Fine Art Floral Sympathy Card

There will come a time where we need a sympathy card and this card design made using the Fine Art Floral designer series paper will show your heartfelt sympathies to its recipient.
This card was inspired by a design I saw many years ago made by Darlene DeVries. Like many cards I’m inspired by, I took the initial design and added my own embellishment. In this case, it’s the lovely gold leafing and gold embossing that adds the extra detail. I thought this was a great opportunity to play around with Stampin’ Up’s new gold leafing flakes. And a great opportunity to showcase the B-side of the Fine Art Floral Designer Series Paper. Even if you’re not as enamored by the floral side as I am, this paper set has some great background papers on the opposite sides.
Like Darlene’s card, my card features a singular floral stem. I thought the dainty flowers in the A Touch of Ink stamp set set the right tone. It is also the right size to fit on the center panel, while allowing the center panel to be small enough to show off the pretty papers and gold stripes in the background. The sympathy stamp is from the Heal Your Heart stamp set. Both of these stamp sets are free choices from the 2021 Sale-a-bration promotion from Stampin’ Up (free with purchase through Feb 28th, 2021). I stamped both flower and sentiment in Versamark Ink and then used the Gold embossing powder.
How to Apply the Gold Leaf Flakes
I love the subtle gold touch that the gold leaf flakes and the gold embossing powder brings to this card. I tried three other ways to add gold to the card and in the end, I love how this turned out. First, I used a gold Signo Uniball pen and ruler to add a gold line around the edges. I even made a template that I could draw the line on the center panel, 1/8″ in from the edge, even around the curved corners. The pen didn’t flow smoothly enough and looked amateurish, even after several practice runs.
I also tried using 1/4″ Tear n Tape on the outer edges of the center panel base. With the curved edge, there was always an awkward seam showing as the tape changed directions at the corners. Even with gold leafing, it was still obvious that there were strips of tape. Next, I tried just using a sheet of Gold Foil paper (and even Brass Foil paper). But those were really glossy and were a little too in-your-face.
Finally, I settled on using a piece of the adhesive sheets that covered the entire surface of the center panel base. It was overkill for adhering the stamped panel onto, but worked perfectly to provide a seamless substrate to apply the gold leaf flakes.
There’s one last way to apply the gold leafing. Included in the Fine Art Floral suite, there’s some sticky embossing powder. You use Versamark ink and shake the sticky embossing powder onto it. Then, you use a heat gun to melt the powder. When it’s melted, it leaves a sticky surface that the gold flakes will adhere to. Because I wanted this sympathy card to have a clean look, I didn’t want to take the chance that there’d be uneven coverage of the Versamark or the embossing powder. In the end, I’m happy with how the adhesive sheets worked and would use them again.
Disaster Strikes!
Because I embossed the floral image with embossing powder, then stamped the infill over it, there was leftover ink sitting on top of the embossed flower. In the video, you’ll see where disaster strikes at the end of the card assembly. And you can see how I undid the disaster.
Next time, I would have thought to wipe the ink off the gold embossed image. I did stamp and emboss before I adhered the panel down onto the adhesive sheet. But it was too late when I pressed down to provide good contact. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching many hours of card making videos, it’s that experienced card makers will tell you to keep going and not throw in the towel. In this case, the handy Tombow Mono Sand Eraser saved the day.
Watch How to Use Gold Leafing on the Fine Art Floral Sympathy Card
I put an instruction sheet together with all of the measurements and steps so you can recreate these cards yourself:
Love This Fine Art Floral Sympathy Card? Get More Design Inspiration Here!
I’ve gathered all of the cards I’ve made with the 2021 Spring Mini Catalog products in one place. I wanted it to be easy for you to see inspiration for how you can use these products. You can find those projects in one spot by following the link in the button below.
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