Butterfly Sympathy

I always find it hard to make sympathy cards, I make them CAS usually because for me it is 'sad' stamping. I almost always make mine specifically for the person who has had a loss in their lives and my heart is heavy while I am creating because someone I care about is grieving. 

   I had been waiting for a stamp company to issue a set that expresses the right sentiments for such times, because our only hope in life is through Jesus Christ. He is our rock and our strength, not that we do not grieve when we lose a loved one, but we have ultimate hope in God. 

  Clear Dollar Stamps issued such a set with their last release. My friend Linda, who designs for them, always uses such pretty colors even for her sympathy cards, she likes bold and bright. So this time I departed from my usual palette of purples and blacks and chose soft yet more colorful DSP and colors to match. 

How I did it: This is a shadowbox card. These are a lot of fun to make. Take a standard sheet of cardstock, cut it in half and then one of the halves in half again so you have two pieces of cardstock that measure 5.5" by 4.25", the size of a standard A2 card front. 

  With your cutter, put your cardstock in the cutter so the long side is facing you and score at one-half inch and one inch in from each end.  That makes the folds you see on the side of the card above. This will fold flat for mailing, but pop up for viewing. You write your greetings on the back side. The only part on this card that is glued together are the two end panels that measure 1/2" by 4.25", you glue the top layer to the bottom layer on the very ends. 

  I measure one piece of the same size DSP, 5.5" by 4.25" and laid it over one of the sheets of white cardstock. Then I used the Labels One Spellbinders Nestability die to cut my opening through both sheets at the same time, so the sheets of paper will line up when you glue them together. 

  I stamped the back panel of white with SU's Belle Toile BG stamp in bordering blue, and the piece of white cardstock cut out from the hole in the top layer with bashful blue in Belle Toile, then sponges the edges of the piece with bordering blue. I stamped the CDS sentiment with black stazon, then centered and glued the piece down on the inside layer. 

  In matching green paper (don't have a name, sorry, bought it at Archiver's when I bought the DSP) I punched out the Martha Stewart scalloped edge punch and turned the scallops in to face the card to help frame the focal point, the sentiment. I used a cuttlebug vintage die to cut out four pieces of scalloped corner framing in bordering blue and assembled them to form a 'square' around the opening in the top layer. 

  The butterfly is from SU's Winged Things. I colored it with Ciao copic markers, didn't have an exact match for either the blue or the green, and then overpainted the blue and green parts with twinkling H20s for some sparkle. I attached K&Co. pearls to the corners where the vintage scalloped piece met and overlaid the butterfly on the other corner. Thanks so much for looking.

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Christian Sympathy, Stampin Up Belle Toile and Winged Things

Paper: Papertrey white, K&Co. DSP, green from Archiver's 

Ink: Black Stazon, SU Bordering Blue and Bashful Blue

Other: Twinkling H20s, Copic Ciao markers, Martha Stewart scalloped border punch, Cuttlebug vintage corner die, K&Co. pearls, sponge, aquapainter