Sara's Blog

Sympathy cards are some of the very hardest to make. Gloria, a Webisode viewer, reminded me of this when she emailed asking us to show more sympathy cards. So last night I was experimenting with our acrylic stamps and markers and made up this “thinking of you” card. I like the softness of the pink and green papers and that chenille background paper seems comforting and warm. Of course, an elegant botanical image is always appropriate as a sympathy card focal. With sympathy cards, I try not to get too elaborate in design or embellishments—simplicity and sincerity seem more suitable.

Here’s how I made my card:

1. Cut a piece of chenille patterned paper slightly smaller than the card front; center and glue.


2. Color the flower acrylic stamp with pink and green Marvy markers, applying the marker directly onto the acrylic stamp. If the ink on the stamp starts to dry before you’re done coloring, simply breathe onto it to reactivate the ink. Stamp the image onto a 4"x2 1/2" piece of white paper.


3. Insert a silver brad to the left side of the stamped flower. Wrap gray embroidery thread around the white paper, making an “x” at the brad. Secure on the back side with clear tape.


4. Attach the stamped flower paper to a 4 1/4"x3 5/8" piece of green texture paper. Stamp “thinking of you” at the bottom right. Mat the piece top and bottom with pink texture paper, then mat the entire piece on white paper. Glue to the front of the card.

Tip: I stamped the flower onto a piece of watercolor paper, which is a thicker paper and gives more stability when wrapping with the embroidery thread. I think it also lends a nice touch to those extra-special cards. The marker technique does work with regular paper and cardstock as well, but of course you’ll get different effects with different types of paper.

The flower is from the Botanicals acrylic stamp set and the “thinking of you” stamp is from our Expressions set. The paper is from the Cardmaker’s Pretty Creative Pack.