Happy Friday! This week's Facebook live I made a soft, pretty Sympathy card for a friend who requested a handmade card. I always struggle with Sympathy cards as I want to send out my heart and just never have the correct words to say. However, this week's featured bundle - Textured Floral - made the task so much easier! The stamps and the dies are perfect for something "simple" and elegant.
I had a great time designing cards by pulling out my trusty Stampin' Up! Color Coach for inspiration. This is one of the best inspirational tools to jump start your card designing. I wrote down a number of color combinations to trial out in the future.
I wanted something soft and calming for the sympathy card I had in mind. Since pink is my favorite color, I went searching for color combinations in the pink family within the Color Coach. I settled on Bubble Bath, Flirty Flamingo and Old Olive.
The Painted Posies 3D Embossing Folder made a beautiful floral themed background on Basic White to add my Eucalyptus die cuts and stamped floral sprays.
The Textured Floral Photopolymer Stamp set is a Distinktive, two step stamp set. What is Distinktive stamps you ask? It's a Stampin' Up! exclusive! "Get photo-realistic style images with Distinktive stamps, available only from Stampin’ Up! Distinktive stamps have a special texture that gives added depth and dimension in a single step. They’re available in red rubber and photopolymer; look for the Distinktive icon. Distinktive patent pending."
I truly love the stamped images from Distinktive stamp sets as they almost look like a water color images. However, sometimes I have issues with the stamp image coming out splotchy especially when stamping with a nice new juicy stamp pad. Never Fear! There is a solution and we trialed it out last night in my Textured Floral Card Class. All you need to do is "move the ink". What the heck is "move the ink" mean? Take a bone folder and lightly "scrape" it along the mid portion of the stamp pad clearing space large enough for the image to be stamped. Don't scrape to hard as you may damage your ink pad! This moves the ink to the bottom of the pad to rise again after you have finished stamping your Distinktive stamp images! Worked like a charm! Please note: when you move your ink, the stamped image may come out less vibrant. If this bothers you, you may want to try using a stamping platform so that you can stamp the image a 2nd or 3rd time for darker, vibrant color.
The other tip I have for using the Textured Floral stamp set is for stamping the floral spray. I'm not positive what type of flower the image represents. My guess is a Snapdragon! Stamp the branch image first and then line up the petals to set on top of the individual stems. It's okay for the stems to be inside the individual petal images if all line up better for you. I spot the bottom three petals of the image on the branch and then align the rest of the petals. It worked like another charm! This tended to align up better with the coordinating die than when I stamped the petals first and tried to align the branches. If you still have troubles, then try the next tip - third time is a charm - LOL. Die cut a template of the "snapdragon" on any scrap card stock. Stamp your stems onto your project's card stock, place the template over the stems and then place your "snapdragon" stamp within the template and pick up with your stamping block. Then stamp as usual and remove your template! This should help to get a perfectly stamped image within your coordinating die!
The Textured Floral Dies coordinate with all of the stamp images plus you get some extra leafy foliage images. My favorite is the Eucalyptus die! We took card stock and blended a complimentary ink onto the card stock a blending brush before we die cut the eucalyptus leaves. They were so pretty with the added texture and dimension.
Lastly, I used the Hope You Know Photopolymer Stamp set for my sympathy sentiments for the front and inside of the card. The sentiments in this stamp set are perfect for conveying your feelings to the special people in your life!
Click Here for the free Textured Floral Sympathy Card Tutorial.
Click Here for the replay of Wednesday's Facebook Live.
If you like the sympathy card, please leave a comment here or on the Facebook post! It's always great to hear from other crafters.
What are your plans for the upcoming weekend? Tonight, I'm having crafting friends over for our Monthly Kit Gathering to work on some of Paper Pumpkin and Kit Collection kits. Tomorrow evening, hubby and I are spending time with friends and family at the Assumption Catholic Church Bazaar in Welby, Colorado. We always enjoy catching up with friends over a sausage sandwich and a beer. Sometimes, we are lucky to win something from the Country Stores via a spin of the wheel!
Take care and ...
KEEP ON CRAFTING!
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