Tag: Sympathy

Inspiration

Where There is Heartache

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I love finding new ways to use product in my stash. And I realized that I often look at the “holiday” products as just that – products for the holidays and not for the everyday. So I wanted to challenge myself to expand designs with those holiday products.

Today, we’re using the Season of Green & Gold patterned paper to create a stunning sympathy card. I feel like sympathy cards should offer love, hope, and encouragement. And while it’s certainly a somber occasion, a design of carefully selected colors and elements can convey hope without words.

We get started on our card with a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock. Our focal panel backdrop consists of a panel of Lost Lagoon embossed on an angle with the Cute Crochet embossing folder and then matted with the gold mercury vellum. The Lost Lagoon panel has gold trim tied around it with a small bow. The sentiment from Everyday Greetings is stamped in Versamark on Soft Sea Foam and then heat embossed in gold. This is then diecut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. I love that the Season of Green & Gold designer paper coordinates with the Golden Greenery dies and have used the two together to cut out several of the stalks of greenery for the sentiment panel. I also cut a sheet of textured gold with the greenery dies. All of these greenery pieces are layered behind the sentiment panel. The drusy embellishments add extra sparkle.

Next week, we’re going to be in the woods. I hope you’ll come along!

Products used in today’s card:
Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam cardstock
Season of Green & Gold, mercury vellum, textured gold DSP
Cute Crochet embossing folder
Everyday Greetings stamps
Spotlight on Nature, Golden Greenery dies
Gold embossing powder
Gold trim
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers · Fun Folds

Country Flowers Sympathy

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Welcome back, everyone! This week, we’re taking a tour of the country — Country Flowers, that is. We’re making an assortment of cards using products from the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite. Today’s card is a fun fold that features the Country Woods paper and Country Flowers bundle.

I really love the Barn Fold and once I discovered a little modification where your designer paper covers the center fold so the card front background looks totally cohesive once closed, I was even more sold on this fun fold! The Country Woods designer paper pack includes a whole host of woodgrain patterns and they come in any number of colors and textures. When I ran across the sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain, I knew it would be perfect for today’s card.

We get started with a card base of Petal Pink cardstock that is cut to open front and center, literally. The sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain serves as our backdrop for the front panel. The focal panel in the center has a base of white woodgrain, also from the Country Woods pack, that is diecut using the Spotlight on Nature set. The sentiment panel is diecut from Petal Pink cardstock with the Autumn Leaves die using the extension method. (You can watch a Terrific Tuesdays video tutorial on the extension method here.) The sentiment from Country Flowers is heat embossed in copper. Behind the sentiment panel are layers of iridescent striped ribbon and Petal Pink diagonal trim. And then nestled behind and around the sentiment are flowers and greenery that have been stamped or diecut using the Country Flowers bundle. I used Stampin’ Blends to color the flower bunches, and the greenery is diecut from Soft Sea Foam cardstock. Layers of dimensionals give the center focal panel lots of depth. The design is finished off with Petal Pink foiled gems scattered across the card front to draw the eye up and across the design.

With a simple sentiment substitution, you could easily make this a birthday or wedding design, or even a thinking of you. The possibilities are only limited by what’s in your stash!

Tomorrow, how about some tea? Stop in and join me for a cuppa — with some flowers, of course!

Products used in today’s card:
Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Copper embossing powder
Stampin’ Blends
Iridescent striped ribbon, Petal Pink diagonal trim
Petal Pink foiled gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

You’ll Get Through This

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This week we are working with the Perennial Postage stamps and dies. Does anyone collect stamps or enjoy looking through the Philatelic magazine from the U.S. Postal Service? I have enjoyed stamp designs since I was a little girl and even have a small collection from my childhood. Now I mostly enjoy the Philatelic as a purchaser and user of stamps more than as a collector. Today’s card is inspired by the sheets of stamps that formed one image, sort-of like a puzzle is made. Does anyone remember when the USPS used to offer those? They were my absolute favorite!

This card design sits atop a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I chose to build my focal image on white cardstock using the Bold Bouquet stamp set. And just like those sheets once sold by the USPS, I chose to vary the stamp sizes and selected a variety of dies to accomplish this. Before stamping, I laid out dies to get the desired effect and have the totality of the image fit on the vellum mat, which is diecut with the largest Perennial Postage die. I ultimately stamped the images on each little stamp separately, but in hindsight, stamping the whole scene and then diecutting each stamp would have provided much better continuity in the scene on the whole sheet without all of the fuss of the tedious alignment that was required the way I did it! Lesson learned for the next one for sure! 

I used Lost Lagoon as an accent color and built a visual triangle with it to help the sentiment stand out in the busy-ness of the stamp montage. I used the die extension method to make the Lost Lagoon mat behind the sentiment panel a little longer. Both the mat and sentiment panel are diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. I used the debossing die included in the Perennial Postage set and carefully inked it with Lost Lagoon before I debossed my diecut stamp. The next time I do this I am going to apply a long strip of washi tape to the back of the die so that it is easier to place it on the cardstock for an impression. Hot tip from me to you….this will avoid inky fingers and ruining whatever element you’re trying to deboss!

I wanted a bold but soft color palette for this sympathy card. So I started with Blackberry Bliss as the bold element. I softened things with a bit of Bubble Bath and added Mossy Meadow as an accent. I would love to see what you can do with this color palette, if you’re up for the challenge. Simply post your designs over on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #SSP1Jan2024.

Interested in more inspiration for using the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more designs!

Products used in this design:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White, vellum cardstock
Lost Lagoon soft shimmer paper
Perennial Postage, Bold Bouquet stamps
Perennial Postage, Autumn Leaves dies
Lost Lagoon bordered ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Heartfelt Hexagon Sympathy

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While masculine card designs can be, in and of themselves, quite challenging, designing sympathy cards for the guys in your life can seem daunting. In this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, we made a sympathy card together. A friend recently lost his wife, and since I needed a more masculine sympathy card myself, I felt it would be a good opportunity to share my process for designing cards for those hard times.

Today’s card design began with a pattern idea and a color palette. As I was making a project to-do list for this week, I knew that I wanted to make patterned paper using the Heartfelt Hexagon stamps and was inspired by the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder in the newly-released Sale-a-Bration catalog. As I was thinking about a color palette for a sympathy card that would appropriately convey both comfort and hope, I was drawn to the combination of Basic Gray, Night of Navy, and Copper Clay. 

So today’s card is built on a base of Basic Gray cardstock, while Night of Navy and Copper Clay luster cardstock serve as the mats for the main image panel. The single-framed hexagon from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Smoky Slate in a repeating pattern that mimics the pattern of the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder. I liked the look of the larger stamped pattern rather than the smaller pattern for this particular occasion. The sentiment from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Night of Navy on Basic Gray and then punched with the coordinating hexagon punch. The Night of Navy and gold glittered ribbon — a carry-over from the Holiday Mini catalog — adds a soft touch and ties the blue elements together, while a few brushed metallic dots tie together the sheen of the luster paper and sparkle of the glitter ribbon and add an additional layer of warmth.

As we’re wrapping up our week of masculine card designs, I hope you’ve been inspired by all of the possibilities there are to make gorgeous masculine cards for any occasion. In case you missed this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, you can still catch it over on YouTube to find even more inspiration.

Products used in today’s design:
Night of Navy, Basic Grey, Copper Clay luster cardstock
Heartfelt Sympathy stamps & punch
Night of Navy & gold glittered ribbon
Brushed metallic dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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