Revisiting a Background Stamp

Several years ago I experimented with this background stamp from JustRite.  You can read about one of my cards made with it here.  At that same time I stamped and colored this background.  I know I stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fine black powder, but I can't remember how I colored it.  I'm guessing that much of it was done with gel pens & a Dove blender pen like the other one was.  After being colored, it just got put in my drawer as a topper since I wasn't sure what occasion I wanted it for.   It stayed there for several years until I was looking today for something that would work for a quick sympathy card.  

I decided I wanted to frame it with silver & wanted to die-cut my sentiment with the same silver - but it didn't fit the "tag" spot on the background.  So, I created the sentiment you see here.  It was done by taking a rectangle & die cutting the word out of it.  I glued that to a piece of white cardstock & glued on any "innies" that had been cut with the die.  Next, I die cut the sentiment from a piece of sticky-backed fun foam and then glued the original sentiment to that before carefully putting it back in place. (Sympathy die was from Our Daily Bread Designs, Rectangle dies were from a set called "Stiched Rectangles - dots and stars" by Crafti Potential). That gave me a lovely embossed look that is very striking in real life.  I didn't have the patience to pierce all the way around the sentiment, but did pierce the short edges to help it look like it went with the the pierced frame.

I didn't want to feel like my sentiment was covering my flowers, though, so I cut around them with my craft knife so they could overlap the sentiment.  I did this at the top of the frame as well.  After adding a ribbon/bow, I glued the whole thing to my card front.  

For the inside, I started with the piece that had been cut out of the frame and cut a smaller frame using a smaller die.    I printed my message on some pink vellum (erased it for this picture since it was personal) and framed it with this smaller piece of silver.  I finished it off with some stamped/die cut pieces from Hot Off the Press that I colored with Zig pens & clear Wink of Stella.