Sympathy cards

Greetings to all my cyber visitors.

The cards that I am sharing today were not easy for me to make as they are for members of a family with whom we have shared a lot of life with. My (adult) children grew up with their children, and we are all grieving the loss of their husband/father in an accident.

I took the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge as the starting point for this first card, and the fact that I found some gold trimmings that would 'work' for the end pieces was the next step.  

The image (from Our Daily Bread Designs) was stamped on water colour paper using aqua-crayons direct to stamp, and the same crayons were used for the background.

The sentiment was stamped and embossed - not the best embossing, partially due to the paper I was working on.

I was glad to be able to use the pearls and the bow to soften the look of the card, as without them it looked rather stark.

The double ric rak was the final detail.  

The panel that the main image is mounted on is a lovely paper that came in a pack I was given as a gift, and has a beautiful sheen on it.

Then came a second card, and again I was having difficulty trying to plan the card, so I ended up CASE-ING one from 'Lovely Linda'.

I started with a green card, and found some (Warehouse) design paper to layer onto it and sponged the edges to soften the 'join'.  It still looked very harsh, so I sprayed it with some Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rain aka Luminarte Shimmering Mist in Lemon Drop (which I know turns green on green paper - I don't know why it changes colour, but it is very useful at times)

I then stamped the the Victorian Frame from Layers of Color onto a lighter green card, and coloured it with chalks,  gold embossed the sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs into the centre of that panel, then cut and embossed it using a Spellbinders Labels 14 die.

After assembling the card I then added the two pearls at either end of the panel. The flowers in the corners were white, but I touched them onto a Cantaloupe Memento ink pad, and then sprayed them with the same spray I used on the dp.  (this will give you an idea of the true colour of the paint!)

The green pearls in the middle of the flowers were the final touch.

Thank you for the inspiration Linda - I hope my CASE is acceptable.

I am linking these to

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge # 85 (card 1)

 Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #99 - flowers (card 2)

Paper Take Weekly challenge - anything goes Both Cards

Craft Your Passion Challenge #39 - anything goes (Both cards)

Thank you for visiting, and the comments you leave are very much appreciated - as some one said recently, we bloggers become comment 'junkies' :-)

May your day be blessed.

Another Digital Two for Tuesday GD spot and MMSC# 69

Thank you for calling by - I love to see that you have visited. Today I am able to share some cards that I made for a Guest Designer spot over at Digital Two for Tuesday.  Cora shares the most amazing digital images sourced from old books, dress catalogues and the like.


She sent me the two images that she is sharing today, and this is what I did with them.  This cottage just cried out to be a masculine card, so that is what it became.  

I coloured the image with chalks, sponged the edge lightly with brown ink, and mounted it on a very dark green card. The base card was scored with the Scor-it tool.  I wanted a wee bit more detail, and as I had no brads, I punched some dark brown card with a 3/8" punch, glued them on and then put a drop of dimensional magic glue over them to give some shape and gloss.  What took the longest with this card was actually finalising the colour card to mount it on!


This is being linked to 
Stamping Sisters In Christ - Depicting Water 
Based on this scripture John 4:10, 13-14 (NIV) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The next card had a lot more detail in the image and the card itself - The image was coloured with a combination of mediums, but primarily watercolour pencils - I decided to cut into the image with an oval nestibility.  To mount it on the purple scalloped part oval was an simple decision, but when put against the lace that edge was lost, so I eventually added the green layer, trimmed very closely, before the purple.


The detail on the purple was a gold dimensional glue.


The base that the lace, and then the oval was mounted on was a olive/gold paper which I had run through the Cuttlebug fleur-de-lis folder, distressed the edge of and then stitched onto the paler base that had been sponged with a similar coloured Whisper dye ink, Mossy Stone.

The butterflies were part of gift given as a thank you for "cat sitting".   They lacked an elusive 'something', so I sat and scrabbled through all sorts of odds and ends until I came across the green bugle beads  which were glued in place   - they seemed to just pull the whole thing together into a pleasing result.


I am linking this to 
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #69


Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge #3 - Vintage, distressing etc

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #75 - distress it


Thank you for calling by - I treasure your comments.


May you day be blessed.

Sailing away

Hello to all my cyber-friends and visitors.


I have not got into my studio for longer than I care to think, so it was wonderful to be out there this afternoon and crafting!!

I needed a masculine card (again) and this time I resorted to a sticker for the main image!!  shock horror - I prefer to stamp, but I was a bit stumped as to which image to use, and I came across this in a rummage through my 'stuff' (of which DH says I have far too much!)


I mounted it onto a white background and chalked the sky behind it.... should have done that the other way round!!, and sponged on some blue ink for the sea, and  added some white and silver pen parks for the wake of the boat.


I then mounted this onto a scrap of maroon to give it some definition against the blue background, but did not let it show across the bottom edge against the foil, which had been embossed with the d'vine swirls Cuttlebug folder.


The silver foil at the base of the embossed piece is some scraps from a punched strip - I inadvertently left some double-sided sellotape showing, so out came some silver glitter  to cover that ....  silver sand???


The mid blue card was then pierced, and the corners rounded, the sentiment embossed in silver and I then mounted it onto the dark blue.   I was not happy with the stark appearance, so turned over the template that I had used for the clouds on the white card and chalked some white clouds onto the mid-blue. Again this should have been done before adding the layers, but this craft is a journey and I am always learning.

This card 'qualifies' for two challenges : 

Our Creative Corner - sketch challenge

and

Crazy For challenges #27 - paper piercing

Thanks for calling bye - I do appreciate your visits and your comments.