"With Sympathy" and "Thanks Sew Much"

this post has a sympathy card and a thanks card! My friend Rhonda (my loyal customer that I'm always making cards for) told me last week that her auntie passed away. She was very sad as she said this was the auntie that she was closest to. I made her a card :)

the 2nd card is a "thanks sew much" card. this card was actually just "thrown" together (haha, sewn together, not quite!) and it didn't turn out how I wanted it. the coloring job is bad (I'm ASHAMED of myself!!!) and it just isn't what I wanted it to be! it did come out cute, and it's what I wanted it to be as far as 'layout' goes but I'm not happy with my coloring job. I think that is really what throws me off with this card! I never color this bad, but I was RUSHING to do this card early into the morning last night before I had to get up to leave at 4am to go to the airport to get our friend Jenn who's in visiting from Lost Wages, erm, I mean, ehhh hemmmmm, Las Vegas (haha, I can call it that cause I used to live there!).

Anyhow, here are sneak peeks of the 2 cards, click the link to see the rest of the pics!
Sympathy card for Rhonda....

 Thanks sew much card....

**Update 6/16/12 I was just notified that my Neva (the card below) was posted on the Sweet Pea Stamps blog! it was customer submission week and I sent them my card! WOOT WOOT! I wish they would have posted my blog link! :(
CLICK HERE to check out the post of my card on the SPS blog!

This sympathy card was created with the "Neva" image from Sweet Pea Stamps. I stamped the image in memento black and then colored it with my prismacolored pencils and blended with gamsol.
The flourishes are done with flat cardstock from the spellbinders shapabilities floral flourishes set.
the flowers are an assortment of wild orchid crafts, prima and recollections.
I used orange cardstock that I punched with my fiskars treading water edge punch on both sides.
the sentiment is from the paper company playful expressions set and punched out with the SU! decorative label punch. I added a couple pearls to the top right corner as well.

 for the blue sky background I used a q-tip (clean, OF COURSE!!!!!) and shaded with SU! ballet blue, and then used another q-tip and shaded over that with SU! buckaroo blue to give it that night sky look without being "black". I know that the sky background isn't "uniform" in it's coloring, that's because the night sky isn't always uniform in color, depending on the phase of the moon! I didn't realize that I needed a darker look until after i was done coloring and then was like DUHHHH there are lanterns! LOL

 for the inside of the card, the birdhouse image is an inkadinkado stamp. I used 3 different colors of ink. I inked up the whole stamp in the purple and then wiped off the flowers and the birds and reinked them with new colors and then stamped the image. I used a few different pearls to bring that into the inside from the front of the card and then stamped the sentiment from my Anna Griffin sentiment set. :)

For the "Thanks Sew Much" card, I warn you, the coloring job is HORRIBLE!!!! (seriously, ashamed of myself isn't a strong enough word. LOL these were colored with my zig brushables. I didn't even worry about blending or anything, I just did a few swipes of the markers and I was done. this is basically just a 'trial' run card for a layout that I had in mind... I'm sure I'll find someone to give this card to though.

the mouse image is from the 'Thimbles 'n Threads' stamp set by nit wit collections. it was originally given as a free gift in a craft magazine in the UK. I was lucky to get my hands on it by buying it online!
The flourishes are from the shapabilities floral flourishes set. the image is stamped on one of the nestibilties labels, but I'm not sure which one, I got this as a blank cut piece from a friend. I used half of a white SU! doily die cut shape that I misted with my homemade glimmer mist and then misted again with tattered angels for a brighter shimmer. it was REALLY cloudy today, so I wasn't able to get a good picture.
I SERIOUSLY need to find a better lighting solution for taking pics inside the house. I need a BRIGHT space for pics, so everything comes out good the first time!

 For the needle and thread, I used some real green embroidery floss (all 6 strands) and threaded it through the cardstock, up and then under the arm etc. as I was going along, I just used glossy accents to adhere the bottom of the floss that way i didn't have to keep punching through the cardstock. I used glossy accents on the needle to make it shiny, like a real needle would be (but again, can't tell it cause the lighting outside was so dull and dark). the hearts and middles of flowers on the deco background cardstock has stickles on it in spots here and there :)

 this is the inside image.. this is actually 3 separate images! the first image is the spool and needle, the 2nd image is the "tag" with outline and small pink thread lines, and the 3rd is the actual sentiment inside the tag "thanks sew much"
I thought it would be cute to make the 'threat' shimmer, but looking at it now, I HATE it!!!! I won't do that again! I should ahve just colored it. but it's green like the front anyhow, so it still matches, sorta. the needle is glossed over with glossy accents.

Well, those are my 2 cards as you can see from this post and my last post, I got a LOT done the last 2 days!! :) Thanks for stopping by and looking!
Keep on Craftin' and please, be kind to one another!
~Melisa Marie