While I am glad to be able to make cards to send for any occasion, it seems lately that I have had A LOT of sympathy cards to send. Here is the latest.
This week’s Fusion Card Challenge was my inspiration for this card. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. I chose to use most of the colors as well as the design sketch, starting with a Whisper White card base. I cut a piece of Sahara Sand card stock the width of the card and about an inch shorter, then eyeballed the angle. It wasn’t quite steep enough so I cut off a bit more, then used that as my template for cutting the Soft Sky for the top of the card. A piece of Crumb Cake covers the seam. I was going to use the Burlap Ribbon, but decided to just use card stock as it reminded me more of a branch for the leaves.
As an afterthought (hindsight is 20/20 you know), I could have used the lovely branch from the Seasonal Layers thinlits to cover the seam.
Before attaching any of these to the card base, I ran the Sahara Sand through the Big Shot in the Layered Leaves Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. Oh, yeah! Love this folder.
The die I wound up using for the leaves is an older one from Impression Obsession. I opted for it instead of the Stampin’ Up! Leaflets simply because of the size. I wanted small, and none of the Leaflets was small enough. I cut 2 in Peekaboo Peach, one each in Powder Pink, Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake. Somehow I just couldn’t see a pink leaf, though it was one of the colors in the challenge. But, AHA! Gold was in the challenge, so I grabbed a scrap of Gold Foil Sheet and cut another leaf from it. Much better. 
Before attaching them to the card front I used my Gold Wink of Stella to accentuate the veins, then dry arranged them. One Peekaboo Peach, the Sahara Sand and Gold Foil leaves were liquid glued to the front. The other Peekaboo Peach and the Crumb Cake leaf were attached with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals.
For the sentiment I used the ‘Thinking of You’ from Thoughts and Prayers. This is pretty much my ‘go to’ set for sympathy cards. I stamped it on Crumb Cake with Versamark and heat embossed it in Gold Embossing Powder. I always forget to say that I used the Embossing Buddy to rub off any oils or static before embossing, which cuts down on embossing where you don’t want it.
The Pretty Label punch was perfect for this sentiment and I punched another from the Gold Foil with which to back my Crumb Cake sentiment. To do this, cut the backing in two equal pieces lengthwise and glue them to the back of the the sentiment, being sure not to leave points showing at the ends.
I put 4 Stampin’ Dimensionals on the back, wound some Gold Metallic Thread around and popped it on the card. The front is done.
Inside I used the oak leaf from Vintage Leaves in stamped off twice Crumb Cake on Soft Sky card stock. Then I over-stamped the sentiment, again from Thoughts and Prayers, with full strength Crumb Cake. This panel was liquid glued to a Crumb Cake mat and into the card base.
The envelope got the same Vintage Leaves oak leaf in Crumb Cake on the front and several of them on the flap, stamped randomly. I am sorry there is no photo as I forgot to take one.
I hope you enjoy this card, though enjoy is not usually associated with sympathy. Perhaps “like” would be a better term. I did enjoy making it as I thought about the recipients as I was working on it.
If you don’t have a demonstrator, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
The Holiday Catalogs will be sent out in August and ordering will go live on September 1. If you would like a catalog, please leave a comment. To order from the annual catalog, just use the shop online button at right.
Product List
Wild Wing Creations 
Very pretty Julie! The soft colors are just perfect for a sympathy card. Love your clean design too!
LikeLike
Thank you so much Amy.
LikeLike
This is lovely, Julie – quiet and serene and elegant. I’m sorry you’ve had to do so many sympathy cards, recently, but I know your love has shone thru to the recipients with each and every card.
LikeLike
Thank you so much Mary. The latest was a woman whose kids were in school with mine. Knew her pretty well, but we weren’t close.
LikeLike
Beautiful sympathy card with fabulous texture and gorgeous colors! Thanks so much for joining us at Fusion.
LikeLike
Thank you Karren! Glad you stopped by.
LikeLike