Sympathy Card - Crane Mask

Hello Friends -

There are two types of cards that everyone complains about needing to make, Sympathy cards and cards for men.  Well, what about sympathy cards for men and boys?

I was asked to make four different sympathy cards which would be used for four members of the same family -- two teenagers, the daughter and wife of the gentleman that passed.

As long as I was doing one, I thought I would try to do a few of them in each style.

To make this first card I made two masks by cutting images from the Pagoda Cricut cartridge.  The crane worked very well but the bamboo was a bit more of an issue.  Because it wasn't a silhouette it wanted more detail than could be accomplished with this process.

I inked the bamboo in a couple of Distress Inks.  The crane is also Distress Ink, Black Soot.

This is such a simple way to make a card but one that I often forget.  Making the mask really couldn't be simpler.  You can use scissors, an electronic cutting machine or a die cutter.  Think of all the cool things you could make with a piece of transparency and a cutter.

What is your thought on these cards?

Black and White Sympathy Cards

I don't think it is ever easy to make sympathy cards.  However, I feel like these could go in the stash box for when I need them (except for the second one which is already on its way to some friends). I almost broke down and bought a card before I worked these two out.  The real plus to making sympathy cards, you can say what you really feel as opposed to trying to find a card that says what you want.  These worked for me, mostly because I chose the sentiments.  

OK, so here are the cards.

The paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle, Love Letters.  I got it on sale this week from their website.  It was a great price so I bought two stacks.  The scallop is from Alphalicous Cart and the circle and rectangles (card base and card topper) are from George.  I really don't know what I would do without my George cart.  It was the very first thing I ever "bought" with rewards points.  

Speaking of rewards points, I am getting a Gypsy with all of my rewards points.  I'm so excited  I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted one and thought about getting one when the price went under $100 and then this week Michaels started selling them for $50.  I'm not sure how much I'll use it, although it would be nice to set-up my E someplace that isn't immediately connected to my laptop.  If the transfer of files back and forth is as easy as they say, I think I'll be happy.  The truth is, I had 4000 rewards points sitting there and nothing to do with them.  I didn't want any of the carts they were offering and 4000 points would have gotten my 5 or 6 at least, and I really don't do "promotional" items.  If PC wants me to wear their T-shirt or hat around and advertise for them they can send it to me for free.

OK, I digress, back to the cards.  The font on the first is Calibri and on the second it is Papyrus.  The inside says, "It's so curious:  one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief.  But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses. - Collette"

I hope this gives you some ideas for simple sympathy cards.  Stay warm and let me know what you think.

Sympathy Card for a Little Girl

This was a tough card to make.  It is a sympathy card for a tweener whose grandmother passed away recently and unexpectedly.  I didn't like any of the traditional symbols (dove, praying hands, lamb, etc).  I know that it looks like it could be a valentines card from the front. 

Here is the inside:

I thought the images on the front worked well with the sentiment. 

I also was pleased with the way the trunk turned out.  For those of you that read about my advent calendar from Christmas Village (you can see it here if you missed it), you know I fell in love with Perfect Pearls.  Well, here they are again.  I used them to make the edges of the trunk look like they are held together with metal.


I also added a piece of patterned paper to the inside of the lid so it would look like it was lined with cloth. 

This is a picture of the trunk next to the paper I used to make the trunk.  Don't you like the difference?

Then I added small brads by punching a hole in the trunk where the cut had small marks.  I used my crop-o-dile and brads from Paper Studio. 

Sympathy cards are very tough to do. What do you think?