Words of Comfort

Last weekend, one of my crop sisters had to lay her mother to rest.  Even when it's expected and necessary to ease suffering (as it was in this case), it's still devastating to those left behind.

I went to my stash to get a card to send her to let her know I was thinking about her.  (Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the visitation.)  Several years ago, the group of girls I started scrapbooking with, created a card swap dinner.  We'd get together on a regular basis and pick different themes for each swap.  I just hoarded the cards, so I was certain I had something perfect in my stash to send to her.  (We haven't done this in a while and I REALLY miss it!)

I mean, look at all those cards!  Every one of them is handmade with love and - nothing.  Not a single condolence card in the bunch - not even a "Thinking of you".  What's a girl to do??  Make one!   So I went into my other stash and pulled out all my stamps!  Luckily, I'm a card maker and I have dozens of sentiments.

Here's what an uninterrupted hour of baby-free time looks like:

I just love how this card turned out!!  

These days, whenever I'm making a card, the first thing I do is pull out our Make It From Your Heart how-to program. It's a 40-ish page booklet CHOCK FULL of patterns - complete with cutting instructions!  From a design aspect, I love having pre-determined patterns when I'm crunched for time.  It really helps me make the most of my creative time.  And I love that it's small enough to slide into my bag when it's time to get together with my girls and crop!

I used the B&T papers from our retired Moonlight paper pack.  It's Halloween-themed, but I think the muted Slate and Smokey Plum colors were just perfect for this card.  I wanted to keep the card simple so I pulled a few techniques out of my bag of tricks.

One of my all-time favorite stamps is Treasure Life.  It's a long-retired stamp set, but between the floral images and the sentiments, it is one of the most useful stamps that I own.  I used it to stamp the background image on the card.  For the stamped background image, I used Second-Generation Stamping.  If you've never done it before, Second-Generation Stamping is where you load up your stamp with ink - get it good and juicy - and you stamp the image on the paper.  Then, you reposition it and stamp it again on a different spot.  This gives you a lighter stamped image and I think it also adds some interesting dimension to the card.  (You can see above, it looks like there are floral stalks behind the darker stamped image.)  I also embossed the three floral stalks in the front.  For the sentiment on the front of the card, I used our Words of Comfort stamp set, which I corner-rounded on opposite corners.  Before I embellished the card, I edged the two B&T pieces and the sentiment with Slate ink and edged the two Smokey Plum cardstock pieces with Smokey Plum ink.  Then I finished off the card by embellishing it with our retired Colonial White Grosgrain Ribbon, Licorice Opaques and a Filigree Charm.  I used Liquid Glass to glue the Opaque and the Charm to the Ribbon and then the Ribbon to the card.  My regular ATG usually doesn't fail me, but I wanted to make sure it all stuck well.  The only thing about Liquid Glass is that you have to let it dry for a long time before touching or moving it.  I usually let my projects set for 24 hours to be on the safe side. 

I hope you like the card as much as I do. 

Simple Sympathy

This is my first attempt at a sympathy card.  It was for my neighbor whose father passed away recently.  Because it was for a man, I didn't want it to be overly embellished.  I wanted it to be simple and slightly masculine. And I think I accomplished that.  But this card means so much more to me than just simple sympathy.

This family is very special to me.  I have a ten year old son with Autism and last year when we moved here, their daughter became his very first friend. Autism is a complicated disorder.  But to put it very, very simply, it's a lack of social appropriateness.  When he was diagnosed in 2008, he was non-verbal and he had violent fits.  I focused on intense one-on-one therapy and on strict diet changes and slowly this boy emerged who knew who he was, but not how to connect with his peers.  And when we moved to this house, it finally happened.  This little girl treats him the way we all try to raise our children to treat others without seeing his disability as a liability.  I could go on for days, telling you what an impact her acceptance of my son has done for us, both for my hope that he will one day be able to live an independent life and also for the things that she's taught him that I never could.  But I'll save that for another day.  So instead, I fell back to what I know.  Which was putting my hands to work.  I made them this card.

I love cards because they are a way to stay connected with our loved ones (just don't ask my mom, she'll tell you I don't call home enough).  When we're happy, when we're sad, we just need someone to say, "I see you and I'm here."  So until the end of the year, you'll see lots of cards.  I have a lot of people in my life to celebrate - family members that I'm grateful for, birthdays to commemorate (my baby sister is practically going gray at the thought of turning thirty this year), and people who have helped shape the woman I've become and the direction my life is heading.  And you'll probably see a few more sympathy cards on here, too.  And I'll work on my picture taking skills so the photos aren't so dark.  Enjoy.


Theresa
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