Texture Fades Mini Cobblestone embossing folder.  I added a few drops of Sterling Distress Foundry Wax to a craft mat and used my finger to apply the Foundry Wax to the embossed panel.  I added a black matte behind this emboss...