Thoughts & Prayers Sympathy: Simple & Stepped Up

Unfortunately, I needed a sympathy card today, so I thought it was a perfect time to showcase the beautiful Thoughts & Prayers stamp set. It's always good to keep a couple of these cards on hand for unexpected occasions when you need a heartfelt card.

Of course, I usually don't keep many of these kinds of cards on hand, which means I typically need to make one in a hurry. Can you relate? It's no problem, though!

The Thoughts & Prayers set, with it's serene and thoughtful images, had everything I needed to make a beautiful card in minutes.

I started with a Soft Suede base, then layered Not Quite Navy card stock with some Twitterpated Designer Paper for the background.

I stamped the tree image in Soft Suede, and the sentiment in Not Quite Navy, on Very Vanilla card stock. Then, I die-cut the image with the Apothecary Accents Framelits and added a couple of Pearl Jewels.

A simple Baja Breeze Seam Binding ribbon finishes this simple card.

CASEd from Lee Ann at Greyt Paper Crafts.

I stepped up my second version of the card, adding some details and extra elements to really make it something special!

I used the Essentials Paper Piercing Pack templates to pierce evenly around the edges of die-cut shape, as well as outlining the shape on the card front.

I also added Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy blooms with the flower punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. For dimension, I wrapped each bloom around the tip of my Bone Folder to scrunch it, then adhered it to the image with Multipurpose Glue. A small Pearl Jewel center makes these flowers so cute!

Finally, I tried something a bit different with my Seam Binding. I twisted it and twisted it, heated it up slightly with the Heat Tool on the low setting, then ran my finger down the length of the ribbon to lock the creases in it. (If I would have had an iron handy, or even a flat iron for hair, I would have just swept that over it.) I double-wrapped it around the card—love that creased look!