Vintage Sympathies

Morning all.

Sadly in my line of work (for those of you who don't know, I am a registered Nurse who works in a General Practice) we have patients who pass away. Some have been with the practice for many years. We not only look after the Mums and dads, but sometime their mums and dads too! I had occasion to need two cards.

The first I could not go past this simple and elegant card by Mercedes Weber here. It was for the wife of one of my "regulars" whose husband passed away. He was a real wordsmith and loved the English language. Here is my version of Mercedes' card.....

It is basically Baja with a smidge of Basic Grey. Perfect for a wife receiving the sad sentiment. The flourish from the stamp set gives it that girly feel.

The second card was for the family of a very elderly patient who was very strong of faith and classy to a "T"!! I got the inspiration for this card from Kirsty Brown here. Even though not initially a sympathy card, I thought it more than appropriate. Here is my version of Kirsty's stunning card.....

I loved all the small details in this card. The pale pink flower under the sentiment, the script writing under the flourish and the way the wee pink flowers were shaped.

Thanks for popping by. I hope the weather is warm and inviting where you are...sadly this is NOT the case in Sydney....bring on Spring....and quick!!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Bravo Burgandy

Ink: (SU) Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Bravo Burgandy, Pink Pirouette

Stamps: (SU) Fresh Vintage (SAB '12), Elements of Style, Petite Pairs, Kaiser Clear Sympathy Sentiments, Kaszazz Scripted BGS

Other bits: SU Framelit Dies, SU Adorning Accents Embossing folders, SU Textured Impressions Embossing Set, Carla Craft CP1 Vinca A and Vinca B punch, Gold 1/2 pearls fm Hot Dollar

Lynda xx

Another Zero Birthday......

Hi all.

I hope you are all enjoying the long Easter break. I have so much to show you, so I hope to schedule some fairly regular posts over the next week or so.

Today's card date's back a month or so....yes I am that far behind!!! One of the secretaries at work was about to celebrate a zero birthday. This lady is very elegant and understated. I was asked to make her card that was black and white and nowhere was it to mention her age!!!! Easy right????

I was inspired by this card on SCS.....it fitted the black and white part anyhow. This is the card I made for the birthday girl.....

and I also made one slightly different for the stash......

I think the red just stepped up the sass factor a little. I embossed the stripe...although due to 2 sproggets tearing around...I ended up debossing as opposed to embossing....but it worked out OK.

The swirl is so very intricate and with both rhinestones and pearls it looked so pretty.

The birthday gal loved her card....so I was happy too.

Thanks for popping by. As promised will have more for you all soon.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Basic Black, Whisper White as well as Paper Mill Black and White Paisley Pearl paper and Stardream Deep red paper

Ink: (SU) Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style and Amy R - Birthday Sentiments

Other bits: SU Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Deep Red 1/2 pearls and Red Rhinestones fm stash

Lynda xx

An Element of Sympathy

Being a nurse in a busy practice, sadly patients passing is an occurrence that happens all too often. The Practice Manager asked me to make some sympathy cards so that we could pass them on to the families that were affected.

With this in mind, I was inspired to make these cards that I found on You Tube here. These were my two masculine toned sympathy cards.....

I love the elegance and simplicity of these cards. Needless to say, I think they can be altered to fit a number of occasions.

Just a quick one today. Thanks for popping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Early Espresso and VersaColour Black

Stamps: (SU) Elements Of Style, Life Definitions, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Other Bits: SAMJ, Black Satin Ribbon fm stash

Lynda xx

Patchwork Butterfly

Two days after my Brother's birthday is one of my SIL's (Pippa's Mum!!) For her I wanted to keep things monochrome but with wow and I was inspired by this card I saw on SCS. This is my version of Sheryl Dickinson's card....

This went together so very easily. I added a couple of my own tweaks from the original with the sentiment and the textured butterfly.

I put the butterfly on dimensionals too, so it looked as if it was floating through the air.

Monochrome has such impact and wow....doesn't it??

Thanks for popping by. Still more birthday projects coming your way in the following weeks.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Pear Pizzaz, Pear Pizzaz DSP

Ink: (SU) Pear Pizzaz

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, "happy bitthday" fm clear mount set I have but no name attached to it!!

Punches: (SU) Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch

Dies: (SU) Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Beautiful Butterfly Bigz Die

Other Bits: SU Square Lattice Embossing Folder, 1/2 pearls fm stash, Dimensionals 

Lynda xx

Co-ordinated Gift Set - #2

Just a quick one today to show you the other gift set i made for Miss 14!! It is basically the the same as the last post, except in different tones. I also modified the box on this one slightly again as the purple one has minor closing issues.

Here is the set together

And different views of the box....

Oh...and of course the card.....

I hope this has inspired you to perhaps try and converting a card face into perhaps a 3D project. The possibilities are endless!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Pretty in Pink

Ink: (SU) Pretty in Pink

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, Sincere Salutations

Other Bits: SU Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Tulips Embossing Folder, Pink Crystal Rhinestones fm Stash, Dimensionals, Pink Grosgrain ribbon fm stash.

Lynda xx

Co-ordinated Gift Set - #1

Hello all. I hope for those in Sydney, you are all surviving the school holidays.

A little while back, I made a CAS card which got me to thinking here. I had 2 birthdays of girls of a similar age (one turning 13, and one turning 14) and I was wondering if I could make the card into a pretty box for their desks. This is the version of the card I made to go with the box for Miss 13....

I thought about what shaped box may transfer well to the card design and I decided on a Top Note Die Box. I based it on the tutorial here. I modified it slightly in that it is a rectangular Pizza Box with a Nestabilities Label 8 die top and bottom. The dimensions of the box are roughly 12cm x 8cm x 3cm ( 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches). This is how it turned out...kinda fab if I do say so myself....

And here is the first set together....

Sorry about the glare and shadows, it is either feast of famine with sun and wind around her at the moment.....LOL!!!

I'll be back soon with the 2nd one I made soon. Thanks for popping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Lavender Lace (ret)

Ink: (SU) Lavender Lace (ret)

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, Sincere Salutations

Other Bits: SU Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, SU Tulip Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Labels 8, Lilac 1/2 pearls fm stash, Dimensionals, small purple ric-rac fm stash

Lynda xx

CAS Cards

Good morning all. So nice to feel the warmth of the sun is Sydney....have missed it so much.

Recently I had occasion to send a card to a friend who was coming up on the anniversary of their Dad's passing. I wanted to let them know they were being thought of.

I found this card on SCS and was quite taken with its simplicity. Although for a birthday, a change of sentiment could easily fix that.

I made 2 of the cards. 1 for the occasion and a birthday version for the stash. This is my take.

I had to make the cards slightly smaller than the 1/2 A4 sheet size due to the Tulip Embossing frame. Here they are on their own...

As you can probably tell from the glare, the butterflies sit up a bit. So pretty. In my never ending quest to not have 2 cards exactly the same, I used 1/2 pearls on one and light green rhinestones on the other. The change of direction of one of the butterflies also helped create a "creative opportunity" to fix an extra ink spot that appeared!!

I was so taken with the simplicity of this card...I stepped it up with another birthday present that I will be back to show you soon.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Pear Pizzaz

Ink: (SU) Pear Pizzaz

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, Sincere Salutations

Other bits: SU Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die & Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, White 1/2 Pearls, Light Green Rhinestones, Green Grosgrain ribbon from stash, Dimensionals

Lynda xx

For A Friend

It is never nice to loose someone close to you, let alone 2 loved ones in quick succession. Sadly, this happened to a blog friend of mine. I wanted to let her know that she was being thought of and send her something to (hopefully) bring a smile to her face. Going through my files, I found this card on SCS. It appealed to me on a couple of levels.

1. It used Elements of Style....one of my fave go to sets at present
2. It had a vintage feel to it which I am luvin' also
3. It gave me a chance to bust out Life Definitions....ironically a set that I purchased second hand from this girl
and
4. There was no Whisper White or Very Vanilla to deal with.

This is my take on the card.......

Now there was a LOT of sponging involved with this card....but well worth the effort. I also changed the top left corner with the definitions as seen here....

The rest of the card is pretty much to the original, except for the wee tag. I did not have the jewellery punch nor the wording to go inside it....so I improvised with the word window punch (which I made smaller by double punching) and the sentiment form Wonderful Favourites.

The small piece of lace is from Singapore and I wrapped a small pewter brad around the end to keep with the vintage feel. Seriously.....pink ribbon?? (hee hee hee)

Now I also had a fair idea that this young lady was partial to the odd coffee.....so this led me to part 2 of the project. I think most of you are familiar with the chocolate pulls, well this was my (much) smaller version with some sachets of flavoured coffee....

and here is the set together........

Thanks for enduring all the pics in this post, but I was so very happy with the way this project turned out.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Crumb Cake (Kraft)

Ink: (SU) Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Wonderful Favourites

Punches: (SU) Word Window Punch, Carla Craft 1" Circle Punch

Other Bits: Topaz Rhinestones fm stash, Lace fm Singapore, Mini Pewter brads, Chocolate Brown Ribbon fm stash.

Lynda xx

For a friend......

One of the magical things that exist in the world of blogging is the fact that you have so many friends....and most of them you will never meet. Yet somehow, through creativity and inspiration you connect on a level and run with it. Comments on their blogs turn to chats via e mail....texts and the odd call. You become a part of their lives as they do yours, sharing highs, lows and all in between.

Sadly, one of my beautiful friends has had the ultimate roller coaster ride of late, so, I thought I'd send her something to let her know that I cherish her friendship and I think her strength is amazing with all that she was going through.

Small digression...

I got the idea for this bookmark from the amazing Dawn Griffiths here. I used the logic that one Bigz Die would be similar to another and I went from there.

Back to the story....

This person has a very strong faith, so I thought that the bookmark may be able to be used in her Bible, which I know is very special to her. This is the bookmark I made...

Since this was the very first one of these I had made (using the logic principle) I was so very happy with the way it turned out. The ribbon marks the page and the butterfly sits on the front cover of whatever book you are reading. The beautiful thing about this is that I could combine it with Elements of Style. Here is the detail close up...

I teamed this up with a card in the same set.

I felt the sentiment reflected perfectly what I wanted to convey to her at the time. For me this was co-ordination on a massive scale as everything was all in the same colours. Here is what she received all together......

Since making this initial bookmark, I have made MANY more. The girls at work have really taken to them and they are going like hot cakes. I will show you the other colour combinations later on.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry
Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style, Warm Words
Other bits: (SU) Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Sizzix Bigz Butterfly Die, Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Ivory half pearls from stash

Lynda xx



Humming Along.....

Morning all.
I hope you are all enjoying the Easter break.

I wish to start with some news!!! I wish to pass on my woo-hoo's and sincere congrats to Andrea who on the 21st became a "Grandy" for the very 1st time to the beautiful Bree Melissa. I am over the moon for her and her family. I still have a big grin on my face.

Today I bring another colour challenge from Ink4U.

This one for me was relatively easy as I wanted the Sahara to be a focus. I had only recently acquired the colour and was very eager to bust it out. I also was keen to use a fave set of mine....Elements of Style. This was my answer to the challenge.....

It was my initial intention to stamp the flowers just once, but it looked extremely bare, so I filled in the gaps with the flowers to get the desired effect. I had also seen "breasted" versions of the hummingbird around the place and thought I'd give it a go. The challenge was that I did not have a More Mustard SWM, so I had to use the corner of my stamp pad. Still I was happy. The bird was popped up on a dimensional.

Once I got the bird cut out the card came together really easily. I thought it may make a nice sympathy card. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for popping by again and please stay safe over this Easter period.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Bravo Burgandy, More Mustard, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Bravo Burgandy, More Mustard, Sahara Sand

Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style

Punches: (SU) Scallop Oval and Large Oval Punch

Lynda xx



Elements of Sympathy

Hi there all who pop by!

Today is a somewhat sombre post as sadly the FIL of one of the gals I play neball with passed away suddenly. We all know how difficult sympathy cards are to do, let alone MALE sympathy cards. I was trawling through my CASE cards file and came across this one from the immensely talented Tashana Lundy. I decided very quickly and came up with my version.

As you can see mine is slightly different. I dropped the ribbon (being for a male) and I also did not sponge the edge of the Nesties die (forgot in the haste to get it done!!) I also did not use Close to Cocoa, instead using Sahara Sand. I DID however shadow the flourish, stamping it in Sahara Sand first and then the Soft Suede. Here tis up close.

You also may notice that the wing of the bird is outside the cut shape of the die. I owe the learning of this technique to Debbie Pamment. She has done a tutorial for it here. Debbie has MASTERED this technique and uses it on quite a few of her cards. I have a LONG way to go...but at least now I have a handle on it. The large flower image from the stampset is stamped in Sahara...seen here.

I am happy with the way this turned out and I think it is fitting of a male sympathy card.

Stuff Used:
CS: (SU) Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Ink: (SU) Soft Suede, Sahara Sand
Stamps: (SU) Elements of Style
Other bits: Nestabilities Labels 8

Looking very much forward to seeing the Neurologist next Tues. Thanks so much for all of your well wishes and messages of support.

Lynda xx