H{ippity} Hop!

Welcome to this week's blog hop with {ippity} stamps! I'll keep it short and sweet since I'm a bit short on time!

I made this card for a family in our church who recently lost their baby. The mother was only 12 weeks into the pregnancy, but the Lord decided to take the baby early. I can't even imagine the grief of losing a little one. Please pray for them!

I did some embossed resist on the focal image. After stamping the flowers on the bottom, I used VersaMark to stamp the sentiment and embossed with clear ep. Then I sponged some ink over the entire panel to soften the stark white. A few pearls on the mat finished the card.

supplies ~ cardstock: Georgia Pacific, dsp: DCWV Old World Stack, image: Unity January Stampin' Store Kit {Livin' and Lovin' Life}, sentiment: {ippity} Just Wanted to Say

Thanks for stopping by today! Remember that you can buy {ippity} from me at my {ippity} my blog!

I never want to get good at these...

Sympathy cards are not my favorite to make. I feel so bad for those for whom I make them because I know that loss is so hard. When my maternal grandmother, a woman who was like a second mother to me, died several year ago, I was so broken. Every sympathy card meant to impart some degree of comfort made me cry all over again because I missed her so much.

Granny knew Christ as her Lord and Savior, so I know I will see her again in Heaven. But that doesn't change the fact that I can't hug her anymore, or laugh at her jokes, or ask her about a recipe I'm having trouble making. She's not there at family gatherings. I still miss her.

So sympathy cards are hard for me to make. I want to let the recipient know I'm praying for them, but I also know that it probably won't bring them any comfort at all. And I wish that no one has to go through the pain of loss. If practice makes perfect, then I don't want to perfect these kinds of cards. I don't want this practice.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. ~  Revelation 21:4

Oh, for that day!

supplies ~ cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white) and SU! (Chocolate Chip), dsp: DCWV Old World Stack, pearls: Recollections, image: Unity January Stampin' Store Kit {Livin' and Lovin' Life}, sentiment: {ippity} Just Wanted to Say...

I entered this for PTI's embossed resist challenge.

PS ~ Do you love {ippity} stamps? You can buy them from me at my {ippity} my blog!

Friends With Flair Friday

Welcome to Unity's Friends With Flair Friday! It's been a really long time since I played along, so I thought this week I would make some time for it. Unfortunately, the card I'm sharing is not for a happy occasion, but a sad one. A member of my church lost his son-in-law last week, so I've made this sympathy card for his family.

I started with the Card Patterns Sketch for this week, then added some brown paper from my scrap tray. I decided after stamping the image that I wanted to repeat it on the sentiment, so after stamping once I stamped again immediately on the sentiment panel.

supplies ~ cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white) & SU! (Chocolate Chip), dsp: DCWV Old World Stack, ribbon: Martha Stewart Winding Leaves, pearls: Recollections, image: Unity January Stampin' Store Kit {Livin' and Lovin' Life}, sentiment: {ippity} Just Wanted to Say...

Have a great day, and happy weekend!

PS ~ Do you love {ippity} stamps? You can buy them from me at my {ippity} my blog!

Sending condolences

I had time to play with some Sugar Creek Hollow images tonight. Unfortunately, it was for a sad reason. The former pastor of my church lost his mother yesterday. Pastor and his wife are very dear people to us, and his heart is the most tender of any pastor I've ever had. His mom was a believer so he has the comfort of knowing that she's been promoted to glory (amen!) where there are no more tears or pain, but I know he will miss her very much.

We already sent an email expressing our condolences, but I prefer to send a card with a little handwritten note; it means so much more. Please pray for Pastor Bob and Judy Harris. I know they will appreciate it.

Although the image was originally intended to express love or Valentine wishes, I thought it was appropriate for sympathy, as well, since Pastor's mother was part of the generation that lived through the Great Depression. This image also reminds me of the old grave markers that I see in my family's cemetery in East Texas. Many loved ones bear a flourished heart similar to this one on their resting places.

The white panel is actually a satin-looking paper. I was afraid the ink from my inkjet printer might run, so I embossed it with some clear ep as soon as it came out of the printer. Note to self: when using this paper, you MUST use an Embossing  Buddy or the ep will stick everywhere!

For the inside, I did some fiddling with the "Forever" sentiment, which originally is centered over the scroll. I wanted to complete the phrase from the front and center all four words over the scroll, so I created two new files from the original - each one was cropped to leave only the word or the scroll (gotta love digis!). Then I could scoot the "Forever" over a bit and add a text box to the right with the rest of the phrase.

I got a little ahead of myself and wrote in the note before I photographed the card...whoops!  =D

supplies ~ cardstock: SU! Chocolate Chip & DCWV, dsp: DCWV Old World Stack, pearls: Recollections, image: Sugar Creek Hollow

I used a Sweet Stop sketch and have entered this in the Our Daily Bread Designs challenge to use brown and die cuts.

Thanks for coming by today. The weekend is only two days away!

Friends With {ippity} Flair

Welcome to this week's FWF hop! I hope you've been getting lots of inspiration!

I finally received my {ippity} kits, but haven't had a whole lot of time to play with them. I decided that I needed some quick cards, since I'm also trying to put together a classy card set I can give away, teach in a card class/stamp camp or sell in my Etsy shop. I may have found just the ticket!

I sat down with the {ippity} kit called "Just Wanted to Say." With three frames and eight sentiments, you have lots of ways to mix and match them to get the look you want. It seems to be one of the more popular kits according to my little poll over on the right (which YOU can do, too).  --->

I started with a thank you card, since I need more of those and plan to make this a gift set, too. It's a simple little card that I cased from Jackie Pedro. I left more white space on mine and kept the stamping to a single focal panel. I also opted for stamping in VersaMark and using some pearlescent chalks instead of simply ink. For mass production, I'd probably just use ink that matched my dsp and cardstock.

supplies ~ cardstock: Martha Stewart, dsp: Papercraft Inspirations, images: {ippity} Just Wanted to Say



The second card is for a co-worker whose family lost a loved one this week. I decided to keep the same layout, drop the extra patterned paper and simply highlight with my chalks one of the birds from the dry embossing. The sentiment on this card was chalked, too.

supplies: cardstock: Martha Stewart, images: {ippity} Just Wanted to Say

If you like this set, feel free to pop over to my {ippity} blog to purchase your own. As a thank you, leave a comment here and I'll refund up to $5 on the shipping if you place an order this weekend.

Thanks for coming to visit today! Now it's time for you to hop over to Kerry!