One of those "hard" cards to make

One of  my least favorite and most difficult cards to make is for someone with a serious illness such as Cancer.  I never know what to say in these cards other than so sorry and/or thinking of you and that seems so inadequate.  When someone is going thru treatments and the outcome is unknown though, it really is all you can say.  It always seems to be enough however, once the recipient opens the card.  To them it is more about your caring enough to take time for them.

I just found out that my new next door neighbor is going thru Chemo for lung cancer and this is the second time he has had to do so.  He was given only 6 months 3 years ago.  Each day since has been a gift for the couple but the news that the cancer was growing again was quite devastating none the less.  The fact that I haven't gotten to know them yet makes card made even more difficult.  Thankfully inspiration struck and the above card is what I came up with.  It's simple and pretty to look at, without being too feminine.

I used a damp sponge to applied diluted distress inks on hot press watercolor paper.  The colors I used are Spiced Marmalade, Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint.  Once the ink/paper was dry I stamped an image from Stamp Oasis/Rubbernecker called Forest Cathedral with a Versafine Vintage Sepia ink pad.  The image is actually larger than I wanted so I then trimmed some of the image off and used only the center portion.  I use only a portion of images a lot.  I cut part off or I ink up only the section I want using the corner of an ink pad.  It is a great way to get more use out of the stamps you have.  You might want to keep that in mind next time you are stamp shopping, great way to stretch your $$$$ and get more use out of those stamps.

You will notice I cropped the top corners only of both the image and the green CS I matted it onto.  This visual "trick" helps enhance the archway or Catherdral effect of the stamped image.  I also used a white gel pen to color in the doves at the top of my image, they looked odd speckled in colors of orange & greens.  That is the only coloring I did to the image though.  I then glued the matted image onto white cardstock that has vertical line texture.

Next I stamped the bible verse from Stamp La Jolla in the same Sepia ink I had used already.  I cut  it out leaving a very small margin of white all the way around.  While it was drying I cut a Spellbinder Fancy Tag 2 die.  The bible verse is longer than the die so I cut the tag in half and glued the halfs on to the the back of the bible verse.  I added the bible verse tag to my card using foam tape.  It slightly overlaps the stamped image and this eliminated that visual conflict.  It also helps with the feeling of going into the forest.

Lastly a simple Thinking of you stamp (by a company no longer in business)  using Sepia Brown again for the inside and it was ready to deliver.

So next time you need to make "one of those" cards don't get overwhelmed by the task.  Making a card by hand is what they will remember, not what the inside of the card says.  Lastly a big thank you to my RSC family for helping me work thru that same feeling of "what to say" and reminding me to just keep is simple.  Y'all are the best!!