Still Loved, Still Missed, and Very Dear

 

Hello dear stamping friends!

If you are like I am, you find sympathy cards very difficult to make.  Sometimes it is easier to make a few "generic" sympathy cards to pull from when the need arises.  Other times, because of your relationship with the person and their family, you might be inspired to make something much more personal...then the act of card-making becomes a labor of love and the first step in the process of grieving their loss.  That's what today's card was for me.  

My dear, sweet 99 year old auntie passed away in mid-January. She was the second oldest of my dad's five sisters (he was near the middle and the only son!) and had a large family of her own, so most of my memories of her are (no surprise!) in her kitchen/home where she hosted our extended family gatherings.  There were lots of smiles and laughter that go along with a house full of cousins, aunties and uncles who didn't see each other nearly often enough! I remember her as a pretty, petite woman with a fresh face and rosy cheeks who never seemed to get flustered, nor did she ever seem to mind having us underfoot in spite of whatever mischief we might've gotten into.  (One time we got into a watermelon rind fight, launching our half-eaten rinds over the badminton net in their backyard...and hitting one young cousin in the eye! Thankfully nothing serious, although it certainly could've been! Yep, we were trouble and with so many of us I'm sure we kept the adults always on the lookout and often on the run!)

Although this is a sympathy card, I wanted it to be soft and feminine in celebration of my auntie's life and her sweet personality rather than serious, dark and depressing, so I settled on a variety of pretty prints from one of my newly arrived paper pads, It's a Girl!  The pad has lots of designs that are very specifically baby, but there are others that are perfect for other occasions including this one.  The pad also has quite a few printed tags, some with sentiments and others like this one, a perfect frame for stamping one of your own.  This one is from our Sympathy Sentiments Set 2.  I added a few pearls and nothing more.

For the inside of the card I used more of the pretty papers, die-cutting a stitched heart from one of them for an accent.  This sentiment is another from the Sympathy Sentiments Set 2. 

Aunt Ret, you are definitely still loved, still missed, and very dear! Your family is in my prayers.  xo 

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Sympathy Sentiments Set 2
• Echo Park It's a Girl 6x6
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Welcome Baby Basics (tiny stitched heart)
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Latte