With Sympathy

It sure seems like I've been needing to send a fair number of sympathy cards lately - too many deaths among family & friends.  As I've mentioned before, I like to have quite a few made ahead as there may not be much advanced warning that they'll be needed.  However, I don't put a sentiment inside the card.  I have a bunch of possible sentiments printed up and ready to insert, and a bunch of cards made up without a sentiment inside.  This way, when the need arises, I can choose a card front to match the recipient, and then choose a sentiment that says what I want to say for that particular person.

However, in this particular case, I needed two cards, and only one of the two I had left would work. So, I needed another quick sympathy card - which you see above.

I started with the focal, using a scrap piece of glossy cardstock.  Using a stamp I had previously made for myself using my Stampmaker and a design from the CD "Card Greetings & Sentiments" (from Hot Off the Press), I stamped it with embossing ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Next, I colored over it with alcohol inks (Stream and Silver Mixative) using a pouncing motion with my applicator.  Then I came back with some of the alcohol blending solution on a piece of paper towel and removed the ink from on top of the embossed areas, so the white showed through nicely. Then I cut out my focal using a Spellbinder's die - then dry embossed the edge using the same die.

I decided to dry emboss the front of the card directly.  This is where my Grand Caliber machine comes in so handy!  I was able to just open the card, position my embossing folder where I wanted, and run it through.  In this case, I actually ran the card through twice, because my folder was smaller than the card front.  I simply lined up my folder with the last motif that had been embossed and ran it through again - worked great!

I had a squarish shape of turquoise color-core cardstock that I had previously die cut using a Marvelous Squares die and then embossed with the same embossing folder that I used for the card front.  I had then lightly sanded it to help the pattern stand out more.  I cut this in quarters to form corner embellishments, then trimmed the front edge with scalloped scissors to coordinate with the focal.

I wanted a wide band for the focal to sit on, but didn't like the patterned papers I tried with it so started going through my stash of ribbon and lace looking for something suitable.  I came across this scrap and thought it went perfectly.  I added a little 1/2" glitter ribbon on top, and glued everything together.  I added the focal using foam tape for added dimension.