I always feel like I am tempting fate somehow by making a sympathy card without a specific recipient in mind, but I do then try and apply my sense of scientific judgement to overcome this!
It is hard to find a nice, elegant stamp set suitable for sympathy occasions (and nigh-on IMPOSSIBLE to find a half-decent store-bought card at all!), but I think this lovely set from the Autumn/Winter mini fits the bill. The set is called "Thanks for Caring", and you can see it on page 17 of the mini (123565, $39.95 in woodmount). It's not just for sympathy cards, the sentiment messages could be used for many card-giving occasions. It's also the first set I can recall as having a stamp ideal for thanking people for their kind thoughts during difficult times, "Thanks for caring", much easier than handwriting lots and lots of notes.
This card I have made using a Designer Series Paper collection that I haven't used much. I do like the colours and I love the patterns, so I'm not sure why it has been overlooked. Perhaps it is the scale of the patterns as shown in the catalogue not doing it justice? Anyway, it is beautifully elegant in real life - "Lap of Luxury" (120436, p 126). The card base is Concord Crush, followed by a layer of Pretty in Pink, and a wider border of Basic Gray. A square of Lap of Luxury paper sits over these, with a belly band of more Concord Crush. The sentiment is inked with matching markers, and punched out with the extra large scallop circle punch. The matting I have used is a little trick - layering two of the oval shape from the "Lots of Tags" Sizzlit set for the Bigshot (114508, p152) behind the scallop circle. Some Basics Pearls, Concord Crush twill ribbon, and some Stampin' Dimensionals for lift and it was almost done. I wanted to give it a pretty look, so I spritzed it with a squirt of DIY shimmer spray - my tutorial on this can be found here.
If you'd like this set, please don't delay, being a Mini Catalogue set it could well be available only until July 31st before disappearing all together. Please contact me by email or phone 0403 175 790 to order any available Stampin' Up! products, or drop me a question ( I lurrrve technical questions!)
1 comment:
I was a little confused, perusing your blog this morning, as I hadn't visited before. This is a retired set, here in the states, but once I realised you were "down under" it made more sense! I was so disappointed this set didn't make it into our new catalog - it was a definite "must have" for me! Great Card! I'll have to think more about the whole tempting fate thing though....
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