Hey, crafty friends! It’s Heather here today! The Graceful Ferns Kit is SOLD OUT. We will not be restocking the kit and we are not guaranteeing that any piece of the kit will be available to purchase later. If you missed out this month, mark your calendar for the last Tuesday of the month in March at 9AM for our next kit release. I’ll post a kit sneak peek the Saturday before so that you can take peek beforehand and decide if the kit is something that you would like to see more of and/or purchase.

We still wanted to share inspiration today from the TE Creative Team to inspire you for creating sympathy cards, which sometimes can be the most difficult cards to create. If you didn’t order the kit, perhaps you have another product (stamps, dies, stencils, etc.) in your own crafty collection that you can substitute for creating similar cards to the ones I have to share with you today. There are so many different techniques with watercolor, alcohol inks, gel press and more that the TE Creative Team used when they created their projects.

Click below to shop the new products released this week that are still available to purchase (Piñata alcohol inks, Alcohol Ink Cardstock, Done for You panels, and more!):

Today’s video is from Joy Baldwin and she is sharing trio of Mini Slim sympathy cards. She used our TE liquid watercolors in a few different ways on her cards. Watch the video below to see how everything comes together:

In the video, Joy shares ideas for using liquid watercolors in a few ways to create sympathy cards. For two of the cards, Joy creates backgrounds with the liquid watercolors and adds foliage to each one. One card features gold embossed solid fern images and then other card features the Leafy Frond die cut branches. On the third card, Joy uses liquid watercolor to add color to the outline fern image and lots of colorful splatters. The sentiments area added to the cards and Joy finishes them off with Bits & Pieces – Gold Drip Drops.

Here’s a closer look at each of the cards that Joy shared in the video:

For this card, Joy stamped the outline fern image on watercolor cardstock with Oreo ink and added color with Lime Zest and Peapod liquid watercolors using a paintbrush. The splatters (Peaches ‘n’ Cream and Cookie Monster liquid watercolor) are added by picking up color onto a paintbrush and tapping the brush on your fingers over your project. The sentiment from The Inside Scoop – Sympathy stamp set is embossed in gold over the watercolored image.

This card features a background created by wetting a piece of watercolor cardstock and touching both Peaches ‘n’ Cream and Cookie Monster liquid watercolor to the different areas of the paper with a paintbrush. You can use a spray bottle with water to thin and move the colors around even more. Joy stamped the ‘may you find comfort…’ sentiment onto the background after it was dry with Oreo ink and added the die cut branches cut out with the Leafy Frond die to the top and bottom of the card.

For the background on this card, Joy wet the cardstock with water, added drips of liquid watercolor directly to the wet cardstock, and used a spray bottle filled with water to move the color around. She embossed the solid fern image in gold a few times, cut them out with the coordinating die, and layered them over the watercolor background. The ‘with sympathy’ sentiment is stamped with Oreo ink and cut out with the coordinating die.

Check out the list below for the supplies that Joy used to create the cards:

Here is more inspiration from the TE Creative Team for creating sympathy cards:

Emily Mydlowski pulled out her Masking Stencils – Ovals set to create this sympathy card. She used several shades of green inks (Granny Smith, Lime Zest, and Peapod) to stencil the oval and then layered the fern over the top. I love the additional die cut from gold foil cardstock that Emily offset from the die cut fern – it really makes it stand out! The ‘with sympathy’ sentiment is embossed in gold and the finishing touch is a few Bits & Pieces – Clear Drip Drops.

There are so many things I love about this sympathy card created by Kavya. First of all, Kavya colored the leafy branch cut out with the Leafy Frond die with watercolors in various blue shades and added gold splatters and details with the Gansai Tambi watercolor set. She layered the leafy branch over a rectangle of watercolor cardstock that has a light watercolor wash and is stamped with the fern images in Salt Water Taffy ink. To complete the card, Kavya added the ‘with sympathy’ sentiment and a few Bits & Pieces – Gold Drip Drops.

The soft, textured background on this sympathy card by Jill Hawkins is just beautiful! She did an ink blend (Pineapple, Granny Smith, Sweet Basil, and Mushroom) and then stenciled the Breezy stencil over the top in Sweet Basil ink to create the subtle texture. She stamped the outline fern images along the bottom of the background with Sweet Basil ink and added the sentiment above them stamped with Oreo Ink. I spy a little bit of Jill’s signature stitching securing burlap twine that is wrapped around the background panel.

Jen Shults used her Gel Printing Kit to create the unique patterns on the leafy branch die cuts on this sympathy card. The gel press was inked up with Cookie Monster, Blue Raspberry, and Poblano Pepper inks and then Jen used the fern stamps to add and take away ink on the press to create unique patterns before pulling the print. The leafy branches are cut from the print and added to a Toffee card base that features frames cut out with the A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate die.

This sympathy card created by me (Heather Nichols) features an alcohol ink background. I only used one color of alcohol ink (Coral) and am impressed by the texture that you can create without using a lot of colors! The ink is dripped onto the new Alcohol Ink Cardstock and blown around with an air blower tool. I kept dripping and blowing the ink around until I was happy with how it looked. The gold embossed ferns are layered over the background and I added the ‘with sympathy’ sentiment stamped onto a Stitched Banner Stacklets die cut.

Melody Rupple created a gorgeous background for this sympathy card by combining watercolor and stenciling! She watercolored a piece of watercolor cardstock with Blue Corn liquid watercolor, let it dry, and then stenciled the Wild Willow stencil over the top with Blue Corn ink. Melody layered a few stamped ferns onto the background along with a piece of vellum featuring a sympathy sentiment embossed in gold.

Noriko Fairchild brought out the bright colors for this sympathy card created with alcohol inks. While you may not think bright colors are the typical choice, Noriko mentions how bright colors can bring a bit of light into a dark moment – I love that! Noriko actually created the alcohol ink backgrounds on acetate and then layered them onto Sugar Cube cardstock to create her cards. The fern image is stamped onto the acetate with Jet Black Stazon ink and the ‘with sympathy’ sentiment is embossed in white on Oreo cardstock.

Today, join Susan Block live for “T Time” at 10AM Central on the Taylored Expressions Facebook Page. She’ll be sharing a fun crafty project and more! We hope to see you there – come join in the fun! (Don’t worry, if you miss the live you can always watch the saved broadcast afterward!)

Thank you for joining us this week and for the incredible excitement over the Graceful Ferns Kit! We can’t wait o see your creations and hope that you will share them with us and other TE fans on the Fans of Taylored Expressions Facebook Page – if you aren’t a member of the group, come join us! Stop by the blog next week for a 2023 preview! Already? Yep! Stop by the blog this weekend for a sneak peek!

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