I love making cards, it’s one of my favourite things to do, however, there is one type of card that I find ‘difficult’ to make – and that’s ‘In Sympathy’ cards.
How do you second guess someone’s pain? How do you know what they’re going through, so know how to address the traumatic time they’ve found themselves in?
I realised today that I hadn’t made a ‘sympathy’ card for my blog, so thought I’d put myself to the test and make one.
I wanted to make something which would be the right card for several options. If someone wasn’t a believer, then I didn’t want to push a religion upon them by saying that I was praying for that person – as some folks are so anti-religion that a card of that type could cause the person concerned to feel offended – so in the end I decided to opt with the sentiment you see on the card above.
The card is (was) based around those little blue flowers you see running down the card on the right hand side. If you’ve already seen my post in the ‘Ranger Melt Pot’ category, then you’ll know that I made those flowers especially for this card. I wanted to make Forget me Not flowers to put on this card, and I wanted them to be blue. So I set about making them using the Ranger Melt Pot. Once made, and with the addition of a little gilding wax (and a polish) – the flowers were perfect, so I set about making a very simple card – but one which you could feel the love which the card was made with.
Made on a brilliant white 6″x 6″ scored and folded card; I partially embossed the front of the card using an embossing folder from the Sheena Douglass range.
The sentiment is a stamped image from a collection of Stamps made by Heartfelt Creations, which I stamped in black, then die cut (using a Spellbinders die) and gently inked around the very outer edge, using the same black ink as the sentiment was stamped with.
The butterflies were die cut using Tonic Dies.
The addition of a short length of black satin ribbon and the card was made.
click on the picture ↑ to make it bigger so that you can read it.
Thank you SO much for visiting. I hope you like the card, and the post too!
If you’d like to leave me a comment, it’s easy to do: Just scroll up to where you see the title of this post (Forget me Nots on ~ An ‘In Sympathy’ card.) and look just to the right of that title. You should be able to see a grey speech bubble. If you can’t see it, just move your mouse cursor to the left of the title – the speech bubble turns red when you roll your cursor over it. Click that speech bubble, it will open up any comments that have been made already – so that you can read them if you wish, and it will also give you a comment box where you can type your own comment.
You can do this on every post, in every category on the board.
Wishing you all a truly blessed Thursday. Have a wonderful day.
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The Art of Cobwebs 
Please don’t be afraid to share your belief. It is what makes you—you.
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Hello Beverley, thrilled that you like the card and the flowers. I was so happy with the way they turned out, but I wish I could have taken a photograph of how I see the flowers with the naked eye, because they’re even better in real life. Sort of soft and gentle, and they don’t ‘shout’ at you or dominate the card, but they kind of have this ‘voice’ which draws you to notice them before you open the card. I really like them. So much so that I’ve made up my mind to make them again in order to make variations of sympathy cards.
With regard to sharing my beliefs – …. ohhh, I’m not afraid to share my beliefs, I’m very much a believer. What I meant in the post was that because I make my cards for charity, I don’t personally know who the card will end up with, so have to have consideration about how I ‘theme’ a card. Not everyones pain and anguish or beliefs are the same, so I try to ensure that a ‘sympathy’ card is based around the senders care, compassion and love rather than anything else, so that the Charity selling the card will gain the much needed funds in the best way possible, with the best cards I can possibly make for them.
Great to see you Bev. 🙂 And … whilst writing … can you please send me that FABULOUS cake on the home page of your blog? Each time I see it I sit and ‘love’ it with my eyes! lol It’s the sort of cake that I wish someone would surprise me with on my birthday. All that bunting strung over the cake is SO me! 😀
Sending love and hugs ~ Cobs. x
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Beautiful!!! I love the flowers. I also have a hard time making “In sympathy” cards, they are hard to make. Everyone grieves differently and it’s hard to gauge that.
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[nods in agreement] It’s a tiny bit easier if you know the person who the card is intended for, isn’t it? But when making cards for charitable causes, as I do, I don’t know who the card eventually will find it’s home with – so I always try to make ‘sympathy’ cards which are based around a feeling of love rather than trying to second guess someone’s beliefs or pain that they feel like they’re drowning in.
Thanks for the comment, Stacey. LOVE seeing your name here. It’s like a friend turning up at the door, unexpectedly, when you’ve just cleaned your house to within an inch of it’s life. (never happens to me. They seem to come when my house looks like someone exploded a bomb underneath it – and under me too, more often than not! LOL)
Sending love your way, Stacey. ~ Cobs. x
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I too struggle with sympathy cards, your card is perfect, delicate and the sentiment is perfect, says it all really, it is not an easy time for anyone to experience, I think they will love your card x
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Hello Sarah. 🙂
I’m so glad that I’m not alone in struggling with the making of ‘Sympathy’ cards. It’s a strange thing. We all make any other types of card so it’s not talent we’re lacking. I can only think that it’s the ‘showing’ of the feeling we’re trying to put into our cards.
‘Fun’ is easy to put into a card, and likewise: smiles, love, friendliness, joy, delight, and even the ‘awwww’ factor. But the feelings of compassion, care, sorrow and the acknowledgement of the anguish and all engulfing pain which accompanies the loss of a much loved one – that’s the difficult part to express within the making of an ‘Sympathy’ card, – or rather – I think it’s that’s maybe what we all find so difficult to actually ‘detail’ into our cards.
It’s a fine line to walk isn’t it … and we can so easily go even one step too far and change a card from what it should be into something which isn’t at all what we need it to be.
Thank you for the visit Sarah, and for being so kind in taking the time to comment. I’ve visited your blog one or two times, and it’s FABULOUS! Filled with great recipes and the most incredible, well taken, sharp photographs. I loved them – and the blog. (Bloggers reading: go and take a look at Sarah’s blog!)
Have a wonderful day Sarah! ~ Cobs. x
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