The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Mr Cardmaker's Absence.


Making a sympathy card is really much more difficult that I expected.  It needs to be simple yet elegant, and peaceful. It takes thought and care, and reverence.

There's a big couple of messes in my trash can right now, where I really whiffed, trying to make this work.  Then I looked at the piece of watercolor paper that I was meaning to use on the inside of my card, and I finally found my idea.

White. Absence of color. Well, mostly.

I made this--


The watercolor blot with the gold was my starting point. I thought watercolor was soft and dreamy, and under the sentiment it just seemed exactly right. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, and I think it is just lovely; a perfect size and font.

With no color to work with, I turned to texture. A simple, dry embossed white panel with a cluster of leaves "growing" out from under it; some adhered with foam adhesive. I worked with all watercolor paper, which is not pure white, and mounted everything onto a pure white base. I think the tiny bit of contrast is nice here.

The sequins are soft and mostly whitish, with just a blush in places to refer to the watercolor. I found they looked more restrained poking out from under the leaves, for the most part.

I had to make myself walk away from this card at least three times.  Restraint.....

One more view--



Thanks for stopping by.
All Best--
Richard


I am using this card in the CASology "Under" Challenge.

17 comments:

  1. Elegant but reverential. Really admire the blush in the stones referring back to the watercolor.

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  2. Absolute perfection in the sympathy department - the watercolor portion is serene and lovely - I'd say you nailed this :)

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  3. A beautiful and elegant card. Welcome to blogland of card makers.

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  4. DIVINE, and lovely, so delicately lovely yet so crisp and clean!!! This is BLISS!
    Thanks so much for linking up this lovely in the CASology gallery. I adore this.

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  5. Stunning! To me, the wood implies (or is it infers or informs) the strength the mourner will need - the flowers, the delicacy of the matter - the absence of color, the joy of the decedents release from this world. You're amazing my dear!

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  6. This is very pretty. I am sure it was much appreciated.

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  7. Okay. This is gorgeous!!! You effectively incorporated several different design elements, but kept it CAS by using white as your base! Genius.
    Thanks so much for sharing this over at CASology this week! :)

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  8. Sympathy cards are so hard to make and harder to have to give but this one is a beauty! So glad you joined us at CASology this week!

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  9. I gasped when I first saw this! It's beautiful and perfect in every way.

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  10. This is just beautiful, tasteful and so trendy all at the same time. Love the woodgrain with the angled edge. Perfect sympathy feel and gorgeous design, too.

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  11. Beautiful sympathy card - love the woodgrain paper and the sequins in the leaves!! Love the tastefulness of this card!!

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  12. I love how your gorgeous card grew out of the watercolor "blot". The white on white woodgrain is a perfect choice for a sympathy card and I really like the sequins nestled among the leaves. Thanks for playing along with CASology this week!

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  13. This is beautiful and elegant as well. Thanks so much for playing along with us at CASology. May

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  14. This is stunning in it's lovely simplicity! I love it.

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  15. This is my first visit to your blog and I have so enjoyed it... plan on comeing back later today to noise around some more... This is just Beautiful... I plan on using your idea soon.

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