Sympathy Vase

Sadly, I needed a couple of sympathy cards, so I turned to my go-to stamp for the occasion. It's a beautiful stamp by Impress Rubber Stamps, with a branch on one side and a flower on the end. I use it with my small vase punch and Japanese paper. I liked this patterned paper for its muted shades of navy, brown and purple, and picked those out in the card base (tsumugi in Heather) and mat (chocolate- PTI). The image itself is stamped on shimmer white (Stampin' Up) in Rich Cocoa (Memento), Lavender (Color Box) and Night Sky (Versamagic). I added a small shadow with gray pencil crayon. The sentiment is also in cocoa (Fancy Flexible Phrases, Stampin' Up). The paper was too nice to leave off, so I added an accent strip to the background. The nice thing about the bough-flower stamp is that it embellishes the envelope nicely as well. This is such a quick and easy card to make, which is nice when you need a card in a hurry. You could make a more cheerful version of this, certainly, in lovely fresh greens and pinks or blues and yellows, etc.

Well that's it for now. I have to go check and see if my fairy wands are glued together. The wood glue said to clamp for an hour. My binder clips weren't holding the stars to the sticks, so I found a long thin box and laid it over the wands, and piled some paint cans on top. If I balanced them just so, the box wouldn't collapse or tip over. They are on the freezer right now and if DH discovers this contraption, he will be very cross indeed. (He's never a fan of my teetery piles, whereas I somewhat enjoy seeing how I can pile things on an unstable base. What's that they say about the triumph of optimism over experience????)

Thanks for stopping by!