I Already Miss You

The rector at my mom's church is leaving soon to take a teaching post at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She asked me if I could make a going-away card for her to give to him at the reception following his farewell Mass. I felt quite up to the task, given the dozens of cards I've made, which have gotten several compliments from various people. So I said, of course I could. This was about a week before the farewell Mass.

My first step was to do a search for "handmade going away cards" on Pinterest. Sadly, this did not yield much at all in the way of ideas. So I started perusing my own boards of card ideas & videos I've pinned over the past several months.

I came across this video by Julie Ebersole, using Dylusions spray inks to create a background, then bleaching that with water and a stencil. I thought that could be pretty cool, so I tried it. Not disastrous, but it still wasn't doing much for me. I tried a couple of other ideas, but they also did nothing for me. As my deadline loomed closer, I was really beginning to get nervous! I did manage to get an element--a die cut stained glass rose window made using a Spellbinders Die D-lites die & colored with Inktense pencils. But that was as far as I could seem to get.

Finally I got an e-mail with this post on Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's blog. In going through the images, I found this one, and had an "ah-ha" moment!

I decided to CASE this idea, using that die cut "window" I'd done. I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the "Garden Lattice" Spellbinders M-bossabilities embossing folder. Then, while the cardstock was still in the folder, I lightly went over the raised portions with Antique Linen Distress Ink, to provide some further depth. I cut the top arch shape using a Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Classic Circle die and partial die-cutting. I also cut another piece of white cardstock slightly wider, and used the next larger size circle die to partially cut the cardstock just at the one end. I inked that piece near the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

For the lower front panel, I dragged the Vintage Photo ink pad lightly over the cardstock, overlapping my drag marks to create a woodgrain effect, as demonstrated in this video by Gina K. It was a little rough-looking, so I blended more of that ink on with an ink applicator tool. To hide the seam between the upper & lower panels, I cut a 1/4" wide strip of white cardstock, inked it with Vintage Photo, and popped it up on foam tape.

For the green strips on either side of the front, I colored watercolor paper with the same green Inktense pencil I'd used in the window. I printed the first part of the greeting onto white cardstock, rounded the 2 left corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper, and inked the edges with Antique Linen. I die cut the "you" from white cardstock that I'd already inked with Antique Linen, using this die from Simon Says Stamp. I adhered them to the front panel, and adhered the whole panel to a 5x5" card base. And the best part (even better than getting my mojo back)? My mom loved it! (And she's sure the priest did, too!)