Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I missed a lot of PTI's Stamp-A-Faire yesterday but I did get a card ready for today's blog hop! The theme this month is color and sketch - this is the option I chose to work with:

I made a few "adjustments" such as a slight color variation (I used a different green than what is listed above) and I eliminated the scalloped band shown in the sketch. Here is my card:

I started with the new Mighty Oak die which I impressed rather than cut. This piece was then layered onto a Spring Moss mat. My strips at the bottom are patterned papers from Pacific Vineyard and Damask Designs. Another strip, with a sentiment from Boutique Borders: Sympathy finished off this simple sympathy card.

Enjoy hopping and checking out all of today's fabulous artwork!

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

It's once again time for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and our theme this month is SEQUINS! These are becoming a very hot trend in paper crafting but surprisingly, I was almost out of luck as I didn't think I had any on hand! But after a little digging, I found a container of black sequins - the perfect embellishment to dress up a simple card - in this case, a sympathy card:

Luckily, I don't have any need for a sympathy card at the present time but it's always good to have a couple in the card box. I kept it simple as I think that's what a sympathy card calls for, stamping the sentiment from Everyday Photo Finishers and a few flowers from Funky Flowers (a special limited edition stamp set). The sequins were then added as the flowers' centers. Just enough, I think. Do you agree?

Enjoy the rest of the hop - I can't wait to see what everyone did with this theme!

Heartfelt Sympathy

I had some extra stamping time this weekend so I'm playing along with my wonderful Team A over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges where our challenge this week is to create a sympathy card.

This is one of those themes that no one enjoys creating for but recipients appreciate so much. My motto when creating a sympathy card is to keep it simple and let your sincere words take center stage.

I used the Close To My Heart set Live Inspired for this card. Unfortunately, I didn't check first and I think this set is now retired :( Sorry!

I stamped the corner image onto kraft cardstock with a kraft colored ink (not CTMH) and the bird with the same ink onto cream cardstock. I die cut the opening in the front of the card and also impressed the card front using an impression plate that features music notes - if you click the picture, a larger image will pop up and you might be able to see that detail a bit better. The seam binding ribbon (from CTMH) was lightly sponged with the same kraft ink and then tied into a simple bow.  On the inside of the card, the piece with the bird is actually a complete strip of cardstock that goes from side to side. This gives a great space to write a message without writing on the kraft cardstock, which might be harder to see and read.

I hope you will take a minute to see what beautiful cards the rest of the team created for this challenge and then play along! I'll be back soon with more goodies - stay tuned!

In my prayers

This week, my card making is focusing on sympathy cards as a dear friend of my family passed away on Monday. This is one of three cards I created to send to his family members - a second card can be seen at Moments of Your Heart.

For this card, I did a partial embossing technique with the Cuttlebug (directions found here) so the background is embossed but there is a flat space for stamping. I then masked off the embossed base so I wouldn't stamp on it and added my flowers using some generational stamping. I also created a frame from 2 dies (same shape, just one is smaller than the other) and added this to my card front as well as two small hand cut butterflies, embellished with a single pearl.

Stamps from Papertrey Ink, as is the cream cardstock. Ink and blue cardstock from Close To My Heart.

Sympathy cards are obviously no one's favorite to make but I think it means a lot when you receive a card created from the heart.