Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, I somehow suddenly needed a lot of sympathy cards. I guess as I get older I will run into this problem from time to time, so I need to be prepared.
It seems the stamping world, at least as I see it online, is pretty much populated by a young clientele, who favor the cute and whimsical. Cute and whimsical has never really been my style, probably due to my mature years, but even when I was much younger I preferred nature imagery and clever design to fairy tale and cartoon imagery. This is especially true when choosing images for sympathy cards.
Luckily, I rarely get rid of my older stamp sets, tools, or materials. So I found a dated Stampin' Up sympathy stamp set in my stash and set to work.
I first stamped the lilies in black ink on white, and then promptly discarded those as not really suitable. I then used gold ink and gold embossing powder, some on vellum, some on white card, and was pleased with the result.
I tried various ways to color the lilies white, and was not happy with anything I tried as a coloring medium. I then picked up the black and white images I had previously stamped and cut out just the lily portions and mounted them behind the gold embossed images on the vellum. I had colored the leaves green on the backside of the vellum. The white of the stamped paper really showed up and the black stamped lines were well hidden by the gold embossing. Voila! That was my solution.
But now another problem ensued--what should be the backing behind the vellum stamped piece? A plain card front really did nothing to show up the embossing. I tried various printed papers and finally found a pretty piece that was gold foiled, but the piece was blue. Blue behind my green and white lilies? Not really. So I got out my dated backgound stamps and found one that was highly detailed. Again, gold ink and gold embossing powder were my friends.
The results are pictured above. Just the right amount of elegance and minimal fuss to make a vehicle for a heartfelt message of sympathy.
Very lovely cards! And very appropriate as you clearly thought out as you were making them. I agree that cute is popular but I also enjoy the beautiful traditional flower and nature images. Thanks for sharing!
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