Through the sadness… a reason to smile …

I felt sad and a little subdued whilst making today’s cards.  Two of my friends have recently lost someone very close to them.

I wanted to let them know how very sorry I was to hear their sad news, and for them to know I was thinking about them.

I  turned to a beautiful new stamp set from Stampin’ Up that will be available during August 2012 only.

Called a reason to smile, it is a two-step stamp set, so the line flower stamp comes with a complementary image to add colour with.  But this time I chose instead to do some water colouring with my aqua painter.

I stamped the flower twice in black stazon ink onto water colour paper, using my stamp-a-majig to line up and stamped the sentiment from the hopeful thoughts set.  To colour the flowers, I put a little ink into the lid of my elegant eggplant ink pad by squeezing it whilst shut – this transfers ink from the pad to the lid – and then used my aqua painter.

I added a few lines of dry embossing using the simply scored scoreboard.

I also stamped and coloured a matching flower on a small piece of very vanilla cardstock and adhered it to the inside.

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For the next card, I stamped onto a piece of very vanilla cardstock and again used the aqua brush to colour, taking care not to soak the cardstock too much.

Finally, I coloured a length of whisper white taffeta ribbon using my aqua brush and elegant eggplant ink, dipping the ribbon into the watery ink on the lid of the ink pad until I was happy with the depth of colour.  The ribbon then co-ordinated beautifullly with the cards.  Once the ribbon was dry, I tied it into teeny tiny bows and adhered to the cards with mini glue dots.*

And why a reason to smile? …  because they are fortunate to have known and loved two wonderful ladies…

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Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: elegant eggplant, watercolour paper. very vanilla; Inks: elegant eggplant, certainly celery, black stazon; Stamp sets: reason to smile, hopeful thoughts, teeny tiny wishes; Accessories: white taffeta ribbon, mini glue dots, aqua painter, simply scored scoreboard, word window punch, modern label punch, stampin’ dimensionals, stamp-a-majig.

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Thanks for dropping by today

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12 Responses to “Through the sadness… a reason to smile …”

  1. absolutely beautiful Gill!

  2. Gill these are truly beautiful cards sorry for your friends loss x

  3. Thank you Gill for your lovely card. I have lost 2 very dear and special people, one my Aunty May and the other my lovely Nan in the last 6 weeks. I always said I did not like sympathy cards, but on this occasion, I truly was grateful of this beautiful and touching card. Thank you Debs xxx

  4. Beautiful cards Gill! Nx

  5. When will the stamp be available? I can’t find it.

    • Hi Paula. Thank you for visiting my blog and for your question. Unfortunately, the Reason to Smile stamp set by Stampin’ Up was available during August 2012 only and is no longer available for sale. Gill x

  6. happy new year Gill,love your card – as always ,its beautiful x

  7. The sentiment from the first card is from the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set, not Hopeful Thoughts as you listed.

  8. I love the Reason to Smile cards. I actually found that stamp set online and ordered it. I can’t wait to get the stamps and make cards like yours. Very pretty thank you for the idea.

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