2 Sympathy Cards

Recently a friend of my mom's, who was also a member of a local writer's guild she belongs too, passed away. My mom is the corresponding secretary for the guild, so she needed a sympathy card for his widow. I offered to make one, which will hopefully be signed by several of the members at their next meeting.

I had seen this video by Lydia on making a stencil by die cutting Frog Tape. Though my initial effort with doing this failed, I was able to create a stencil in a similar fashion with freezer paper. I used an old Fiskars "Leaves" template to trace my leaf on a piece of freezer paper I'd cut to 4.5x7.25", the same size as my card front. After cutting the shape out with scissors, I then ironed the negative portion of the freezer paper onto a panel of Strathmore Mixed Media paper. Yes, using a regular household iron. And no, it did not hurt the paper (or the iron!). :) After I was sure the freezer paper was thoroughly adhered to the Mixed Media paper, I proceeded with my next step.

I wet the cut-out area of my stencil with a paintbrush loaded with clean water, then dropped in Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors in blues & greens, with a bit of yellow. I did have to use my brush to "encourage" the colors to mingle, but they finally did. Then came the absolute hardest part--letting it air dry. I was SO tempted to use my heat tool, but I was afraid that would loosen the freezer paper, and the color might "leak" outside the outline of my leaf image.

Once I'd let it dry for a few hours, I carefully peeled off the freezer paper, revealing a perfectly shaped maple leaf. (Whew!) I stamped my greeting, using Simon Says Stamp's "Prayers" set, on the panel below the leaf, using Memento Nautical Blue dye ink. I felt my design needed a bit more grounding, though, so I used Frog Tape to mask off a strip towards the bottom, and painted it the same way as the leaf. This time, I used my heat tool to dry it, then peeled off the tape.

I trimmed my panel slightly narrower, mounted it to a 4.5x7.25" card base, and adhered a strip of cardstock I'd inked with Nautical Blue along the right side.

Jennifer McGuire is having a card drive called "Lasting Hearts" over at her blog. A friend of hers wants to put a copy of the book, "You are the Mother of All Mothers," in as many OB/GYN offices as possible. This book helps parents who are dealing with a miscarriage. With the books, she wants to include handmade cards, supporting those who have suffered such a loss. They are collecting cards through February 29, 2016. I made this card as one to send in.

My inspiration came from this these two that Jennifer McGuire had done. I first cut a piece of white cardstock to 4.25x5.5" I determined where I wanted my greeting to go, and stamped the "prayers" portion on the panel. I then heat embossed it with Ranger Gold embossing powder. I created a mask from Simon Says Stamp masking paper, using the coordinating "Prayers" die, and covered the embossed word with that. I cut another piece of masking paper to 4.25x5.5". After die cutting a butterfly from that, using a "Butterflies 1" die by DoCrafts, I adhered it to my panel. I blended Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and a bit of Fired Brick over the butterfly. When I had the color like I wanted it, I removed my masks.

I stamped & heat embossed the rest of the greeting, again from the "Prayers" stamp set, and added a body & antennae to the butterfly with a gold gel pen. I trimmed the panel to 4x5.5", and mounted it to my white A2 card base. I added a narrow strip of gold foil cardstock to the right side of the panel, and that finished this card.

I'm entering both cards in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Stencil It" challenge.