Isn’t that just what you need to say to someone at a difficult time?  “I am here for you.” Encompassing compassion and the offer of help if needed, it really is a wonderful sentiment for those hard to make sympathy cards. This is the second floral image from Clearly Besotted Stamps new Thinking of You set. You can see the orchid from the set if you scroll down or click here.

I do love Clearly Besotted Stamps flowers, they are so delicate and life like :) I white heat embossed the lily onto kraft card and then tried out some Prismacolor pencils. I bought a couple of Faber-Castell polychromos previously but I know a lot of people use Prismacolor so bought a small set of those to try out too. Personally I think I prefer the Prismacolor ones as they are a little softer and easier to blend. I coloured the anthers a deep orange and then added a subtle sparkle with a glitter pen. The button hopefully ties in with the anthers and I added a florish of twine behind.

There was a discussion in the Online Card Class forum a while back on showing some of the bloopers that we make. The above card was the second draft so I thought I’d share my first card with you. Here’s the card and then I will say why I changed it.

Not really that different I know, but as I was looking at it the Lily just seemed a bit out on a limb so I removed the panel, cut it down a bit so the flower felt like it was part of the grouping on the left side. To me it just worked better; I liked the card having more white space and it also showed the subtle woodgrain stamped onto the card base. What do you think?

It was a bank holiday here in the UK yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed spending a great day with my three. Only thing is it feels like I’m in charge of a canteen when the holidays are on; these guys are getting big and boy can they eat! My eldest towers over me now and has almost caught up with his Dad and my daughter is rapidly catching up with me. When did that happen? Do I sound really old when I say that time is flying by!

Supplies: Stamps – Clearly Besotted Stamps thinking of you, Hero Arts designer woodgrain; Inks – Hero Arts cup o’ joe, Versamark; Card – Bazzill marshmallow, Papertrey Ink kraft; Paper – My Mind’s Eye the sweetest thing tangerine, Simple Stories sn@p color vibe 6×6 pad; Pencils – Prismacolor premier; Signo uniball white gel pen; Sakura gelly roll glitter pen; Stampin’ Up twine; Hero Arts embossing powder; Button