Everything Eleanor Sympathy Card

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Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! I hope you're having a great day, and week too. :) Just two more days until the weekend. Yea!

I don't know about you, but one of the hardest cards for me to make, even harder than the dreaded "Masculine" card is a sympathy card. There's really such a fine line when designing this type of card. You want something beautiful but not flashy and something sincere but not overdone.. you get the idea. They're just hard for me and I think for many of you as well. Unfortunately, this is not a card I have a ready supply of. I may have to do something about that. Well, Monday morning at work, my co-worker told me she was taking off the last few days of this week because her Best Friend had died last Friday. Awwww! I can't even conceive of that happening to me. Well, of course we know what I felt a need to do, right? Yep! Create a little bit of hand-crafted love for her. Isn't it great that SU has such beautiful sets to  help us with this difficult task? Isn't it awful that somehow those sets keep getting pushed back on my order form in favor of newer sets that I just have to have RightNow! That's right. No sympathy sets at home for me. So I had to figure out a new idea. Well, I went to have dinner with my Stamping BFF, April, isn't it nice that she offered to feed me? We were going to stamp too but got a little caught up in the Olympics. To be honest, I'm surprised I've gotten any stamping done this week! After a relaxing evening with friends I made it home around 9:30 and still needed to come up with a card. Why, Oh Why, is it that I don't already have these things prepared in advance!?!

Here's what I came up with-

Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

This is a CASE of a card I made in Robin Merriman's Stampin at the Firehouse class. I changed a few small things, but the basic layout and focal image is hers. I thought it was a pretty card and would work well for what I needed. What do you think? I wanted the colors to be elegant but subdued. I think Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla fit that bill nicely, don't you? This was the first time I used my Everything Eleanor stamp set. I got it for Free during SAB. I love how SU takes care of us!!! Anyways, I used Night of Navy as my base and topped it with a piece of Crumb Cake that I ran through my Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper E.F. This layer was sponged with Crumb Cake Classic Ink to make the embossing stand out more and then adhered to the base with Tombow. I stamped my images on a piece of Very Vanilla and mounted it to a piece of Night of Navy c/s. The original card didn't have a sentiment on the front and I tried double mounting the sentiments and stamping them on the inside, sometimes that works out, but it just didn't look right for this. So I started looking for punches to use and came up with the Oval and Scalloped Oval punches. They were just the right size and I think the scalloped edge ties in well with all the rounded edges on the embossed layer. A little C.C. sponging to soften these two layers and I adhered it to my center panel with two Dimensionals. I tried a few different ribbons and settled on the Very vanilla Seam Binding. The Victorian Lace was pretty with this too, you could see the colors through the lace...what a pretty effect, but a little too much with the punched layer. I simply wrapped it around my layer and tied it in a small bow. This completed panel was then adhered with Dimensionals.

Here's a look at the inside-

Inside of Sympathy Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs.

I simply inked my images up and stamped off once before stamping them on this inside layer.

Ok, I said simply. I lie. O.K. I don't really lie, but it wasn't quite that easy. In fact what should have taken me about 30 minutes to do ended up taking over an hour. I don't know if I was tired or if I was worried about making "the Perfect card" for my friend, but it just wasn't happening. Does that ever happen to you? First off, it took me a few different takes to decide if I was stamping the front full strength or half strength, then to sentiment or not to sentiment, then what to use. During this time I inadvertently inked up my stamps in the wrong color, managed to ink up the edge of my fingers in Night of Navy and that was just on the front. Once I got to the inside I inked up my background image not once but twice in the wrong color! *Headdesk!* Finally it came time to stamp the sentiment. I had it mounted and inked up, had done a practice stamp and made sure I was lined up where I wanted to be, you know all level and everything and what happens? The stamp falls off the block. Augh! Well, luckily it fell on my grid paper. Other than the fact that my heart stopped, no harm no foul. I re-mounted it, re-inked it  went to stamp it and it fell off again and bounced, leaving Night of Navy ink on my inside and not where & how I wanted it. Let's just say AUGH! is not the word/words/phrases I was uttering in a loud voice. Ok, so it was my fault. This is a set I had mounted a while back and I didn't adhere the backing flat. It was a little tight and the stamp curved inward. So I peeled it off a little at a time, and trimmed around the edges so the sticky part would adhere to the block and decided to try again. It's a good thing I don't adhere my inner layers until I'm done stamping! I stamped the sentiment again, and got it right the first time and then making sure my Night of Navy pad was closed, inked up & stamped my background image  and then my floral image. Whew was I glad to be done!!!

Oh snap! I still had to do the envelope. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I mounted and un-mounted those 2 stamps thinking I was done each time. One more time each and finally I really was done, over an hour after I first started.  *SMH* I think the time and effort were worth it though, especially after seeing the look on my friends face. Don't you just love it when they ask, somewhat incredulously, "Did you make this?" She loved it and couldn't believe I had not only made it but made it for her.

Here's the card and envelope together-

Sympathy Card and Envelope featuring
Everything Eleanor and Petite Pairs

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to make some sympathy cards to have on hand so you don't have to scramble at the last moment like I did. :) 

For those of you, like me, that are measurement challenged I have today's measurements for you. I've been trying to remember to put these on my posts, in fact I've been putting them in my B.B. for that reason, but often forget to post them. If I forget and you 'd like the measurements, leave me a comment and I'll get them for you.

Night of Navy Base- 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored and folded at 4 1/4

Crumb Cake layer- 5 1/4 x 4

Night of Navy panel- 4 1/4 x 3 1/4

Very Vanilla- 4 x 3

I love hearing from you so if you liked today's card or have questions about it, and have a moment to leave me a comment, you'd make my day. I read all of my comments. If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put the buttons on my post for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are appreciated! I hope to see you back soon. I'll have this week's End of the Week Technique for you tomorrow. Till next time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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