Thinking of you, dear friend!

Hi everyone!  I have always believed that Spring is wedding season, but sadly this Spring I have needed a steady stream of sympathy cards.  Many of my friends have lost a spouse, one or the other of their parents,  and one friend lost a beloved pet.  

I find sympathy cards difficult to make and typically try to keep a "well" of such cards available but this year I have simply been unable to keep up.  One "silver lining" of being behind is that the card can be much more personalized than a generic/from-the-stash kind of card would be.   Such is the case for today's card, made for a knitting friend who recently lost her mother.  

My friend loves color so I chose a lovely print from one of the Ink Drops series (feminine and in "adjacent" colors that are not too somber) to combine with a medley of sentiments from several Stamp Simply stamp sets.  

This project is made from a 6 x 10.5 inch piece of card stock scored 3.5 inches from each end so that it folds into a finished 3.5 x 6 tri-fold card.  The off-centered window die-cut through the front allows the image stamped onto the middle panel to peek through.  

Then when that front flap is opened you can see the entire floral image and the sentiments clustered around it.  

There are so many beautiful colors of dahlias!  Adding a tiny bit of grey shading around the images helps to subtly "ground" everything and makes it look a little more finished.    

This is the very center/inside, visible when the second flap is opened.  There's a scrap of that same beautiful paper and a sentiment from another stamp set.  As I have mentioned many times before, I LOVE that these sets have a variety of sentiments in this gorgeous font that can be mixed and matched to your liking.  There are even a few of the same sentiments that are arranged differently, such that one layout or the other might prove advantageous for a particular project (that was true for this card where a single straight-line "thinking of you" fit better than the two-line indented one).  

While this card will indeed be sent as a sympathy card, this combination of sentiments would be appropriate for a much broader variety of circumstances.  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Delightful Dahlias
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Pretty Poppies (Dear friend sentiment)
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Faith (thinking of/praying for you sentiments)
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles SM
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles LG
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Candy 6x6
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Rhinestones - Lilac
• Seam Binding Sampler - Rich Pastels - 40 yards
• May Arts Baker's Twine - 110 Yard Spool - Pink
• Copic markers
• diluted white acrylic paint for splatters
• button from stash

1776

Hi everyone!

If you've been here before you probably know that my husband served in and retired from the US Navy and that I love making patriotic cards!  You might even remember that my birthday is close to the 4th of July and that I graduated from in 1976, serving on the Bicentennial Commission during my last few years of high school.   No surprise then that the 4th of July is a big deal in our household!    

Of course, we have yet to celebrate this year's Independence Day, but 2026 will be its 250th anniversary!  Lots to look forward to!  (I had to look it up...one of the names for it is the "semi-quincentennial!" What a mouthful!)

Stamp Simply has a fabulous assortment of patriotic stamps that make patriotic cards easy and really fun to make because you can mix and match everything to get exactly the look you want.  

For today's project I made a mini slimline card (finished folded dimensions 3.5 x 6 inches) which gave me a little more wiggle room for the width of that "1776" than a standard A2 card would have.  

First I prepared the card front, stamping the text collage in the background with shimmery copper ink and adding a strip of designer paper to the top of the card.  I filled in any blank spots with sentiments from the Liberty Bell stamp set.  Then I stamped, die-cut and colored the bell images with Memento/Copic markers using coppery colors before adhering them directly onto the card front.  

The numbers, die cut from a couple of sheets of designer paper, were adhered with dimensional adhesive squares.

I added a big red bow embellished with a small tag stamped "USA," tied on with some string through a heart-shaped button from my stash.  (I'll be sad when I run out of these; I can't even remember where I purchased them...JoAnn I think 💔).

Here's the inside, where I stamped sentiments from a couple of our other patriotic sets and layered more of those designer papers.   

The mini slimline card is made using an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of card stock trimmed to 7 x 8.5 inches, scored at 3.5 to fold into 3.5 x 8.5 inches and then trimmed to its final finished 3.5 x 6 inch size.  The fun thing about that is that there's a little flap of card stock left over, onto which "coincidentally" these tiny tags from the designer paper fit just perfectly!  They're cute and fun and fast!  You barely even need to trim them.

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Liberty Bell Bundle (bell image and several sentiments)
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - The Red, White & Blue (word collage background stamp)
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Old Glory (small USA on tag, small outline star)
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - The American Eagle (America, Land that I love sentiments inside)
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Countdown
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
• Echo Park Let Freedom Ring 6x6
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Espresso Truffle
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper
• May Arts 1/2 inch Wrinkled Ribbon 50 Yard Spool, Burgundy
• May Arts Baker's Twine - 110 Yard Spool - Kraft
• distress oxide inks
• Copic markers
• heart-shaped buttons from stash

With Sincere Condolences

 

Hello again!  I'm here today with a feminine sympathy card in colors that remind me of my own dear mother.  (She loved these colors and wore them quite often.)  I was shuffling through paper pads and thought that these two pads from Craft Consortium looked so soft and pretty together.  The layout is one from a while back at Deconstructed Sketches.  

I love using this kraft card stock with these shimmery ink drops prints.  It looks especially pretty when layered with colored card stock and some shimmery ink for the edges and for stamping the sentiments.  That little bit of sparkle seems to soften everything and meld all the colors together (and in this case the extra layers of card stock lend some stability to the thin base layer which is not much thicker than copy paper)!   

The flower I used as an embellishment was my second choice because I am out of my favorites!  This one was a bit bright in comparison to the rest of the card so I tipped its edges with a Copic marker to tone it down and help it to blend in better.  (I've linked to the one that would have been my first choice in the supplies list below).  The variegated ribbon beneath the flower echoes all of the lovely colors in that beautiful paper.  The silk is so soft and elegant!    

Here's the inside.  More of that shimmery paper and a heartfelt sentiment!    

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Sympathy Sentiments Set 2
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles SM
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles LG
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Rose 6x6
• Craft Consortium Baroque 6x6
• May Arts 1/4" Variegated Silk - 54 yard spools - Grey/Taupe
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Rhinestones - Lilac
• Kaisercraft Mini Paper Blooms - Amethyst 
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Espresso Truffle

Sending You Cheer!

Hi y'all!  Glad to see you!  I hope you're having a great week.    

I have an online friend who's really been having a hard time lately. She is currently in the hospital, so I thought a hand-made card might cheer her up a little!  

I shuffled through my papers and stamps looking for the right combination of sentiments and some cheerful papers.  I found the sentiments in our Pitcher of Daisies and Floral Cluster Summer Roses stamp sets.  

The "Gather at Home" designer paper pad from Carte Bella had a bunch of coordinating prints in soothing colors with a printed tag that will work just perfectly for Alexis.  I hope she'll be able to go home soon!  This JOY fold card is great for using various prints together because it gives you lots of surfaces to decorate!  It's definitely a favorite of mine!  Here's Beate's JOY fold card tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers.

I even had lots of little scraps of the paper tucked into the cover of the pad, and I was able to use a few of those to embellish the inside, saving the larger pieces for another project.  Nice!  

Here's another one of those printed tags adhered to the back of the card along with another little Farmhouse pierced heart.  

It would have been easier to mail without the bow on the front but I just couldn't resist adding one!  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Daisy Pitcher Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Floral Cluster Summer Roses
• Carta Bella Gather at Home 6x6
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Farmhouse Pierced Nested Hearts
• May Arts 5/8" Faux Linen Canvas Ribbon Sampler - 27 yards
• Copic markers

And now for those who are interested, a little follow-up regarding my Sock Madness progress since last week.  

That was a really cool pattern and joining it from flat to in-the-round was quite magical...but it was one size only and turned out to be absolutely ginormous!  

I continued knitting through the heel flap and gusset into the foot but in the end just couldn't stay motivated to continue knitting an entire pair of socks that I knew would not be wearable.  Too bad I could not get either of my fellas to agree to wear this hot pink!  ;)   

I stacked the qualifier and Round 1 socks on top of the pink Round 2 sock just to show their relative size.  The white ones are nice and snug and fit just the way I like, the blue ones are a little looser, and that pink one, whoa!  It will end up in the frog pile and maybe someday I'll knit a pair using modifications for a smaller size.  I haven't decided whether I'll use this yarn for the same but smaller pattern or if I will reclaim this awesome yarn for something else. Only time will tell!

Not finishing that pair means that I cannot advance to the next round of Sock Madness, but I'm ok with that, ready to get back to spinning and to knitting other things than socks!  So I immediately started spinning some "Lenten Roses."  This fiber is gorgeous and it's spinning like a dream!

Have a great week everyone!