Song Bird Sympathy

Sadly, I needed a sympathy card for a colleague this week. I wanted to make one that would be big enough for lots of people to sign when it goes around the office. (The finished card is 7 3/4" x 5 1/4 , which is 1/2" smaller length and width than the envelope.)

I started with a nice big piece of Papertrey Ink white, and stamped Cornish Heritage Farms Picotage Print Backgrounder in Top Boss watermark ink. I've read that this watermark ink doesn't make your stamps sticky like another brand does, so I thought I'd give it a try. I embossed with detail clear e.p. and brayered over with Ice Blue fluid chalk ink. Then I sponged in several shades of blue and purple (French Blue, Wisteria, Prussian Blue, Warm Violet, Blue Iris) chalk inks, leaving the centre nice and light. Then I removed the embossing with a dry iron, and sponged some Charcoal chalk around the edges to soften the white areas where the resist was. Then I stamped the song bird image with Dragonfly Black pigment ink and embossed with black e.p. This image panel is mounted on a black mat, which is mounted on a piece of dark blue Bazzill textured cardstock, with a torn edge. The sentiment is Cornish H.F. (Silhouette Blooms I), stamped in Onyx Versafine, which is ideal for capturing the fine detail of the lettering. The sentiment is punched with the large Stampin' Up oval punch mounted on a dark blue scalloped oval, punched with a must-have from the Occasions Mini. I edged the scallops with Brilliance platinum, just to define the edges a bit, especially where it overhangs the same colour.

The whole card is on PTI white because I wanted a nice heavy cardstock to hold up all that paper. I wanted the inside of the card white, but the front coloured, so I just custom-coloured it myself with my handy mini brayer (Ranger) and a pretty leaf stamp (Heather's Stamping Haven, 185CU). I brayered over with Wiseria, then a bit of French Blue, then stamped the leaf in threes and singles, and wanded in more French Blue around them. I brayered over in Alabaster (Cathie Allan's filtering technique), and heat set with the iron. I added a vertical row of Smokey Grey and Onyx (versafine) leaves, topped with Brilliance Platinum leaves. I felt it needed some more leaves out towards the edge, so I added some more, stamped in first- and second-impressions with Blue Iris. Some marker lines (Tombow) added some definition. Then I remembered I wanted to add some ribbon so I peeled off the bird panel, slid in some ribbon and stuck it back down. (This step is optional - you can remember to add the ribbon before you stick it down.) Then I carefully heat set the afterthought leaves, ironing around the panels. (Ditto for optional step - you can remember to heat set the leaves before you stick everything down. They don't have to be heat set, they just feel better to the touch when they are. And they dry faster, which reduces smudging, caused by not washing your hands after you sponge using the last clean side of an old sponge.... Now I have the world's grubbiest hands, or the best Colorbox manicure. It's all in how you look at it. Considering I have to meet with a very senior person at work tomorrow (who is extremely unlikely to be a stamping sort of person), it's looking as if grubby it is....))

I'll stop torturing you with convoluted sentences and diabolical punctuation now and upload the picture! The people who work with me that get my heavily edited for grammar and punctuation would never believe my haphazard, stream-of-consciousness blogs, with the most atrocious/imaginative (again, it's in the eye of the beholder) punctuation. That, my friends is the difference between scientific writing and the Interweb, where any sort of ink-fume-inhaling lunatic can hold forth interminably!

Thanks for stopping by!