Sympathy Week, Part First

I have sadly sold out of Sympathy cards, so for the rest of this week, I'll be making them every chance I get. To keep me sane, though, I plan to throw in other cards - some irreverent, or (like in today's example) some to clear out the Heaplet-wannabe.

Let's begin our journey with a look at the current state of The Captain's Table:

No, it's not pretty. Let's do those numbers:

1. My morning coffee, getting cold.
2. Several punches I was using to try out to see which one went best with my new flower punch (the white one). I call this a UFO, so the stuff is still there.
3. My Thanks stamp I use on every Thank You note I send with my etsy orders. It lives there.
4. My PTI Mazel Tov set I played with on my last sick day. Not cleaned or put away yet.
5. My sushi buttons. I have since put them into an empty Flower Soft container. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
6. The paper du jour. I wanted to use this to make Birthday cards today.
7. The "I cannot bear to throw this way" ribbon scrap pile. It groweth. I see a woven ribbon card in my near future.

Let's not forget the floor next to the table:

Just because I clean my stamps and put them back into their cases does not mean those cases get put away. You also assume I have the space to put these away, which right now I do not. :( I just look away.

I'm just trying to keep it real, and I am glad to take one for the team, once again, if it helps you feel better. I did manage to stamp today, though. PLENTY of room! :)

First up, I have photographic evidence that I took the picture I used on my next card. This is the view outside my car window in Oct, 2005, while I was stopped in traffic somewhere in the South, either Florida or Georgia:

Thank goodness for power windows. Instead of looking at all the stopped traffic in front of me, I happened to look to my right. Lucky me! I later cropped that photo down to this:

... and I've used it ever since to make these:

The sentiment is stamped on paper vellum (as opposed to cardstock-weight vellum), and the vellum is placed over the photo. The ribbon hides the adhesive. Vellum adhesive and I are not on good terms, and we never have been. I find that ribbon is my friend in these situations.

This card is a nice change to the traditional Sympathy card, and it has been very popular.

Next up, I saw this card on SCS, and I needed to CASE it. I saw it as a perfect time to break out my untouched and unloved Basic Grey paper packs, and today I chose cappella for its more muted tones. This is what finally came out:

I chose 6 pieces of the 6x6 papers, 5 for the larger layers and one to cut for the vertical black patterned pieces. I used Artichoke for the layers on all the cards. I softened the sentiment (on PTI white) by stamping an image over it in stamped-off Going Grey (now retired). The ribbon loop is SU's Basic Gray 5/8" Satin (so yummy) and the pearls in the corners of the black layer (yes, they are tiny, but they are there) are from my stash of Every-Company's-Pearls collection. The base is Going Grey, because I thought White was too stark.

Here's another of the cards so you can see the different paper I used for the layer with the same pattern paper for the black piece:

I like that I found one layering color (Artichoke) that went pretty well with all those papers.

Since all those BG papers are 6x6, I had trimmings left over, so I decided to USE them instead of putting them back with the rest of the pack. I took the 1" strips, stuck them to a scrap piece of printer paper:

... and die-cut it:

I got two pieces cut out, and they now live on the UFO pile, which is better than all those left-over strips of paper.

Next up, I celebrated my 9 Sympathy card victory by cutting up that sheet of Bathing Beauties. Here's one of the resulting cards:

The background is a lace backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms, stamped on So Saffron card stock with So Saffron ink. The ribbon is one of the new SU laces. I think since I have this image off-center, I might add something on the right, maybe dangling from the ribbon. We'll see.

Here is another one:

Same as that first one, except I used the other new SU lace ribbon, and I did the folding thing that I watched today in a video. VERY easy to do, and I love it with that lace. And if I ever find the link again, I'll be sure to update this post. ;/

After I'd made 5 of those, I had this image left:

Since it was three ladies instead of just one, I thought I'd use my "We'll be friends until we're blue in the hair" sentiment, but it didn't fit. Still pondering what to use here.

Also, fatalities of the cut were these two images:

Look at their legs! I know it's supposed to look aged or watermarked, but these look like the ladies have the measles or some cruel rash-y disease. Until I make peace with them, they will not be on any of my cards.

That's it - 14 cards in one day. Not too bad. I have a plan for tomorrow's Sympathy cards, which will open up another opportunity for me to play with UFOs and attempt to diminish that Heaplet-wannabe a bit more.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go reclaim some drawer space so I can put some of those stamp sets away.

Thanks for stopping by!