Sympathy Cards

In general, I love making cards.  They come together quickly, I can use up scraps, and I feel no pressure to create something that is archival or will be looked at by future generations.  I happily make dozens of birthday, thank you, and congratulations cards each year.  In fact, I make so many that I frequently give away card sets as gifts.

Sympathy cards are another story.  I don't like making them at all.  I struggle with what to do, wondering what could possibly be comforting to the recipient.  I never make them in advance (because I don't like to make them), which makes it even worse when I actually need a card and have no time to do it.  I haven't bought a birthday or thank you card in years, but 9 times out of 10 I send a purchased sympathy card.

A few months ago, three of my friends lost their mothers the same week.  I quickly made and sent sympathy cards.  One of them contacted me to ask how I made the card.  I decided to wait until life settled down a bit and then do a tutorial for the blog.

Well, life never really settles down, does it?  I finally decided to simply make the time.  Here's the finished card:

 

Step 1: Cut a white rectangle slightly smaller than your card base.  Stamp three butterflies.  If your images don't come out perfectly (like in my example below), it's fine.  They'll be covered. 

Step 2: Stamp the same butterflies on a separate piece of cardstock and cut them out.  This time the images should be nice, as these are the ones that will show.

Step 3:  Fold each of the cut butterflies along the center.

Step 4: Mat your white cardstock with black and attach to your card base.  Then adhere your butterflies to the top. 

Unfortunately, almost immediately after finishing and photographing this card, I learned that a friend's dad had passed away.  The card went into the mail right away.