Category Archives: Sympathy

Flourish Thinlits Dies

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When I read Brian’s blog yesterday, his card reminded me that I have the Flourish Thinlits Dies and I should get them out again. So I did.

Liz Bailey Stampin' Up! Demonstrator - Flourish Thinlits Dies - Suite Seasons

I didn’t set out to make a sympathy card but I selected elegant eggplant and the card decided where it was going from there! I cut out the decoration with the Flourish Thinlits Dies (note to self – must use other parts of it)  and then stamped the sentiment from Suite Seasons (love this set!) in the same colour on very vanilla. A little time with my multipurpose glue, dabbing little dots on the flourish and the upper mat was done. Then it was simply a matter of adding it to the elegant eggplant card base.

It feels a little odd to have sympathy cards ready to go but when you need one, if you’re close to the person, you just don’t feel like making one. So I have a few ready made.

I hope you enjoyed today’s project. Please use the hostess code to get free product; the current one is XD4D794N (if your order is over $150, don’t use the code, you get the rewards, but you still get the free gift from me). Click here to go to my online shop or here to join my team. To sign up for Paper Pumpkin and get BOGOF, click here and use the code BOGO – this ends today. The “buy 3 get one free” offer for DSP is good for the rest of the month.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Fabulous Flora for Gail

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I’ve mentioned before that I am a member of an online walking forum. Gail is one of the organisers of the site and a wonderful lady. She’s shared a lot over the last 15 or so years that I’ve “known” her including a lot about her family. It was shocking last year to hear that she needed brain surgery and that she had a tumour. She’d truly give the shirt off her back to anyone if it would help and it hurts immensely to have to report that she died recently. So of course I made a card. I don’t know that it helps at all. When Mum died, reading the cards just made me cry. But I guess it’s good to hear the memories. Eventually. So Gail, Fabulous Flora is for you. It fits, you were so passionate about your garden.

Stampin' Up! Fabulous Flora

I took the image from Fabulous Flora, stamped it on scrap paper and then snipped it out. Then I stamped it onto my watercolour paper and then masked off that stamping and stamped again. I used my aquapainter to colour in the figs in the archival basic black but that wasn’t quite right so I added some elegant eggplant. I think that the combination of the two colours works. I used garden green for the leaves and I tried not to be too precise since the image is sketched rather than precisely drawn. I then added the sentiment from the Thoughts and Prayers set and glued this to an elegant eggplant cardbase with a skinny basic black mat. I really find that a black frame pulls everything together when I’m watercolouring – and thus using archival basic black to stamp the images.

Rest in Peace Gail. I’m glad that you’re no longer in pain, that you no longer have to lug around heavy equipment to live. But we’re going to miss you.

Liz

Fabulous Flora for CAS C&S

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It’s Thursday and time for the first challenge in July at CAS Colours & Sketches which means it’s a colour challenge. We’re doing things a little differently for July and August; the 8 members of the design team are each taking a single week and first up is my sister, Caro. I decided to use the hostess set, Fabulous Flora for my card.

Stampin' Up! Fabulous Flora and Teeny Tiny Wishes

And here’s the banner which inspired my card:

Unfortunately I have need of a couple of sympathy cards and this colour combo worked perfectly. I stamped the flower image in archival basic black onto watercolour paper. After giving it a minute or two for drying, I coloured it in with my aquapainter. I had a fairly dry aquapainter so that I could more easily control the amount of water added to the ink pad top (you just squeeze the pad to get some ink on the top and then use that as your palette). The stalk is soft suede, the leaves are cucumber crush and the flower is in elegant eggplant with the centre of the flower being almost undiluted. I then added the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes in elegant eggplant.

I played around with all three colours to decide on the mat and cardbase but in the end, I decided that a skinny basic black mat was the best onto the elegant eggplant. The cucumber crush was too bright and didn’t look at all sympathetic!

I’d definitely suggest that Fabulous Flora is a set to consider the next time you have some Stampin’ Rewards – it’s only $11 for clear mount and $15 for wood so it’s great value. I’d also suggest popping over to CAS Colours & Sketches to see what the rest of the team have for your inspiration.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Remarkable You for CASology

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I seem to plan a lot of my challenge cards at the weekend and so I’m always sliding in under the wire if I enter the CASology challenges since they end on Mondays.

Stampin' Up! Remarkable You and Thoughts and Prayers

The week’s challenge cue card is rather fun because it can be interpreted in a number of ways. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a mathematician and although I’ve managed to fight my need for symmetry quite successfully, I can’t go as far as torn edges! Not so far anyway. So since I haven’t embraced torn edges on my cards, I decided to go with a sympathy card. Sadly, I think that I’ll be needing one soon.

I started by stamping the leaves from the Remarkable You set in the archival basic black ink onto watercolour paper. It’s actually the first time I’ve inked this up – I’ve used all three of the flowers though. I really love this set, it’s great for watercolouring. I then stamped the sentiment using the same ink, it’s from Thoughts and Prayers in case you were wondering. I left the watercolouring for last because it would be irritating to mess up the sentiment after finishing the rest of the card and it gave the archival black a little more time to dry.

Stampin' Up! Remarkable You and Thoughts and Prayers

For the watercolouring I went back to mossy meadow again. I adore this colour. I tried to put a fairly pale wash of colour all over the leaves and then make it slightly darker where there was shading. My first attempt was too harsh with not much success at blending, but this one worked out better. I really like watercolouring even though I’m not great at it and since it’s a fairly casual medium (sometimes) it doesn’t seem to matter. I’d encourage you to grab an aquapainter and have a go. It’s very rewarding. And if you don’t have it yet, Remarkable You is a great set to start playing with watercolour.

I put a very skinny mat of basic black around the watercolour paper – it really makes it pop. And then onto a mossy meadow cardbase.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Thoughts and Prayers with sympathy

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Sadly my friend Julia told me that not only does she need a baby card, but she also needs a sympathy one. She does have a stash of cards that she made herself, but it’s not large enough to cover all eventualities. Yet! I have a couple but decided to make a new one so that she has as much choice of these as she does with the baby cards.

Stampin' Up! Work of Art and Thoughts & Prayers

The swoosh is from the Stampin’ Up! Work of Art stamp set and is stamped in crumb cake, soft suede and then early espresso stamped off once on very vanilla card stock. I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the swooshes but I know a lot people prefer to do it freehand. I love the stamp-a-ma-jig, it’s one of the tools without which I couldn’t stamp. I then stamped both the tree and the sentiment from Thoughts and Prayers in early espresso. The card stock is then mounted on a crumb cake base. Stampin’ Up! sells crumb cake envelopes (also whisper white and very vanilla) so this was a perfect time to pull one out. I lined it using the envelope liner framelits to cut out the liner in the backgrounds DSP in crumb cake.

See you tomorrow,

Liz