I usually keep a few cards on hand for most occasions.  Unfortunately my husband has needed a few sympathy cards in the past couple of months.  I find sympathy cards some of the hardest to make and even more difficult to make when they are needed.  So although I hope I will not need them any time soon, I decided to make a few cards to have on hand.

After flipping through several paper pads I pulled 3 sheets from the Authentique Gathering 12×12 paper pad.  I didn’t want the paper to be too bright and thought the off-white and pale blue colors with the subtle floral prints had a softer feel to them.

For the first card I used the blue paper for the background and the 2 floral prints for the focal panels.  The card seemed a bit flat but I didn’t want to over do the embellishments.  I think the small blue buttons matched the background and added a bit of dimension without changing the feel of the card.

The next couple of cards used the larger floral print for the background.  A blue fish-tailed banner was added for some subtle color.  The sentiment was stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and popped up with thin foam tape.  For a little interest gold Love from Lizi peel-offs were added to the top of the banner and across the bottom of the card.

The same floral print was used as a background for the next card as well.  The smaller floral print was used for the focal panel with the pale blue paper used for the strip across the card.  A pale blue ribbon was added as embellishment and the sentiment panel was again popped up with thin foam tape.

The flip-side of one of the floral papers was used as the background on the next card.  The focal panel featured the smaller floral print.  Since the background was quite plain a few more embellishments were added — Love from Lizi peel-offs and a pale blue ribbon were added to the horizontal blue strip and a few Nuvo drops on the focal panel.

By using both sides of the double-sided paper there was enough to make 3 more cards – each with a solid background and a floral focal panel.  The remaining paper was used for the strips running across the cards.  For embellishments, Love from Lizi peel-offs were added to the horizontal strips and Nuvo drops were added next to the focal panels.

I didn’t have a specific number of cards in mind, so decided to make cards until all or at least most of the paper was used.  Since the paper is double sided by using the flip sides the paper stretched to 10 cards.  The paper pad was a bit of an impulse purchase but now that I’ve actually used some of the paper I’m really glad I didn’t talk myself out of buying it.