SHARING YOUR SORROW

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm back quickly because unfortunately I have a sympathy card to share. Our family friend of 30 years, our softball coach - when David and I first met and "Uncle" Tommy to the kids, passed away rather unexpectedly this week. It's taken me a few days to get over the shock and put "ink" to "paper". Tommy was very connected to the Irish community in D.C. and so I wanted to keep the card in the green family in his honor. So out came the Brusho Crystals again!

I spritzed normal white cardstock with water and then sprinkled the paper with Yellow, Leaf Green and Emerald Green Brusho Crystals. I chased them around the paper with my heat gun until it was dried. (Not quite sure where the random pink spots came from?) So now what? It was a pretty background, but you know I can't leave well enough alone, and I had no idea in what direction this card was going.

I cut out the Die-Namics Daisy Bunch (love this die) from a lime green and yellow cardstock, saving the negative pieces of the die. One of the negatives was temporarily taped to the brusho surface after applying lots of anti-static dust. I used a dauber with Versamark to pounce down through the negative die. I lifted up the "stencil" and applied Black Detail embossing powder, which was then heated.

I covered that entire piece with Versamark and heat embossed with Clear Detail, then applied a little Magic Speckle on top of that, which gave it a marbled look. (Wish I had taken my camera upstairs with me!) It looked too dark, so I decided to put the die back over the top of the black "image" and cut it from the brusho piece. I used it in the inside of the card instead:

So then I took the yellow die cut piece and placed it back in the space where the black version had been. It was taped down from the back. I cut all the flowers off the green version and glued it on top of the yellow version. Using a Sakura Glue Pen I added Spirited Green Glitter to the stems and leaves and then Sunny Daze Glitter to the petals and buds.

I used Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles Large to cut out the center piece. The Grand Scalloped Circles was used to cut the black base card (leaving a fold uncut at the top of the circle). I die cut the same size Grand circle for the outside frame, from the brusho panel and glued that to the black base. I turned the front circle piece slightly so that the scallops had the black showing behind. It was then attached with Dimensional Foam.

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The sentiment from Sympathy Set 579 was stamped in Versamark onto yellow cardstock and then heat embossed with Pine (one of the awesome Tuscan colors, which come in various colors and are detailed powders so are great for sentiments, when you don't want to use black). I fussy cut the sentiment and sponged it with a little Memento Pear Tart ink before attaching it to the card with dimensionals and tape.

I liked the inlay look. It gives dimension to the card without adding the bulk.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Creatalicious Challenges #72: No square or rectangle cards

Emerald Faeries Challenge #65: Yellow and Green

Scrapy Land Challenge #13: Use brand of die that Scrapy Land Sells

Here's a photo of Tommy giving me flowers as I arrived at the church before our wedding in Scotland. I think I remember he was crying more than I was!

I hope Wava, Tommy's wife will like the card. We're all going to miss this really special man. 

Hugs,

Shona

TULIP SYMPATHY

Welcome to Spring! Does that mean we're done with snow? I sure hope so.  I see some little stems poking through the ground - so looks like something is happening out there, although we do still have snow out on our back patio. Crazy right? What a winter it has been.

Anyway, a couple of weeks back I needed a few birthday cards, and unfortunately a sympathy card, so with Spring on my mind I went upstairs and quickly stamped out a few clumps of tulips from stamp set 491: Tulips from Sparkle N Sprinkle. I brought the images, a few Copic markers and a pair of scissors back down to the house and sat in front of a nice warm fire and colored and cut away!

Next day, I had five of the tulip clumps to work with and decided to start with the Sympathy card. I added some Sunny Daze glitter to the tulips with a Sakura Glue pen. I chose my sentiment from Sympathy Set 579 and stamped it in Versamark on cream cardstock and heat embossed with Black Detail. It was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Fancy Tag and before removing the die, I sponged with Memento Dandelion ink.

I liked the ornate look of the tag, so sifted through my die cut drawers to find an appropriate background for my tulips. Spellbinders Shapeabilities Ornate Squares was my die of choice! 

I cut and embossed cream card again and sponged with the Dandelion ink before removing that die also. The base was cut off the square so that I could put the tag over the top and make it look like it was a continuation of the background. 

I added the die cut to black cardstock and that was layered to a cream base. The tulips were attached with tape at the bottom and dimensionals under the flowers and then I popped up the tag over the bottom of the stems with dimensionals too. 

I made this card for my sister-in-law back home, who has just lost her father.  I think in my rush to get it in the mail, I forgot to write anything inside!! Well, she'll know it's from me (from the return address) and I guess it's the thought that counts, right? Still, I can't believe I did that, hopefully my memory is so bad that I did write something - I just don't remember writing anything!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Hobbybook Designer Challenge - Time for Spring 
Inky Impressions -Spring

... and I'll be back soon with a birthday version of my tulips! 

Till then,

Hugs,

Shona

Butterfly Sympathy

I've been spending time the last couple of days playing around with a Technique which one of my fellow designers, at Sparkle N Sprinkle, April Williams, had shared last week.  She called it Acetate Resist.  I made a few pieces, using the technique, and decided that this butterfly piece would work well for a sympathy card.

I followed the tutorial and then also stamped the butterfly image in the center, on top of one that was already there, in black Staz-On.  The butterfly image can be found on Set 398 - Brocade Backgrounds. I happened to have the butterfly ribbon in my stash, and I thought it worked in nicely.  The saying is from Sympathy Set 382, which I cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels Nine.

This is how it turned out:

Thanks for stopping by today.  Remember to visit next week (Feb. 9th and 10th) to get in the game with the next Sparkle N Sprinkle Blog Hop.  We're going to be having a Spring Fling!