Wedding and Sympathy Cards

Yesterday I was able to find some time to make a few cards thanks to the snowstorm. I officially measured 20 inches in our backyard last night. That was a far cry from the 8 to 10 that was forecast for our area. According to the news our county was the hardest hit from this storm. So...after spending half the night trying to find my car I worked on these two cards that I needed to make for this weekend.

I also tried my hand at a new technique. My upline, Nancy Brown, has been doing stitching on her cards for a while now and it always makes her cards look so elegant. You can see some of her gorgeous work on her two blogs, Creatively Artsy Card Gallery and Inspired by Stamps. I decided to give her a call last night to get some tips on how it is done. Although I was scared at first, I have quickly fallen in love with this technique! I'm going to find it hard to make cards without stitching on them now. (Thanks, Nancy!) I absolutely love what stitching can add to a card.

This wedding card is for some very close friends of ours. They have been together for over ten years and are getting married on Saturday. The card measures 6 in x 6 in. I used the CTMH paper pack Silhouette, along with the Childhood Portrait stamp set. The image was stamped with black ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The sentiment is from the For Every Occasion stamp set. The flowers on the sentiment are from a corner punch. The stitching is done with two strands of black embroidery floss.

The sympathy card idea was basically copied from my upline. The only exception is that my card is a 6 x 6 and I changed a few minor details. I used the Bella paper pack from CTMH. The stamps are retiring sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. The cross is from the set called Elegant Blessings and the sentiment is from Forget-Me-Not. These stamps will only be around while supplies last and they are currently 50% off! The stitching is done with brown embroidery floss. The ribbon is CTMH Hollyhock stitched ribbon.