To Everything There Is a Season

Last fall I completely decimated my stash of sympathy cards. Replenishing my supply has been an ongoing line-item on my to-do list. I just haven't been able to find time or inspiration to work on these, though. As I  contemplated a project for the Stamp With a Homemade Stamp Challenge in the Moxie Fab World,  a plan for a sympathy card came together.

I created my own stamp by hand-trimming a scrap of craft foam into the shape of a long flower petal. Adhering it to an acrylic block with some transparent two-sided poster tape made it very easy to "stamp around the rosie" to create my large blossom.

The sentiment comes from the Life Lines stamp set from Flourishes.

I'm also playing along with the Papercraft Star Challenge--Buttons.

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

One-layer Sympathy

It's been a jam-packed week, so to get in any crafty time at all, I've been keeping it simple with 10-minute and one-layer cards. Today I'm adding this one-layer sympathy card to my stash:

I won the Calla Lilies set from Flourishes when it was released earlier this year. Now, calla lilies are far from my favorite flowers. I have always associated them with funerals (for which I think they are fine!) and was mortified when, in the 80s, they became a popular decorating motif. Back then, I was appalled when the high school prom decorating committee adopted the calla lily as the "official prom flower" my junior year! But I do love this stamp set from Flourishes, which is filled with much-needed sentiments of sympathy and this beautiful (and large!) floral image. The image itself is shaded perfectly, so it was easy to do a 10-minute colored pencil coloring job on this card without it looking horrible (although I readily admit it's also not prize-winning!). One note: I learned the hard way that if you plan to use white colored pencil on solid colored cardstock, don't try to blend it with odorless mineral spirits. That takes away all of the white pigment and you're left back where you started!

This card is one last entry for Flourishes' Gimme Ten challenge.

Thanks for swinging by!

Emily

Stamps: Calla Lilies by Flourishes
Paper: Spring Moss CS by Papertrey Ink
Ink: Palette Noir Black
Accessories: scoring board, colored pencils

God's Love

This week just absolutely flew by, and here we are: another Friday! Huzzah!! (I was going to say "yee-haw," but that hardly seemed dialectically appropriate, given that my humble abode is located in New England, less than 20 miles from both blue-blooded Boston and Concord, Mass., the setting for the "shot heard 'round the world." After hearing tales of candle dipping, silhouette drawing, hornbook making, and Johnny cake cooking from my third-grader's Colonial Day festivities yesterday, this exclamation seemed far more suitable.)

Anywho, where were we? Ah, yes: FRIDAY! It's time, of course, for another Friends With Flair blog hop with Unity Stamp Co. fans. You can find a list of all of today's participants on the Unity blog.

Today I'm sharing a sympathy card.

 

I really like how this turned out. It's muted but not overtly sympathy-y or  too somber, and I like the modern look. I used two {ippity} sets to create this card: What Matters Most and Just Wanted to Say.

I'm also linking this up to the new {ippity} challenge to use red on a project.

Any plans for your weekend? My 13YO leaves after school for a Girl Scout camping trip all weekend, so hubby, the boy, and I are on our own for the most part. I think I have a To-Do list that's about a mile long and needs tackling, but I'm trying not to think too much about that right now! We're so excited that there's just one more week of school left. I only need to pack lunches four more times!!! I am so over the lunch-packing thing.

Have a fabulous weekend, whatever you plan to do!

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily

Stamps: What Matters Most, Just Wanted to Say from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Co.

Paper: PTI kraft, cream, and chartreuse; patterned paper by My Mind's Eye

Ink: Versafine vintage sepia

Accessories: red gel pen, corner rounder, SU hemp twine, foam tape

With Sympathy

Just a quick post to share a sympathy card I made this evening. I had many cards to send out this past week, and I completely depleted my sympathy card supply. Time to replenish!

This is definitely a straightforward, clean and simple card, as I always think sympathy cards should be. I used the new sketch from Chick Challenges {with Ippity}, rotated on its side:

I'm also entering this in the {ippity} challenge to stamp on designer paper and the Unity Challenge to use stripes.

Both of my patterned papers are digital papers. The floral digital paper is from the free Echoes of Asia digital collection by Jessica Sprague, and the striped digital paper is from the Brown Damask digital paper pack by Shery K. Designs (I recolored the pattern to match the floral paper). And I used only {ippity}/Unity stamps, as required by all of these challenges.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Emily

Stamps: Regal Greetings by {ippity}, All About Today by Unity

Cardstock:  Ripe Avocado, white by PTI

Patterned paper:  Echoes of Asia digital collection by Jessica Sprague, Brown Damask digital paper pack by Shery K. Designs

Ink: Spanish Moss Versafine, Deep Lagoon Versafine

Accessories: scoring board, sewing machine, border punch, foam tape

A few to share for Friends with Flair

A new Friday means a new blog hop for yummy Unity inspiration: it is Friends with Flair Day!

I have exciting news!! Today I'd like to share one of two cards that were published in the recently released special Paper Crafts issue, 365 Cards. These are my first-ever cards published by Paper Crafts, and I am just tickled pink!! Both cards feature Unity stamps exclusively, 'cause I just love Unity Stamp Co. :)

I'll share my card that appears on page 101, for August 22, 2012. The stamped image and sentiment are from {ippity}'s Authentic Man kit.
My other card appears on page 114, for September 21, 2012. I used stamps from {ippity}'s Regal Greetings kit. You'll have to grab a copy of 365 Cards to get your peek at that one!

Be sure to swing by the Unity Stamp Co. blog for a ton more inspiration as part of today's FWF hop. You can find a list of all of today's participants there.

Thanks so much for dropping by today to share in a bit o' my bliss. Seeing my very own creations in print is such a hoot!

Have a great weekend!
Emily

Another Round Card

So, I really enjoyed making that lacey circle card yesterday, and had to make another. OK, well, this one isn't a lacey circle (having used up my one and only yesterday!), but it is a circle card and another rare-for-me shaped card. I just cut two circles using my Creative Memories templates and used Noelle's wonderful method for joining them into a flat-front card. Easy!

I mentioned yesterday that I've recently exhausted my supply of sympathy and get well cards. I'm still trying to build up my stash, so I thought this one could go either way with its "Thoughts of You" sentiment (from {ippity}'s Regal Greetings kit)--with the right message inside, this could be an appropriately somber sympathy card OR an elegant get well card. I like having that kind of flexibility.

I'm still using the Chick Challenges {with Ippity} #5 sketch for this week and playing along with {ippity}'s Mini Cards Challenge (this card is 4" in diameter).

I like how this turned out. I think I may be making round cards more often!

Thanks for dropping by for a little slice of bliss today. I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!
Emily

A Little Sympathy for FWF

Happy Friday! It's time to share a Unity project for Friends With Flair. Check the Unity Stamp Co. blog for hop details and a full list of today's participants.

Recently I've exhausted my supply of sympathy and get well cards. So today I've made a simple little sympathy card to add to my stash. It features stamps from the Regal Greetings kit brought to us by Unity's {ippity} line.
OK, I imagine that the eyebrows of those who know me are sky-high by now. Yes, that is a diecut you see. In fact, it is a hinged diecut lacy circle card. No, I haven't taken the plunge with a Big Shot or Grand Calibur machine and an accompanying vast collection of Spellbinders. Nope, it's the simple truth that my friends take pity on me and occasionally slip me a diecut or two. This beautiful lacy circle card was gifted to me by the very sweet Lisa Lara, a fixture on SplitcoastStampers. I have been hoarding it for over a year now, but when I saw the sketch for this week's Chick Challenges with {ippity} #5, I knew I had to bring it out of mothballs.

With this card, I'm also playing along with the current {ippity} Challenge, Mini Cards. This one measures 4" in diameter.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend! Thanks so much for dropping by today!
Emily

Inspired Sympathy

I've mentioned before on my blog how much my friend Colleen of Dietrich Designs has inspired me to look for card inspiration in everyday places. I love seeing how she translates an eye-catching ad or catalog photo into one of her beautiful card creations! So I've consciously been keeping an eye open for inspiration for my own creations all around me.

I subscribe to an array of magazines that are perfect for keeping me distracted during my early morning stationary cycle workouts. I love reading the articles and seeing the photo layouts and ads, but I'm never quite ready to recycle them when I'm done. So they pile up. Well, I'm happy to report that in the past few weeks I've been making a point of picking up a magazine from my "finished" pile to flip through and rip pages from to keep. Then the issues are sent off to the recycling bin. I'm keeping an eye open for interesting recipes, hot tips, useful information, and most importantly--card inspiration. (Next up: organizing all of these clippings.) And I am so thrilled to say that I'm already putting my inspiration file to good use! I spotted this pendant lamp from Room&Board in the September 2010 issue of Better Homes & Gardens. The orange botanical print reminded me of my new EK rock fern punch, and I knew that I could work up a card from there. Here it is:
Challenges:

• Lucy's Cards: Sketch Week, Day 6
• Play Date Cafe Challenge: PDCC65
• CropStop Challenge #3: square card + a die cut
• Wee Memories Challenge #40: Free Your Creativity--any creation goes
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge: sympathy card
• Cute Card Thursday: Recipe of 1, 2, 3 in any combo. I used 1 sentiment banner, 2 punch/die shapes, and 3 colors (gray, orange, olive)
• Stampin' B's DT: include a banner of some kind

In other news, my 12YO daughter has been invited to a birthday slumber party next weekend, so I was in search of a birthday present for DD to give her friend. DD requested that I look for something crafty as the gift, so I headed out to Michael's. I found a fantastic K&Company create-your-own monthly wall calendar with tons of embellishments and papers. It was marked down with the Christmas clearance items to 90% off, so I got it for $1.69. I couldn't believe it!! DD is sure her friend will flip for it. I found a small K&Company Valentine scrap kit (also marked down but not to 90% off. Darn.) and some packs of red and purple Studio G blank cards to give the birthday girl as well. She can make her own Valentines or do some scrapbooking, whatever. I'm so psyched that we have assembled a super birthday gift for not a lot of money at all. I'd love to drop the hint that if she doesn't like it, I'll take it!!

I must admit that while at Michael's I did a good deal of browsing in the 90% off clearance bins for myself as well. Found loads of awesome stuff for $0.10!! Love it. :) I also had to bring home this Martha Stewart French Scroll punch-around-the-page set that was on (regular) clearance. It needed a home!! Now to figure out where to store it . . .

Thanks for dropping by!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: {ippity} Burlap
Paper: SU old olive CS, SU tangerine tango CS
Ink: Palette charcoal
Accessories: EK rock fern punch, 2" and 2.25" circle punches, sewing machine, foam tape, string
Techniques: machine stitching

Grassland Sympathy

A quick and easy card for this morning! Challenges incorporated into today's card creation:

• Splitcoast CAS91, with Sympathy
• Create for Fun, CR84FN2
• Card Positioning Systems, CPS191

We took our kids out trick-or-treating last night and had a fabulous time, despite the brisk temperatures and biting wind. DH and I wore our winter coats and gloves (and I should have taken my earmuffs!!) and were just barely comfortable. However, the thought of limitless sugary candy must have warmed our kids' hearts because they never once complained about being cold--and this is without the benefit of coats. Neither one wanted to ruin the look of their costume with extra bulk so they let an extra sweater layer underneath their costumes suffice. And the gloves we took along for them just in case? Too much bother!! They just got in the way of handling the candy and treats.

By the time we returned home, my fingers (in my gloves!) were numb but their bare hands were toasty warm. DH and I sipped hot cocoa while the kids sorted, tallied, and traded their candy. And first thing this morning before school, DS had to make both a bar graph and a pie chart of all the different kinds of candy he received. That's my boy!! He's all about the data. Of course, he had me print out his graphs (in color) so he could take them to school to show his second-grade teacher and class. Too cute :)

Thanks for stopping by to visit today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Bold & Free, Mark's Finest Papers A Walk in the Woods (sentiment)
Paper: PTI kraft CS, MFP hazelnut tan CS, MFP Snow Storm ultra smooth finish CS , SU baja breeze CS, DCWV textured teal CS
Ink: Palette charcoal, SU baja breeze
Accessories: CM circle cutting system, sponge, hemp cord, dimensionals
Techniques: sponging

Forest Sympathy

I've been itching to play the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge SC300 ever since it was issued last week, and I finally got the chance to do so last night!! Wow, 300 weekly sketches--that's quite a milestone. It was perfect for a CAS sympathy card I'd been picturing in my mind for a while.

This is a SNEAK PEEK of a new clear stamp set scheduled to be released by Mark's Finest Papers next week. This time I am using A Walk in the Woods (along with the birch tree trunks from an older set, Stinky Situation). A Walk in the Woods features a variety of gorgeous tree images (I used one in the background stamping on the saffron panels) and a variety of comforting sentiments, including this "with Sympathy" sentiment. My inside sentiment reads "Peace be with you."

I just adore the birch trunks image! And so versatile--it can be used as a background, or, because it is so detailed, as a focal point, as I did here. I stamped them in Versamark on watercolor paper, covered with black embossing powder, and heat set. Then I had a lovely time watercoloring, the coloring method that makes me happiest!!

I also incorporated these challenges:

• Embellish Magazine: Background Stamping Color Challenge
• Stamptacular Sunday: Challenge #79, Layer It On, to use at least 5 layers
• Stamps R Us: Challenge #6, an All Nature Theme

I never got a chance to tell you about our geocaching adventures on Saturday. We had a blast!! We found two caches hidden in a nearby conservation area that we'd never even heard of. It is tucked in a residential area about a mile and a half away. I was amazed by the forest we walked through--nicely groomed, well-marked, wide forest paths through really tall, widely spaced pines and hardwoods. It was so peaceful!! It seemed like we were miles from civilization, yet in reality we were only a stone's throw from folks' backyards. We found our geocaches without too much trouble; the kids loved checking out the trinkets stashed in each one, exchanging swag from their personal collections for cool finds in the geocache; and we all enjoyed an easy hike. A restorative afternoon!

Thanks for dropping by to check out my little slice of happy!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers: A Walk in the Woods & Stinky Situation
Paper: SU basic black, SU so saffron, The Paper Company grey, Canson watercolor paper
Ink: Versamark, SU so saffron, Marvy LePlume II black marker (sentiment), Rubber Stampede black (for watercoloring)
Accessories: black embossing powder, heat tool, watercolor brush, dimensionals
Techniques: watercolor painting

Autumn Sympathy

A happy Wednesday to you! What a crazy week. At first I started typing "happy Monday" and then changed it to "happy Tuesday" before realizing that it is already Wednesday. Where has the week gone??? I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Saturday. I'm not sure how that happened. I trust that all of you had a super weekend. We certainly did. Our DD (11YO) had a fantastic Girl Scout encampment weekend. The weather was perfect! On Saturday, our DS (7YO) was thrilled when my DH took the training wheels off his bicycle. He was obviously far past ready to be released from training wheels land. He had everything mastered within minutes! He spent his weekend tearing up and down the driveway with no training wheels to slow him down. :)

Then on Sunday afternoon, after DD returned from her camping trip, all four of us went apple picking. It's our family tradition to go picking at a local orchard the very first weekend that MacIntosh apples come into season! It was fabulous. We picked 3/4 of a mixed bushel of Macs and Galas. That should last us for a couple of months of lunches (and maybe a few pans of apple crisp, too.) Yum!

I stole an hour (OK, probably a bit more than that) this morning to make a sympathy card I've needed for over a week now. It was lovely to be creating again. I do hope that this will help to comfort one of my fellow DT members who lost her mother last week.
I stamped the birch tree trunks (an MFP stamp from the set Stinky Situation) in Versamark ink and applied SU chocolate chip chalk with a sponge applicator. The oval of "DP" under the main image was recycled from a Panera gift card holder I received earlier in the year. To make the messy pleated ribbon, I ran a line of adhesive from my tape runner down the length of the ribbon (on the back) and stuck it down, to itself and to the card underneath.

Here are the challenges I incorporated while making this card:

• Splitcoast sketch challenge SC298,
• The Paper Players Challenge #15, to use Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, and Early Espresso,
• City Crafter Challenge Week 22, Tree of Books, to create a card/project that include the image of a tree/trees or a book/books,
• Delightful Challenges, Ribbon Recipe,
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge #20, to use fall colors,
• A Spoonfull of Sugar Challenge 121, autumn color challenge,
• Tuesday Taggers, Diamonds are Forever. I scored a piece of textured card stock with a diamond pattern,
• Tuesday Throwdown #17, distressing. I used an emery board to sand my scored diamond pattern and to distress the edges of most of my panels and mats.

Thanks for stopping by to visit today!

Card recipe:
Stamps: MFP Stinky Situation, My Sentiments Exactly (MSE) Sympathy Sentiments
Paper: SU chocolate chip CS, Cosmo Cricket Pixie Dust CS, various scraps of CS, recycled Panera gift card holder
Ink: Versamark, Palette burnt umber
Accessories: CM oval cutting system, SU modern label punch, scoring tool, emery board (for distressing), Stampin' Pastels, sponge applicator, hairspray, dimensionals, wrinkled ribbon
Techniques: Poppin' Pastels, distressing

Edited 10/12/2010 to add:

Just discovered that I was named a City Crafter Challenge Blog Spotlight Artist for Week 22 for this sympathy card.