SSC146: Crocus Sympathy

Today's card was made for my daughter and son-in-law when someone very dear to them passed away unexpectedly after a brief illness. I wanted to share in their grief, but also help them to remember that spring truly always follows winter- in all the seasons of life.

I used sketch #146 from the Sunday Stamps blog as my inspiration.

The beautiful crocus stamp used here is from the Technique Tuesday Greenhouse Collection- that I absolutely love!!!

To keep my design clean and simple, the focal image was stamped randomly in black archival ink for the background and again on an oval I cut with my Creative Memories shape makers -one of my favorite and most used tools from way back in the scrapbooking day. The main flowers were painted using Prismacolor watercolor pencils by using a water brush and taking color from the pencil tip on to an acrylic block as my palette to achieve the soft look.

Once the watercolors were dry, I coated the flower with glossy accents and let it dry over night.  I then used my paper piercing tool and added the border around the edge -I had no template to use this time...I just eye-balled it, so it is not perfect by any means, lol! I embossed the sentiment from a Close To My Heart sympathy set in gold detail ink on a lilac layer and accented with some polka-dotted vellum attached with mini brads. I popped the oval up with some foam tape pop dots for added dimension and then sent my card off to Philly in the mail.

The inside sentiment is from a Stampin' Up! sympathy set and stamped over a simple watercolored background. I often forget to show the insides of my cards but in the future,  I am going to try to make a better effort to share when there is actually something on the inside.