Sympathy card help please

[billiekins]

I am trying to come up with an idea for a sympathy card and am having a severe mental block. My very good friend passed away recently and I would like to make a card for her husband. She was a stamper and I am having a hard time coming up with something special. I almost feel as though I am really making the card for her and anything I come up with doesn't seem to be good enough.

Any ideas or links to your favorites would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[anitafarrow25]

My favorite one is made with a retired stamp called "Stipple Hydrangea." You just stamp it, and either stamp or computer print "In Deepest Sympathy" or something equivalent and mount over the stem part. It's very pretty....and in fact, I'm out of them. I may need to try to get a few of them made over the weekend. HTH!
Anita
P.S. Have you searched in the gallery? This one is there, along with LOTS of other equally great ideas.

[etsdas]

I always struggle with sympathy cards as well.
I am not sure how the gallery works for you. I would go there, and under "search" type in sympathy. I always get a lot of great examples when I do that. Lovely as a Tree and the flowers from Never Ending Joy are two sets that come to mind. If you don't have a sentiment stamp that says something about "in sympathy" I am sure that "Thinking of you" also works.

Gallery at Splitcoaststampers
(This is a terrible post but shows one of my favorite styles for a sympathy card.)

I have also used a nice corner stamp - kind of a scroll like design with a similar geometric in the center, and the rest of the card fairly plain, with a sentiment stamped, maybe at the bottom I have not scanned this. I prefer the softer colors - greens, blues, lavenders.
But everyone has different ideas - look through the examples and i am sure you will be insprired.

[MWDStamp]

I have made a number of sympathy cards for my mom to use.(she's older and at that age when she is losing a lot of friends) Anyway, I think with sympathy cards, the simpler the better. A flower or 2 on the front with "thinking of you" or "with sympathy" for the words. I have an Anna Griffin flower stamp I use a lot. I stamp it on cream c/s and then the words in black at the bottom. I will then color edges of the card in a color to match the flower.
So sorry to hear about your friend's passing. I'm sure some of your difficulty with making this card is because you are feeling the loss of your friend.

[stillstampin]

The Calla Lily from Ageless Adornment, Flower Garden and Stipple Rose are all good for sympathy cards but since you are sending this to a husband, Lovely as a Tree (perhaps the oak tree) with Thinking of You may be the most appropriate IMHO. Sincere condolances on the passing of your friend.

[kamuelamom]

I happened to have a "peace" card made with Wonderful words II and Bareback and gave it to my friend/neighbor whose 12 y/o son disappeared in an ocean incident recently. They continue to struggle with his loss. "Hope" is also in that set which makes a lovely card also.

[Ashley Liu]

So sorry to hear about the loss. As this is for your friend's husband, I will go with something less feminine. I have used a glossy cs and use the brayer to put on light purple/pink/sky blue color ( colorbox option plates ), make it look like sunset with streaks of colors in the sky, then use the big " Lovely as the tree " set in the middle and put " thinking of you " at the bottom right hand corner. I used Night of navy cs as the background cs and use the wrought iron punch to punch the inside and insert a white piece of paper so I can write on it.

Hope this is helpful.

[ndeelou]

I think to say I never thought i woudl be makign this card or refer to all the times you stamped together or if you know her favorite set or the last one you used for something (now *I* am crying)
i agree with the previous poster that this is so hard because your loss is so great so the message is what you are focusing on and that this might not be the "best card" save your alternate designs for other uses
and if you find one that is not quite right perhaps her husband could use those for thank you notes or something you could do together later.(there will also sadly have to be some kind of notification at the holidays for people who havent heard and inadventently send a card)

You are a good friend and i am soo sorry for your loss. we will be thinking about you during this hard week and in the days to come

betsy