Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sympathy

I find sympathy cards TERRIBLY hard to make. I don't want to over do them (doesn't seem to be appropriate) yet, I want them to be meaningful. I don't own any sympathy sets. I think in my own mind I've convinced myself that if I don't own any sympathy sets, I won't have to use them (wacked, I know....it's a denial thing!!).
But reality is, that in this world, sympathy cards are needed. Last weekend a friend lost 9 immediate members of her family along with 5 close friends in a private plane crash. They were all meeting in Montana for a ski trip for the kiddos. Seven of those lost were children under the age of 10. My heart just hurts thinking of this. I struggled with this card all day Friday and finally came up with this

This card is a 5x5 square card. I did the faux "bleach" technique (because I'm the only person on this planet who cannot get paper to bleach (but will ruin another shirt in trying!!). I stamped the grass then the flowers in versamark on Gina K's 120# luxury paper. Then I used clear embossing powder to emboss the images. *helpful hint: make sure your powder pal tray is REALLY clean before dumping in a new ep/glitter, etc. My clear ep now has little flecks of whoknowswhat in it and it kinda ruins the CLEAN look that this technique is suppose to have! I then used LARGE stipple brush to put on my colors, starting with the lightest at the bottom and working my way to the darker colors (that way, I use just one brush!! Lazy stamper!!). I then covered my image with a scrap piece of paper, put it on my craft sheet and then ironed it on high until the ep melted onto the paper.

Now of course I had other problems with this image. This is actually the SECOND one. The first is layered underneath. The first one had no black layer. Felt it was missing something and I tried messing with some ribbon (of course, the image was already taped down, so I was going to have to come up with a different ribbon treatment). Welllll, the sentiment SMEARED over the embossed area when I was messing around. I don't know if it just hadn't dried over the now slightly glossy area or what! So when I stamped this sentiment, I HEAT set it (and of course, got it too far to the right, but I was NOT going to do this a third time!). Matted with the black, added the ribbon and matted that to Gina's 120# luxury paper.

Please keep my friend and her family in your thoughts (and if you pray, in your prayers). This was a very close knit family and they will need all the comfort from here and above that they can get to deal with this.

Supplies: Stamps: SU's Inspired by Nature, Warmest Regards. Paper: Gina K's 120# Pure luxury, Basic Black. Inks: SU's Apricot Appeal, Tangerine Tango, Really Rust, Ruby Red. Accessories: Clear EP, heat gun, iron, ribbon, stampamajig.

4 comments:

terriavidreader (IN-USA) said...

It is a lovely card, and remember, at the immediate time of the loss most people don't pay much attention to the cards, just the names of those sending them (or at least that's been the experience in my family). However, they do go back through them much later on, and can appreciate the care you've given to make such a lovely card for them. I really do like this card a lot, and it's not fussy but you can tell it's heartfelt.

Stef H said...

Oh Starla! How sad. A sympathy card would be hard for me to make too. I will keep them in my prayers! However, this card is beautiful even with all the trouble you had making it. But, you persevered and THAT is what counts!

Much hugs,

Melody (lacyquilter) said...

Beautiful card, Starla. How sad for your friend's family.

Amber (bambi64) said...

Starla, this turned out Beautiful. You did a great job, kiddo.