Sunday, January 17, 2016

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.

10 comments:

  1. Gorgeous cards Andrea, both of them are so beautiful and very thoughtful of you

    thanks for joining us on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
    luv
    Lols x x x

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  2. Your cards are fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. :)

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  3. These are both lovely, I especially like the leaf. I will have to try this technique, agree it will be hard to let it air dry!

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