Sympathy.

Hello my few followers! I missed you! Well, truth be told, I've been here all along, just lacking the desire to post. I have only a few photos over the next several days to share. I haven't been crafting much lately - something I intend to remedy this week!

My first set of cards is what I made for my mother-in-law, her brother, her sister, and her mother on Thanksgiving weekend after grandpa died. I had a good time with these for the most part, and I'm really happy with the way most of them turned out. I made another card but I have it in my stash since I ran out of people to give cards to. The photos are just quick snapshots right after I finished them since I gave them away immediately... I didn't have time to get all fancy. Not that they would turn out much better anyway!

The first two are nearly identical and my favorites of the bunch.

I had to post a lot of what may seem like monotonous shots. There's a lot of detail and texture that my cheapo camera doesn't pick up. The black flowers on the background are velvet, the sentiment is embossed in black opaque embossing powder, and the fancy label die cut (Tim Holtz die called Baroque that I got specifically for this project) is adhered with foam tape under an identical die cut in black to add dimension. 

The "sister" card was made with stamps from the same set that I grabbed from Hobby Lobby, also specifically for this project. I've never had to make a sympathy card or the like. Everything other than the stamps are identical.

The next card is one that I made with leftovers and I'm not terribly thrilled with it. I know now it's the butterfly that throws it off. I used the negative from the Baroque die cut that I used for the above card and used it to frame the sentiment that was from the same stamp set as above.

I smeared glossy accents on the butterfly (another Tim Holtz die) and adhered it with the same.

The last card was simple and easy, which was great because after making the above cards, I wasn't feeling very inspired and just wanted to get it done. Something with a sentiment slapped on it and call it good.

Except for the base, the card was made entirely from scraps. The flower background is from Tim Holtz and the sentiment is embossed with Faded Jeans Distress embossing powder. I finished the look with a velvet ribbon.

I am super excited to share tomorrow's post. It's kind of silly to be excited over something so small... but I guess that's just me in a nutshell.