Two Encouragement Cards

Facebook, in my opinion, is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because it helps people--both friends and members just with similar interests--keep in touch. A curse, because of all the negative junk some people insist on posting. One of the more positive places in the FB universe is The Doubliedoo group, which Sandy Allnock started for Operation Write Home alumni to keep in touch since OWH's mission has come to a close. This is just a group of cardmakers, most of us not knowing each other personally, who come together and share our creations, and maybe a bit of our lives. One of the members recently shared that her mother is dying, and suggested we could send thinking of you/encouragement cards to help cheer her up a little. I made these 2 cards, for my mom & me to send to her.

For my first card, I used a tutorial by ShirA. The main difficulty involved converting her measurements, which are metric, into inches. I did use centimeters to measure the pleats on the inside, just to make it easier, but otherwise just kind of made up my own measurements to create a 5x8" card.

I stamped the butterflies and the flower from Hero Arts' "Butterflies #3" set onto 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, & colored them with my new Zig Clean Color Brush Pens. These pens take a little getting used to, but they provide nice, vibrant colors. I also stamped the "thinking of you" from Hero Arts' "Floral" set on the watercolor paper, so the white would match among all the pieces. I stamped the flourish from the "Floral" set in Hero Arts Soft Leaf ink, also on watercolor paper. Finally I die cut the flowers, butterflies, & flourishes with the coordinating dies. I also die cut & embossed the greeting with a Spellbinders "Labels Four" die. With that panel still in the die, I inked the center part with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. For the background, I die cut Spellbinders' "Grateful Lattice" from dark blue cardstock. I ran it through my Xyron Creative Station to apply adhesive to the back, then stuck it to the front of my card, before gluing down the collage elements.

For the inside, I first adhered my pleated patterned paper piece to the card base. I cut "grass blades" from 2 different green patterned papers (sources unknown), and glued them to the pleats in the middle of the inside panel. I stamped, colored, & die cut more butterflies, and glued them in place--some on the very back panel, and others on the grass blades. And that finished my first card.

For my second card, I created a center step card, using a template by Hot Off The Press. This template makes the card creation so easy. No measuring necessary--just trace the lines and cut & fold as directed. Even the decorative panel patterns are provided. Again, just trace & cut! I created my card base out of a piece of light blue cardstock, and used a pink glitter patterned paper (from my scrap stash) for the side & bottom panels. For the main panel, I used a piece of pink parchment patterned paper.

I stamped the flowers and several leaves from Simon Says Stamp's "Summer Garden" set onto scraps of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. I used Ranger Archival Watering Can ink for the flowers, and Hero Arts Green Hills for the leaves. I colored the flowers with my Clean Color Pens, and die cut them and the leaves with the coordinating dies. I stamped my greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "Sending Happy Thoughts" set, on the parchment panel, and arranged my flowers and leaves around the edges. I glued the floral elements down, and finally adhered the panel to my card base. This card actually wasn't hard to do. The only real time-consuming part was stamping, coloring, and die cutting all the flowers & leaves. Hopefully, the recipient will get some comfort from these cards, and the messages my mom & I wrote to her!

I'm entering my first card in a2z Scrapbooking's August challenge: "Texture" (added texture with the lattice die cut).

I'm also entering my second card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Homegrown Summer" challenge.