The Greetery {Wisteria Sympathy}

 

Hello and welcome! I’m happy to be here today sharing a pair of sympathy cards; I mentioned last month I needed to make welcome to the neighborhood cards, but somehow, I’m ALWAYS needing sympathy cards. The others got pushed to the back-burner and here I am with this floral pair! Now, this design could work well for almost any sentiment, so if you’d like to make somethings similar, just swap out the sentiments to suit your needs!

To begin, I used the beautiful BotaniCuts Wisteria Die and cut everything twice from white cardstock. I wasn’t actually planning on making two cards at this point, but rather cutting enough pieces to be able to arrange them as I wanted. I used finger sponge daubers and distress oxide inks to color all of the pieces. I used the placement guide included in the wisteria die to get them adhered correctly using liquid glue.

I used the Jumbo Curiosity: Butterfly Die and Stencil and cut 4 butterflies; I like options and this allowed me to try out a few different combinations. I only ended up using 3 of the 4 so now I have an extra for another project; maybe those welcome cards! (wink!) I gave them a spritz of shimmer spray as well as the wisteria flowers. I used a fine tip journaling pen to add some of the black details to the butterfly wings.

I kept one background white with a bit of tumbled glass distress oxide ink blending in the center and then worked my way out for a soft feel. The second background was created using the Seed Catalog Background Stamp and speckled egg distress oxide ink. I rounded the corners on both panels for a soft look.

I used liquid glue to attach the greenery portion on both backgrounds. I attached the wisteria pieces using small foam squares. The butterflies are attached with liquid glue only to the butterfly thorax and abdomen portions so I could bend the wings for realism.

For the sentiments, I die cut the pieces using the Comfort and Joy Die and then stamped the images using the Comfort and Joy Stamp Set. I have used this particular sentiment set in the past for a series of sympathy cards; I love that it transcends beyond Christmas and holiday projects! I used foam squares to attach them to the backgrounds. For the white background, I was able to stamp the ‘sending’ image directly on the panel and then placed the rest of the sentiment underneath.

I attached each of the background panels to top-folding A2 card bases using liquid glue. I DID round the corners of the bases before attaching, though. A trio of sparkling clear sequins finishes off the pair! I will probably add an inside greeting before they get filed away. I have decided it’s better to take that step BEFORE you need the card, because sympathy cards are rarely predicted! Thanks for fluttering by!