Thoughts and Prayers

We were in need of another sympathy card. I created this one using Hero Arts' "Prayers" stamp set & Spellbinders' "Feathers" dies.

I began with the feathers. I had seen this card on Pinterest, and liked the verdigris look on the feathers, so I decided to recreate that with ink. After die cutting the feathers from 140 lb. watercolor paper, I embossed them with the same dies. I smooshed Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough, & Lucky Clover Distress inks onto my non-stick craft mat, and spritzed each with a little water. I dipped each feather in the pools of ink, letting the colors mix on the paper. I added some Delicata Golden Glitz pigment ink to my mat, spritzed it with water, & dipped my feathers in that after the green inks had mostly dried. Then I set them aside to dry completely.

For the background, I first determined how much space I needed for my greeting. I marked that with a pencil, and lightly spritzed my cardstock with water, to soften the fibers, so it wouldn't crack. I lined up the bottom edge of the "Woven" 3D embossing folder from Sizzix with my pencil line, & ran that through my die cutting machine.

I stamped my greeting in Versamark ink, & heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. Once that had cooled, I stretched 3 pieces of jute twine across my card panel, to hide the "line" where the embossing ended, and set off my greeting better. I taped the ends to the back of my panel, and knotted another piece of twine around them. I tied more twine around my feathers, and adhered them to my card front with glue dots at the top of the bunch, letting the bottom ends pop up a bit. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Stamp It"
613 Avenue Create #201: "Anything Goes"
Pile It On #134: "Feathers and/or Scales"