Sympathy Cards

Sorry I've been MIA again for a while.  As I mentioned in my prior post, my husband's step-grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and given 2 months.  When hospice arrived at their house following his arrival back home and the diagnosis, they advised that it would likely be 2 weeks.  On Friday evening/Saturday morning, he passed away.  My MIL called us at 1:14 am on Saturday morning to let us know.  The viewing is Monday evening and the funeral will be held on Tuesday afternoon.  He is in a better place and no longer suffering.  He is survived by his wife, my husband's grandmother, and his stepchildren, which include my MIL, my husband's aunt and his uncle.

I made some sympathy cards for my husband's grandmother and for my MIL.  Sympathy cards are so difficult to make; however, after doing a search on the Cricut message boards, I was inspired by cards made by dj1952 and Pinklady50.  You can check out their cards here.

I used a 5x7 pre-made card for the base.  I then cut some black cardstock at 4 x 6 and some white card stock to fit.  The size of the inside white cardstock is a bit different on both cards.

I then cut the bird and cherry blossom branch using the Home Decor cartridge.  The size of the bird on the card with the pink ribbon is 1 3/4" and on the card with green ribbon is 2".  Sorry, I don't remember what size the cherry blossom branch was cut at on the card with pink ribbon.  On the card with green ribbon, I believe I cut it at 3 1/4".

Next, I used the cherry blossom embossing folder from the Asian Cuttlebug set and ran the white cardstock through.  Then, I tied the ribbon around and adhered all layers.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto a white block and placed it on a black background.  I used pop-dots to give the sentiment block some dimension.

For the inside, I'm planning to write some text using the computer.  Browsing through the Cricut message boards, I came across a Sympathy card with text that I thought would be good to use. (view)  Therefore, the inside on both cards will read:

Praying for friends to comfort you,
faith to uphold you,
and loving memories to heal your heart.

I've got a few other cards to work on as well.  I'm not sure with everything going on this week if I'll get around to posting them....but hope to have them posted by next weekend.

I hope you all have a peaceful Sunday afternoon/evening and a great week!