Three weeks ago today I had a need for a special sympathy card so I created this Sympathy Card With Gold Foil Cross. A dear friend with whom I’d grown up since 4th grade lost her husband to the coronavirus. While I saw lots of pretty ideas for sympathy cards online and almost chose one of those, I ended up somewhat copying a card I’d made myself several years ago.

Around Easter I had posted some past cards I had made and I noticed my friend commented on a card like this one. She’s also has a strong religious faith so I thought a card with a cross would be appropriate.

I first thought of making an all-white card but in the end, I used Gold Foil for the cross and the scalloped layer. The card base is Whisper White with a layer that is embossed with the Tin Tile 3D Embossing Folder.

The cross is made with two die-cut pieces from the Flourish Dies. It is the long piece that is not a leaf or flower! I cut two but then cut each down according to the size I wanted. Just use Paper Snips to cut carefully either with a straight line or perhaps following the curve, depending on where that end is going to end up.

I had to put a lot of thought into layering the cross, whether to emboss that background piece, what shape, what color, etc. Finally, I settled on using the Layering Ovals Dies because I needed something large. I chose to use one of the scalloped ovals for the gold foil layer under the white oval. To glue the cross together and to adhere it to the oval, I used the teeniest drops of Multipurpose Liquid Glue. It IS possible to get teeny drops out of the bottle but if that doesn’t work for you, put a small puddle of glue on some scrap paper or wax paper or your Silicone Craft Sheet and dip something like a toothpick or corner of a scrap of cardstock in it to pick up the glue.

Last, but not least, I had a difficult time deciding on a flower. Whether to stamp a flower and punch it out with either a current punch or retired punch and what flower stamp to use, etc. etc. Finally, I settled on this flower, stamped in Memento Ink and colored with Stampin’ Blends. The stamp is in the Ornate Style Stamp Set. I even added a little Rhinestone Jewel to the center of the flower.

This is the card I copied from. It doesn’t hurt to look back at your older creations and see if something in your own collection inspires you! I just changed up the colors to what feel I wanted this sympathy card to have and it was easy to duplicate. Of course the personal note inside a card like this is the most important part, but I know for us cardmakers, making a card for a situation like this takes some thought about the design, colors, greeting, etc. in hopes we will get the tone just right and bring comfort to the recipient. I’m afraid we could all need to have some sympathy cards on hand or ideas in our heads for one with the virus ravaging our country in this way.

Always look through your stash of cardmaking supplies, even older ones, and you will likely find something, even the perfect something, with which you can make a card like this sympathy card. It’s a shame we have to send them to people we know, but we do and we’ve been given a special opportunity with our supplies and our talent to hopefully ease someone’s sorrow with our cardmaking and papercrafting.