A special MDS card

Our neighbours lost their lovely old doggy Stella recently, quite suddenly.  She'd emigrated all the way from the UK with them, and had been around for the whole of the kid's lives as a beloved family pet.  Stella was a sweet Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and loved having short walks and cuddles with her family, and was always so friendly when we visited so it was a big loss.  I made this card to give them to show that we cared, using the MDS program.  The Storybook embellishment doggie was quite similar to Stella (well, the nose wasn't quite right) and I used the alphabet embellishment to make the sentiments.  The card front panel was printed, and then it was mounted onto some base layers in co-ordinating colours.

A good Sympathy Card (stamp set) is hard to find... Thanks for Caring

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!)

Kindred Spirits in Plums

Kindred Spirits is a lovely set, just $38.95 for two large background stamp sized images and two sentiments. The set is double mounted, which does take a little getting used to, but I think it's well worth it for compactness and value. One side of the large stamp has what I call the 'berry sprig' (above) and the reverse side has a branch that looks like misteltoe.  The sentiments include "Kindred Spirits", as the set name would suggest, and a well sized "With Sympathy"   - never a sentiment you wish to need, but need it you will, from time to time :( 

The card above has a Perfect Plum base, followed by a distressed Pale Plum layer, inked with Perfect Plum ink.  For the image layer I have used Confetti White for it's handmade look.  I have also taken the distressing tool from the cutter kit to this layer and inked the edges with Mellow Moss ink.

I used markers to ink up the various elements of the "berry sprig" - Pale Plum,  Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss.. With two of these three harmonious colours retiring, make sure they are in your collection if they appeal to you.  The sentiment was stamped using my Stamp-a-ma-jig and Mellow Moss ink.  I thought about adding some ribbon or a metal designer brad, but decided to leave it in elegant simplicity.

Onto slightly happier thoughts, I have seen some cracker Christmas cards made with the Misteltoe-looking side of the main stamp, perhaps I'll have a play with making some of those soon.