With Deepest Sympathy

 

They say the best way to get inspiration for cardmaking, is to do a bit of a tidy up! Well, that is pretty much true!  I did have a bit of a tidy up, and whilst sorting through my cardstock and re-organising the way it is stored, it led to a pile of snippets that also needed organising.

I now store my A4 cardstock in clear folders near my workdesk - they used to be stored all in one big basket, which made it difficult to sort through when looking for something specific.

 

AND my snippets are in an even bigger container now, and I will be making a concerted effort to use them all up!

 

I also sorted through some stamps, but that is a story for another post, later!

 

Whilst sorting through my stuff, I came across some beautiful cream pearl ribbed cardstock, which I thought would be perfect for either a Wedding Card or a Sympathy Card.  Now I know those two occasions are completely opposite each other, but as chance would have it ... I needed a sympathy card :( An old school friend lost her husband after a long illness.

So I set about making this card .... I wanted it to be simple, elegant and a little sophisticated as that would suit my friend Sharlene.

 

I turned to my go to dies and cut out some more shapes in gold and white using the Spellbinders, Be Bold Blooms die set.

 

The sentiment was designed by me and printed on the laser printer, then foiled in gold and diecut with Stitched Circle dies, and attached to cardfront with foam tape.

 

 

It was almost therapeutic arranging the floral elements in a pleasing manner, then they were attached directly to the cardfront using a combination of glue & foam tape to add dimension, finishing with a touch of 'bling'.

 

Who would have thought that using only two colours could be so effective!  I am quite pleased with how the card turned out .... now the hard part is here.... figuring out what to say on the inside. 

 

 

Linking with the following challenges:

Snippets Playground Challenge #502

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Anything Goes

The Flower Challenge #100 - Add Circles

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Thanks so Much

Having another play with my new Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms dies ..... 

 

I am really enjoying playing with these dies and die cuts.

 

 

 

I started with rummaging through my offcuts/snippets ..... and made a selection of colours that I thought might work well.  I die-cut the flowers and leaves multiple times in multiple colours and then set about making up various combinations of flowers, stems and leaves.

The background is left over from a previous card - I think that might be the last of the gorgeous dark blue. I used the Waffle Flower A6 Layers die to cut the cardfront to the perfect size.  

Playing with the layout is lots of fun. 

 

A final touch of bling added randomly around the card ...... if you call playing with the positioning for a good 5 minutes before deciding on final layout random LOL

 

I am really pleased with the way this card turned out .... especially considering it is made entirely with snippets/offcuts (except the white 300gsm cardbase).
 

Linking this card with the following challenges:

Snippets Playground Challenge $493

My Time to Craft - #547 - Thank You 

The Flower Challenge #97 - Thanks

Creative Knockouts #534 - Thankful

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Thinking of you

Here is another card using my new set of flower dies ......

 

 

Background was handmade using the 'ink splatter/splotch' technique.

 

'Thinking of you' sentiment cut twice and layered together for dimension.

 

The coneflower layers were diecut from spare offcuts (snippets) of white cardstock (I always knew those smaller pieces would come in handy), then ink blended using Altenew inks.

 

My selection of colours may have been influenced by the photo in the Beautiful Blossoms Mood board!

 

A very simple layout, which for me anyway, makes the flower shine :) 

 

Linking with the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS:  #258 - Flower

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #17 - Anything goes 

Cut it Up Challenge #304 send me flowers

Snippets Playground Challenge #480 

The Flower Challenge #91 - Colour your flower

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Thinking of you

Here is the last of my sympathy cards made for family members of my friend Gavin  (see my previous two posts).

 

This card is for Jenny, Gavin's partner.

 

Background was made by 'spattering' several different inks, then mounted onto cardbase.  Flowers & leaves were stamped in black & clear embossed and watercoloured.  Extra layers of die cuts were added for dimension.

 

Sentiment was heat embossed in gold on a strip of vellum.

Flowers were arranged and added to cardfront in layers.

 

I am loving playing with my Altenew stamps #Altenew

 

Linking With the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge #84 - use a die

Happy Little Stampers - September - anything goes with dies

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Anything goes with flowers

ITEMS USED

Altenew Stamps & Dies - Build-a-flower Anemone Coronaria, inks, Clear Embossing

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Thinking of You ......

Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by and reading my latest post!

I have needed a few Sympathy cards of late ...... such a sad time for some of my friends and their families.  Over the next day or so, I will be sharing some of the sympathy cards I have made.

 

One of my friends I have known since about 1975, Gavin, recently passed away.  It was a bit of a shock, as he was only 66, but he had been experiencing some health issues of late.  

 

This card will be for his ex-wife, Deb.  Even though they were no longer married, they remained on good terms.

 

For me, the loss of an old friend hurts, but knowing he is no longer in pain is a source of comfort.

 

Altenew Build-a-flower Coneflower images were stamped in layers, with the outline being stamped with Versafine and heat embossed with clear, then die cut with matching dies.  Using my Couture Creations Stamping Platform really helped with aligning the images.

 

Background was made by masking off the outer edge of cardfront and using a blending brush.  Water droplets were splattered to create some texture.  

Stampin Up 'Thinking of You' sentiment stamped directly onto cardfront with Versafine Onyx Black.

Cardfront was then trimmed and mounted onto cardbase using 3D foam tape.

Flowers were attached to cardfront with 3D foam squares. 

 

I am loving using these #Altenew stamps & dies

 

Linking With the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge #84 Use a Die

Creative Knockouts #502 anything goes

Cardz4Galz #207  Leaves

Tic Tac Toe #225  Diagonal top left to bottom right

ITEMS USED

Altenew Build-a-flower Coneflower Stamps & Dies, Inks, VersaFine Onyx Black, Clear Emboss Power, Stampin Up 'Thinking of You' stamp, Couture Creations Stamping Platform

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Mum

It will be Mother's Day on the 2nd Sunday in May for us here in Australia, and whilst it has been many years since Mr Fixit and myself lost our Mums, my Mum has been on my mind of late..... so I made a card for her 💗

 

I had another play with the Altenew BAF Lavender stamp & die set.  When I first used this set, I found it a little difficult to line up the stem exactly if you wanted to die cut the whole flower .... so I found a work around!    I die-cut first!   LOL

 

I cut out as many flowers as I needed.  I kept one of the 'background' holes and placed it in my Couture Creations Stamping Platform, then placed the die-cut in the hole.  Using the stamping platform, I was then able to align the stamps exactly where needed.   This was really useful for doing a batch of flowers at the same time.  The process is:  stamp the first layer, remove die-cut, then place a new die-cut in the hole, re-ink & stamp again.  Then when ready for second layer, line up second layer & repeat the process. 
 

Once I had finished stamping a batch of flowers, I could then get down to the layout of the card.  I wanted it fairly simple ....... so an ink spattered background using the same colours from the flowers seemed just right.

 

 

The flowers were arranged and attached at slightly different layers using foam dots.  'MUM' was die-cut in white cardstock and ink blended with a brush using the darker purple ink and the 'shadow' was die-cut out of vellum.

A tiny splattering of 'Kindy Glitz'/Stickles' was the final touch!

I think that our Mums would have loved a card like this.

 

--oo0oo--

 

Linking With the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #3

The Flower Challenge #78 Stencils or Dies

Happy Little Stampers AG with Dies

Cardz 4 Galz #194 Use Vellum

 

 

 

ITEMS USED

Stamps/Dies:  Altenew BAF Lavender, MUM (unbranded)

Inks:  Colorbox Pigment Inks, Ranger Distress Inks

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Couture Creations Stamping Platform

Embellishments:  Kindy Glitz/Stickles

Cardstock/papers:  250gsm white, Vellum

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

With Sympathy .....

Well, life really sucks some times :(

The friend that lost her husband in January, has now lost her Mum.

So I made three cards - one each for Sue & Roger, who lost their Mum and one for Ray, who lost his sister :(

Even though it was such a sad reason to make cards, it was very nice to be creative again.  I have wanted to do something with the beautiful graphics from Creative Market for quite some time, and I always love using the Spellbinders Nestabilities dies especially the squares - so they just came together very easily.

These images are from the  Pastel Flowers collection.  Cardstock is from Blue Edge Crafts.

Sentiments die cut & layered, then heat embossed.

Linking with:
As you Like it Challenge:  Fave dies/stencils
Less is More:  take 3 (3 layers)
The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes (I missed the deadline, but will include it anyway)

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.