Paper-Paisleys Art Adventures: Sympathy Cards

Good Friday, friends. I am feeling a bit down because I have way too many sketch cards started but not finished and I know I've missed and am going to miss challenge deadlines. So I decided to slow down to my speed, finish them as old sketches, if need be. Too many due + I'm always behind + I'm so slow = :-( stress and frustration. Can't have that, so I may not be playing the challenges so heavily for the time being.

I needed to make a sympathy card and 2 more became needed as I was creating. Guess that bums me out, too. Sympathy cards always mean people I care about are hurting. Such is Life. Anyway, I've been trying to make bigger cards this year (5x7, 6x6) for birthdays and Christmas. But I'm also thinking that sympathy, thank you, and lesser holiday cards are still fine for A2 size. I have split the difference with the two cards I'm sharing today. The first card is 5x7, and the other one is A2.

I rotated and stretched this sketch to a 5x7 card. I tried the vertical left strip element with only the foam lace but felt the yellow patterned paper strip added more weight and contrast/pop. But I was working with two pre-cut stash pieces so I arranged them offset to represent the one line.

Supplies Used:

SU Card Stock
DCWV patterned paper

Watercolored panel cut to size needed

Queen & Co. foam lace

Birdie brads from my Blackhole of Stash

Stamps: Pink By Design (sentiments), Sweet n Sassy Stamps (wildflowers silhouette)
Inks: Ranger Distress, Versafine Clair, Brilliance, Memento

I made my wildflower panel by watercoloring a background in blues and pinks using watered down Distress inks on my craft mat. While the ink was still wet I created texture by blotting here and there with a paper towel. Then I dried the panel with my heat tool and began stamping the wildflower silhouettes on it with Versafine Clair and then a little with Brilliance. I then cut it down to the size I wanted and I stamped the front sentiment with Brilliance on an off-cut.

The inside and back, stamped in different shades of Memento.

Challenges Joined:
1. Sunday Stamps Sketch SSC196
2. 613 Avenue Create #21: AG + Opt. Twist of Watercoloring
3. Fashionable Stamping #143: AG
4. Country View Challenges #: Landscapes / Cityscapes - mine is a flowerscape (think wildflowers-in-a-meadow landscape)
5. More Mixed Media: AG + Opt. BLUE
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Okay, so my second card is an A2 size.

I used a sketch from the My Sketch World blog which is not a deadline challenge, just a blog where Lucy Chesna likes to share her card and layout sketches. I posted it on her Facebook group page to share.

Supplies Used:

DCWV Collage Art Stack cs

K&Co. Best of pad patterned paper

DCWV Floral Stack patterned paper

Eyelet Outlet enamel dots

Satin ribbon from my Blackhole of Stash

Stamps: Inkadinkado and Pink By Design

Inks: Versamark and Versafine Clair

Hero Arts White EP

I had the floral scalloped center already from this card. It was die cut with a Spellbinders Scalloped Circle Nestie. The white round Fleur de lis frame behind it was stamped in Versamark on paper from the same pad and white heat-embossed, then fussy cut.