Love Fits

Life happens.
So does death. Sadly
When it is a furry friend there
are so many different emotions.

Greeting cards are simple.

I create them from the heart.

Pet owners are my kind
of people.

Peace

Peggy @ prdesigns

prdesigns1@sbcglobal.net

It's Never Easy

A friend recently had to put their fur baby down due to a bone illness.  It's never easy, a pet is one of the family too!

I still just love, love ♥ the fact that I can go into my creative space and figure out how to design a personalized card.  Be it a happy occassion, or sad, a joyous milestone or just a simple 'hello'.  My mantra continues to be...

Brighten Someone's Day

and I am so happy that I can do it with a creative greeting!!

You should too!

Peace

It is always a challenge to create heartfelt sympathy cards.  I want them to have feeling and a great sense of respect. I made about a half dozen cards for an order.  Although similar, here are two of my cards.  I just love this bird punch from SU!  I was just able to purchase a stamp set that goes with this.... I've made a cardinal before using red and black punching the paper to fit.... now SU! got smart and created a 2 step method.... stamp the bird that is in fine detail.... match up the coordinating punch set and you have a beautiful result.  One day soon, I will show you how I put one and one together!  So, stay tuned.

Simple, yet heartfelt

I missed writing my blog last Friday!!!! :(  It was spring break week here and part of my little family went on a college hunt in the south east corner of the United States, visiting Wake Forest, Elon, High Point, UNC and Clemson... all out of South Carolina and North. I was picking them up at the Milwaukee airport.

My family is changing once again!  Although Sissy is only a junior, it's time to see what's out there in the world so decisions can be made, ACT tests taken, scholarships sought out!!!

Let's open our minds wide, so we can let more in~ pinterest

For Every Season, turn, turn

Along with the fun and whimsy of card making and paper crafts, there is a serious and heartfelt side.  As a card maker you should make all different kinds of cards, and with that comes the comfort of sympathy.  Here are two examples.  I'm loving the butterfly stamp... they can be used on any type of card.  Same stamp, different colors, different layout... but very sincere.

I love the dimension of a popped up butterfly.... cutting out another stamped image and using pop dots!

Shortly, I will be showing you my progression in this new endeavor... the Sketchbook Project 2011.  You can check it

out here---->

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

I got my sketchbook in the mail yesterday, they are saying

 It's like a  concert tour with Sketchbooks.

The theme I am working with is A View from Up Here.  I'm looking forward to altering the sketchbook a bit and adding a few tags, fibers, pockets and tags.  Stay tuned.

Bubba and I gave blood today.  My fourth time this year.  His first time ever! I'm a bit tired.  Yay, it's the weekend!

Simple Sympathy

If that can be simple. Just a few twigs off to the side with the sentiment. I just barely edged the left side and bottom to give it a little more dimension.

12 Hours of volleyball tourney time this weekend, and I didn't hit the ball a single stitch... well I lie... I got hit on the shoulder with a ball and defended myself once with a kick save protection move. I thought Sissy played quite well, but she is frustrated with her team and coach. There is nothing I can do about that, except lend a sympathetic ear! Watched the movie UP! en-route to the tourney.... mixed feelings to review it. I thought the animation was great, but the story and inner stories with the animal 'cruelty' too sad for a Pixar movie. But that's just me.

Bottom of the barrel

With all the things I did and didn't do this weekend, here's one of the last cards for me to showcase from last week's photo shoot. Can't have enough sympathy cards. The one bad thing, is I don't like to make multiples of the same card... but I really like the layout and color of this one.... Based of course, after Markie's Mom... you can tell by the dots!!

Beautiful {snicker} rainy weekend!!! However, yhe grass is lush green, all the trees and bushes are budding, all the weeds are ... growing like weeds. It's about 64 out right now and overcast. My window is open and I can hear all the birds chirping and tweeting.... love that!!!! Felt however, that I needed to build an ark . Need to get our water gage out to caculate just how much we are getting.

Sissy had a tough volleyball tourney here in town. That's always nice (being local) because we can run home and get away from the noise and madness, for a few minutes at least. They won three matches on Saturday and one match (against their rival foes.... she's on 14 red... the hbeat 14 black ) but then lost to another very competitive team. So, once again they ended up in 3rd.

Bubba had a tennis tourney too at one of the 3 high schools in town. Weird round robin system they play. Total of 8 teams, so they play 8 games against each of the 7 other teams... he and his doubles partner ended up in 2nd place by winning 54 games... but then the rain came... yadda yadda...

Well, I don't start work until 3... but I have a ton of stuff to do before that. Have a great day!!!

Sympathy Card

Saw this tutorial on Zindorf's blog, and felt that I wanted to try it again. I'm still having trouble with the brayer giving me lines, but find out it works best for me right now with the lighter inks. I just love how these images look like mini paintings and am pretty much always thrilled that I'm able to re-create them! I think after doing these, some day I'd like to take a water color class.... mmmm


Can you believe it? No rain today!

Stamp Camp

Went to stamp camp this week and had fun playing around with a few new things. One, that I found really cool was this card holder.... I've made all kinds of paper craft/ card holders, but it's fun to learn different ways, shapes and dimensions. Some have covers, some open like a pizza box... it is so cool what people play around with and figure to make, then share it!! Also included in this post is one sample card from the pack. Four of the cards that night were made to 'match' the packaging, so you could think about giving it as a gift.

The techniques at stamp camp are always good reminders of things I haven't done in a while, or just great things to incorporate that are so simple, and they look great.I can always learn more ways to make sympathy cards.

"Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed."

With Deepest Sympathy

The eb and flow between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and bad ... all these things can be conveyed on a card. If there are words you don't know what to say, somehow by sending a card and saying "I' m Sorry", "Peace be with You" "I'm hear to listen" can be enough to touch a heart, to mend an emptiness, to let someone know you care.

I always get mushing when doing sympathy cards. They are a very personal wound healer, sometimes difficult to capture in a piece of paper. I did a few cards over the weekend. Easy viewing... nothing too difficult to create.

I won't leave today on a sad note.

"Enjoy the ride. Remember, this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride."

User friendly blog

I've been playing around a bit with my blog, in hopes you the viewer can find what you might be looking for. I've gone back and labeled a few of my posts, and put mainly the card postings in order of what type of creative greetings!! they represent. So, with this post, you will see a label down at the post that reads, sympathy card.... click on that, and it will list all of the different kind of sympathy cards I've posted. Look for labels like: birthday, hello, blank, male, fall, christmas etc....

Two Sympathy Cards

Sadly, it's that time of the year when people are requesting more sympathy cards. Here are a few that I made. I've realized that some rubber stamp companies make their stamps... crooked! As much as I try to get the words to be horizontally correct, these words still go down hill!!!

Nothing hand drawn here. One simple card, one with more detail.

I don't want to leave today with a sad note. So I think I will post a 'more' happier card. So for those who don't like to make sympathy cards. Try a bit to go outside your comfort zone, and know that the special card you make will be making someone know how much you care for them and their family.

With Deepest Sympathy

Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings.

Sympathy cards are the hardest for me to create.
A. They are not fun and whimsical, like I try to have most of my cards express.
B. Yet they have to express sincerity

Here are a few cards I made last week. I am enjoying butterflies lately, and I think they work intertwined in a sympathy card... floating up to heaven as a new life from the cacoon! Used Watermark ink to just leave the stain of the image. I also found some rub-ons from Big Lots($1) and thought the stark white box on the card looked simple, yet elegant.

Off to funner things... or more fun subjects! Or something just simply fun!

A stamp camp card

Here's a nice and simple card I made at stamp camp last week. I think the simple image seems so elegant (is that the word) maybe, appropriate. We outlined the image and the white paper with a gold gel pen. Framed the image with a homemade type of paper. I don't personally have this stamp, but I like the layout and would do it again for additional sympathy cards.

Another *case*

Although I knew what I was doing, in case any anonymous blog readers out there want to know the official acronym for C.A.S.E. means.... C opy A nd S teal E verything. Guilty, that's me! It's so fun to case other people's work... now, quite obviously (well at least to me, that's my story and I'm sticking to it), what I'm stealing is the design concept.... I would have to admit unless completely a coinky dink.... materials I use are just what I have lying about... I don't go out and purchase products to 'reproduce' cards. Well, that's a lie too... I do have the Cuttlebug and often really case embossed backgrounds if I have them... okay, enough.... this is another {capture the moment} sympathy card. What I like about this card is the hole punch for the ribbon to go through. I'll have to make a few more to have on hand. Thanks for looking, and for forgiving me for CASE-ing!

Deepest Sympathy

I really like this recipe. The words are stamped, the side bar is cuttlebugged and the image is computer generated and then cut out. Also, too, not my favorite card to make, but life and death do go in spurts.... so I try to have a variety on hand, and although the same people would never get the cards I make, I create new ones with different colors and backgrounds. Pretty much never the same card twice. But there are a few recipes I follow for sympathy cards. I tend to stick in the mossy green color and the eggplant or purple color families.

You are the light

Well, these are never 'fun' cards, but I thought I would add a few sympathy cards to my blog, because I do make them. The light house image is off the computer (PrintMaster program) and what I did is print out the image twice and then cut one out and use pop dots to have it 'pop' out a bit to give the card dimension. I often find sentiments and quotes on the computer, then print them, add a similar background and I have a very nice sympathy card.