Embossed Sympathy

Thanks for looking,
Kim

Pet Sympathy

I wanted to make a pet sympathy card for my stepmom, who recently had to put down her dog.  Beila, was a wonderful dog, who was very special to my dad, who passed away a few years ago.  The only dog stamp I have is much too cute for a sympathy card, so I decided to use a photo of Joyce and Beila.  In Photoshop Elements, I changed the photo to sepia and removed the background using the magic extractor.  I then printed up a quote that I found on the Internet.  It says,

"A dog is more than a pet

They enrich our lives,

and touch our hearts forever."

I'm sending the card along with the Willow Tree Angel of Friendship.

 Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Accessories - foam tape

Joyce

Two Sympathy Cards

I needed two sympathy cards last week. Both were for grandfathers that passed away, so I wanted to make the cards masculine looking.

The first one didn't thrill me at first, but it has grown on me a bit more. I used Silke's card as an inspiration. I wanted to use some of my designer paper, but once I made my pick, I realized that the colours wouldn't look good for colouring the trees. I think I could have "upped" the quality of this card by embossing the trees, but I didn't want to use black. I'm also a little frustrated with my paper piercing. I used the Mat Pack so the holes are evenly spaced, but I find that they are not as straight as I would like them. I guess I need to focus on this the next time I use it.


For the second one, I used Kim Scotti's card for inspiration. I really like how this one turned out. I stamped off some of the leaves so that there is a variation in the colour of them.


Thanks for looking,
Kim

First Card
SU Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - To the Nines Specialty Textured C/S
SU Ink - Chocolate Chip
SU Stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Warmest Regards
Accessories - Chocolate Chip brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, Mat Pack, Crafters' Tool Kit

Second Card
SU Card Stock - Basic Black, Whisper White, Ruby Red
SU Designer Paper - Old Olive
Ink - SU Old Olive, SU Ruby Red, Versa Fine Black Onyx
Stamps - SU Branch Out, Papertry Ink - Mixed Messages
Accessories - SU Black Brads, Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls Embossing Folder, Corner Rounder Punch

First SSS Challenge

I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend who's father passed away last week. While doing my morning blog reading this morning, I came across Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge on her blog, The Sweetest Thing. I decided to play along.

I think this is only the third challenge I have ever tried and the first sketch challenge. I always find it a little challenging to come up with the dimensions of the the sketches. As it turns out, what I thought I was doing with my measurements ended up to be wrong. I wanted my layers to be the same as Karen's card, but I figured the card base was 1/4" from the Soft Sky layer which was 1/4" from the DSP layers. They must be 1/8". Oh well, I like how my card turned out. My measurements are at the end of this post.

I'm guessing that it is okay that I used three brads on each side instead of two because Karen did on her card. I hope that it is okay that my focal image is smaller than in the sketch. Can you tell that I'm new at this? Can you tell that I am a rule follower?

I inked my image with Certainly Celery ink and then used my Old Olive marker to colour in the leaves. I "huffed" the stamp before stamping. This technique is called "Dirty Stamping", but I had a hard time finding any information about it. I learned about it from Dawn's card.

I used my Crop-A-Dile for the hole for my Stay Put Bow, which I think is a great way to make a knot exactly where you want it. I also use a lighter on the end of my ribbon to keep it from fraying. I used my Mat Pack to create the holes for my brads so they would be lined up and evenly spaced.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Certainly Celery; Baja Breeze Textured; Old Olive, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - Green Tea from Fall-Winter 2008
SU Ink - Certainly Celery; Old Olive, VersaMark
Stamps - "All I Have Seen" - from SU (Retired); Mixed Messages from Papertrey Ink
Accessories - SU Marker - Old Olive; Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon; Certainly Celery Brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts; Distressing Tool; Mat Pack, Crafter's Tool Kit; Crop-A-Dile

Measurements
Certainly Celery Base - 5 1/2" by 4 1/4
Baja Breeze layer - 4 3/4 " by 3 1/2
DSP Rectangles - 1 5/8" by 2 1/4
Old Olive - 1 3/4" by 2"