Spring Meadow Sympathy Cards with Kelly + Love Letters P.S. Sneak Peek #2

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Kelly is here today with a gorgeous set of cards that are giving hope for spring on this cold winter day (at least in our neck of the woods…20 below, brrrrr!) + some wonderful tips for creating those difficult sympathy cards. But before we get that, I wanted to pop in with another sneak peek of our new Love Letters P.S. collection that’s coming to the shop later this week!

Keeping with our letter and writing theme, we have lots of new goodies to peek today…a vintage typewriter, pretty pens, gorgeous sentiments in calligraphy or typewriter inspired fonts, and more. The details… they make me happy! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll start the product reveals and the Inspiration Team will be joining us for a blog hop! Our new Love Letters P.S. collection will hit the shop on Friday morning at 10am EST.

Now let’s turn it over to Kelly and the gorgeous projects she’s sharing today!

Happy New Year, friends! It’s Kelly here today sharing a set of floral sympathy cards. I sat down a few months ago and mass-produced quite a collection of sympathy cards to have on hand since these types are often needed unexpectedly. I’m saddened to say that my collection has dwindled and I’m in need yet again. As soon as I saw the recently released Comfort & Joy Stamp Set, I knew it would transcend beyond Christmas cards and I couldn’t wait to use the beautiful sentiments on a fresh set of sympathy cards.

I’m particular about certain design elements and colors on sympathy cards and I will explain my reasoning throughout today’s post. That being said, I’m also known for breaking my own rules, so these aren’t “hard and fast”, but I use my judgement depending on the situation and recipient. (wink) Since these don’t have a particular recipient in mind, it didn’t matter necessarily. One more thing before I dive into the how-to, I don’t usually make “seasonal” sympathy cards, but changing up colors can make them more appropriate for a different season and I will explain that a bit more, too!

To begin, I chose to use the beautiful Spring Meadow Stencil Collection and coordinating Spring Meadow Die. I like using stencils for mass production because you can just go step-by-step, panel by panel. Let’s take a minute to talk about color; as you can see, each of the four cards has a different color combination, but can you believe it’s only because I changed the final color for each of the four cards? Just changing one color can really change the look and feel of your design. I chose the final color to create something more fitting for a particular season. Keeping the rest of the colors exactly the same makes the mass-production element much simpler!

Once I had the four panels stenciled, I used the coordinating die to cut them out. I set them aside and got to work on the background. For sympathy cards I don’t generally like a lot of layers and design elements, but I DO like visual interest. For today’s cards, I added some vintage patina distress ink to the center of four 4 by 5 ¼ inch panels of white cardstock. I wanted to make sure I concentrated the ink where it would peek out from behind the die cut stenciled flowers. I also added some Hawaiian Shores ink splatter to each of the four panels for some depth and interest.

While the ink was drying, I got to work on the sentiments. I chose 4 sentiments from the Comfort & Joy stamp set that work well outside of Christmas and would work nicely for the sympathy cards. I used black ink and then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. Once I had that done, it was time to decide on a layout for each individual card. Some of the sentiments have the stamped companion sentiment such as “sending” or “sending wishes for”. Because of the intricacies of the die cut florals, I needed to stamp them up at the top or in the corner. I really like how easy it is to tilt the bouquet in either direction for variety. You could also use two for each card and arrange them at the top or bottom and then add the sentiment in the middle; lots of possibilities! I used my mini MISTI to stamp the companion sentiments and then assembled each card one-by-one.

Part of me wanted to add some sequins, but another one of my sympathy card “rules” is that I don’t want anything too flashy, so instead, I opted to spritz each card with a shimmer spray and a light hand! Each of the four panels was mounted onto A2 card bases using foam squares. I’m pleased to add these to my collection and fingers crossed I won’t need so many this year!

Sending wishes to each of you for a blessed and happy new year! Thanks for joining me today!