Two Heartfelt Handmade Cards

When I started this blog, it began as solely a card-making blog.  But as the years went on I have been making cards less and less and my blog has transitioned into a lifestyle blog.  Now I mainly make cards just for my grand babies or special events.  Unfortunately this past month I had to make two cards for more serious reasons:  one a sympathy card and the other an encouragement card.

My first card was for an older gentleman who lost his wife.  I always keep sympathy cards simple, because I think that is more appropriate for the solemn occasion.  And for this one, I kept it extra simple because it was for a male.  I also used a more masculine image.

To make my card I first sponged a sky background with blue ink, then I stamped a trio of trees (retired Papertrey Ink) over the sponged background.  I then cut the main image card and a blue background frame using Spellbinders Nestabilities then I glued it all together on a white card base.  I stamped a sentiment in the same ink as the trees.

My second card is for a woman who just received some bad medical news.  I wasn't that familiar with the situation as I heard it second hand, but I wanted her to know that I care and that I was thinking and praying for her.  The inside of the cards reads "Whatever happens, God is there to keep you safely in His care".

To make this card, I first stamped, colored, and cut out the Morning Glory image.  Then I cut a white large oval followed by a blue scalloped oval using Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I glued all three pieces onto a white card stock base then stamped a sentiment onto the white oval.  I finished the card with three clear crystals.  All the images in this card are retired Stampin' Up!.

Handmade cards are always special, but I think they have extra meaning when given for more serious reasons. It really shows how much you care when you take the time to make it yourself.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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A Handmade Masculine Style Sympathy Card

Last month I had to say goodby to a very old friend who died of cancer.  It was a devastating loss.  She was such a beautiful woman; always smiling, always helping people.  She left behind her husband of thirty two years.  It was a hard funeral, and even harder to see her loving husband deal with the magnitude of his loss.  But being people of faith, he said "I won't be far behind her.  I will see her again soon!".  I replied back "I think we all will, as I know Jesus is coming back soon!"  

I handmade a sympathy card for my friend's husband.  I wanted to keep it clean and simple, yet elegant and masculine at the same time.

To make the card, I chose neutral, masculine colors.  The card base is "Creamy Caramel". I stamped a retired Stampin' Up! background stamp called "Scrolls" in Versamark on the caramel card stock then sprinkled gold embossing powder on it and heat set it using a heat gun.

The sentiment was stamped the same way, but on white card stock.  The image is from retired Stampin' Up! "Brighter Tomorrow".  I put in two eyelets on each short end and ran an iridescent gold ribbon through.  I edged the sentiment panel with a gold gel pen.

I used a corner punch to round two of the corners then edged the Creamy Caramel panel with a gold gel pen too.

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

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"Praying for You" Handmade Card

I have a simple card to show today that you could use to send out to anyone who just needs to know that you care and are praying for them.

The background of tall grass was stamped with a retired Stampin' Up image from the set "Inspired by Nature".  If you don't have a grass stamp this large, it could easily be drawn with a green marker.  I stamped the grass in a green ink directly on the white card stock base.

The sentiment is also from a retired Stampin' Up! set called "Thoughts and Prayers".  I stamped it with green ink, then I cut an oval shape using Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I then adhered it to another cut oval shape (this one with scallops) but in brown to make it pop.  Two green brads were added for embellishment.

I cut a strip of green paper just to go across the bottom.  You could also add ribbon to make it a little more fancy.  The bird is a pre-purchased felt sticker.

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Handmade Sympathy Cards

2020 has sure been a sad year for us, as I know it has been for everyone on our planet.  In addition to Covid and all the political and social issues, we've lost a lot of loved ones to cancer, heart disease, and dementia.  It seems I have had to make more sympathy cards than cards to celebrate life.

If I have the time, I always prefer to send a handmade sympathy card than a store bought one.  I feel taking the extra effort to put some time into making a card is the very least I can do.  The first card is made using two old retired Stampin' Up! sets "Brighter Tomorrow" and "Happy Harmony".  I know, it's kind of ironic that I made a sympathy card from a set called "Happy Harmony" but I loved the flower image.

To make the card, using a Stampamajig I randomly stamped the flower image from the "Happy Harmony" set all over a sky blue card base.  I then cut a scalloped border out of white card stock along with a strip of "Close to Cocoa" card stock and sewed them directly onto the sky blue card base using a sewing machine. Sewing on a card seems odd to some, but I feel it adds just a little bit of interest to a card and it's so easy to do.

I then stamped the sentiment onto white card stock with an image from retired Stampin' Up! "Brighter Tomorrow" and cut it into a scalloped oval shape using a die from Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I sponged light blue ink on the edges, then I popped it up on dimensionals.  The butterflies were cut using an old Cuttlebug die.  I glued just the bodies of the butterflies to the card to add more dimension.  Small, metallic pearls were added to some of the dots in the flower images.

My next card only uses images from the retired Stampin' Up! set "Thoughts and Prayers".  Since it's fall, I decided to create a fall sympathy card and stamped the image in fall colors.  I picked a dark purple and brown to frame the main image then I decorated the card with a bow.

I used Stampin' Up! Watercolor Markers to color different fall colors directly onto the stamp.  Then I huffed on it to remoisten the ink, and stamped.

Have A Great Day!

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A Handmade Baby Shower Card For A Beautiful Fall Baby Shower

Last weekend I shared that I had the pleasure of attending two good, old friend's life milestone events:  a wedding and a baby shower.  In last week's post I covered the Beautiful Fall Wedding, this week I am sharing the baby shower.

Before I give you all the details of this lovely shower, I will first show the handmade card I made for the lovely couple and their little bundle of joy.  To make this card I used an old retired Stampin' Up set called "Buggies and Booties".  Elizabeth, the mommy-to-be, loves anything vintage so I thought this would be a great set to use.

To make the card, I stamped the buggy image directly on the card base and colored it in with pencils.  I then took a pink gelato crayon and colored a background, then stamped the sentiment over the gelato.  To finish the card, I used sequins to emphasize the sentiment.

Before I begin to show all the details of this beautiful fall baby shower I want to give a little history of my friendship with Sandy, the mother-in-law who threw the shower  Like my friend Julia, who you met last week, I met Sandy at church.  Church is a great place to meet people and foster life long friendships, because you have one big thing in common:  faith.  I met Sandy when my kids were two and five years old, and Sandy didn't have children yet.  Fast forward 25 years and here we are with two of our children married, two grand babies, and Sandy's first grand baby on the way.  It is an absolute privilege to have life long friends and watch our children grow up together and celebrate life's milestones like weddings and baby showers!

Now on to the details of this beautiful baby shower!  The shower was held outdoors on a lovely fall day.  When the guests first arrived, they were greeted by this chalkboard sign on the front porch directing them to the location of the shower.

The shower was held on Sandy's back patio.  Small white tables and chairs were draped with white linens  and pretty pink floral napkins.  Each table had a lovely fall chrysanthemum wrapped in pink tulle and a pink bow.

"My Little Pumpkin" was the theme of the baby shower so pumpkins were used in all the decor;   but they were all white to keep the shower feminine since the mom-to-be is having a little girl.  A small white pumpkin graced every table and little pale pink paper pumpkins were at every place setting.  These were used for the guests to write "words of wisdom" for the parents-to-be.  And as a side note,   the lovely pink rose linen napkins were from my own daughter's wedding and baby shower.  It's wonderful to be able to share precious items like these with friends and see them get a lot of use.  It makes the special events even more special.

The chrysanthemum centerpieces doubled as party favors as each guest was allowed to take a chrysanthemum plant home at the end of the party.

A comfortable and pretty living room chair was brought outside for the mom-to-be to sit in while she opened her gifts.  In keeping with the pumpkin theme, a pillow with a white pumpkin decoration on it, was placed on the chair.  Above the chair hung a lovely wreath with the first letter of the baby's name.

The baby's name is Jane Elizabeth.  The mom-to-be is a huge fan of the novel "Pride and Prejudice" so the name represents both the author and the main character in the novel.  "Elizabeth" is also the name of the mom-to-be and the name of the father's grandmother, so there is some nice history there as well.

The baby's name was beautifully displayed on a white pumpkin filled with pink and white flowers.  It was placed on the gift table along with a pretty vintage baby carriage and Jane's ultrasound.

And here is the beautiful mom-to-be Elizabeth proudly showing Baby Jane's ultrasound picture.  The detail these ultrasounds can capture today is amazing.  One can see so many features of this precious human being;  a true gift from God.

Sandy incorporated many of her regular flower urns that grace her patio all summer into the baby shower decor.  She just added some fall mums and more white pumpkins to tie into the shower's theme.  If you notice little baby socks in some of the pictures, those were "hidden" all over the grounds for guests to find.  At the end of the shower, the guest who found the most socks won a large chrysanthemum to take home.

This was the large chrysanthemum that a guest won for collecting the most socks.

The food was kept inside the house to protect it from insects and the weather, but the drinks were outside. Inside the dining room a baby welcome sign made out of little white pumpkins hung in the window.  It read "Welcome Mum-to-be and Sweet Little Pumpkin".  More pink tulle with pink bows was hung from the rod on both sides of the banner.

Underneath the banner a pretty white urn held pink and white decorative balls and flowers on a metal stand.  On the stand also lay more white little pumpkins and baby socks for guests to find.

The food table was absolutely stunning.  The centerpiece featured a tiered stand with beautiful pink vintage baby dresses.  The food was attractively laid out on either side of the centerpiece.

At the top of the stand was pretty pink and white peonies.  The food was absolutely amazing!  I took one of everything, and thought all of it was exquisite! 

A vintage white lace doily covered the base of the centerpiece.  A large pink bow with more baby socks for guests to find graced the ends of the centerpiece, with the baby dresses on the wider side.

Pretty pumpkin printables were placed on the food table with descriptions of the food items.

Dessert was pink and yellow cupcakes.  They were  placed on  trays of different heights on a table covered with white lace linens.  A white vintage frame on an easel with a fall mum wrapped in pink tulle completed the decor.

As stated earlier, the drinks were outside so guests did not have to go inside the house every time they were thirsty.  There was a coffee bar set up on a table filled with lovely fall flowers and cold drinks were in a white metal basin nearby.

Metal window plant hangers are on the windows to the house year round, but for the party, they hung mason jars and filled them with fall vibernum flowers.

I'm not sure what this vintage metal basin is, if I had to guess, I would say it's an old fashioned way to wash clothes, but it worked perfectly to hold ice and cold drinks for the shower.  Sandy draped it with pink fabric and tulle.

Sandy covered the bottled drinks with more pumpkin printables and hand wrote on the side of the bottle what the drink was.

And finally, here are some pictures of the beautiful mom-to-be opening some of her presents.  

And this is my dear friend Sandy with her daughter-in-law holding the ultrasound photo of her first grand baby.  I am so excited for my friend to enter the wonderful world of being a grand parent.  I think she will be such a wonderful grandmother.  I'm also excited that her first grand child is a girl, as Sandy has two boys of her own.  It will be fun for her to spoil her little grand daughter with everything pink and frilly.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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A Handmade Sympathy Card and More "Colorful Blessings" Cards

It's been awhile since I've shared some of my handmade cards with you so I decided to do a "card round up" post before the Easter projects begin!

Well, first I had the unpleasant task of making a sympathy card.  I don't know a card maker on the planet who enjoys making a sympathy card.  We just hope and pray our handiwork brings comfort to the recipient as we make it.  This card was made for a good friend of mine who lost her father-in-law.  

I used retired Stampin' Up! sets to make this card.  I kept it simple and elegant by stamping the images directly  onto the main card base and coloring it in with Copic markers.  I then matted it on a black piece of card stock to make everything pop before I adhered it to a white card base.

The rest of the cards I have to show you were all made from my "Colorful Blessings" Card fronts I purchased on Amazon.  These are all pre-printed card fronts that you simply color in and mount to a card base.

The designs in this kit are usually very intricate so I almost always use my gel pens to color them.  This results in very bright and vivid colors.

I almost always mount the card fronts to a dark base first to make the colors pop and then I put them on a white card base.

The card below however already had so much white space, I chose a coral card to mount it on.

All the messages in this kit are very generic but encouraging so you can use them for a multitude of occasions.

Sometimes when I'm done with my Bible Journaling for the day, I just like to pull out a card front and color.  Like I do with my Bible Journaling, I try to mediate on the verse as I color.  I then make a card out of the front even though I may not have a recipient for it, and just put it in my stash so I have a card ready when needed.

This would be a cheerful card to give to someone going through a hard time.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cards today.  Easter cards are coming soon!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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