Whimsy Stamps ~ Black on Black

Hey crafty friends, I'm sharing a slightly sombre couple of creations today. But despite the sad theme, I really love these elegant creations. I happily don't 'need' these right now, but was inspired to 'be prepared' when caught short a while back for a sympathy card. I made a black on black sympathy card a few years back when one of my besties lost her sister. It was heart breaking but I created that card, because one of the things that was special about her, was her love for sourcing elegant understated cards for friends birthdays, so I knew I had to make something pretty special to honour her. The resulting card can be found here and my creations today are very much inspired by this creation, which I still really love.


So I've created two black on black designs, inspired by that previous sympathy card, but with two quite different looks. I think they both look very elegant and though they wouldn't be appropriate for everybody, I think they'll find the right homes when the time comes. 


This first creation, I did something a little fun and different with the design. Rather than have the beautiful magnolia diecut panel flat or raised evenly from the base, I created a slightly domed effect on the front, but adding adhesive only down the two sides and attaching it to a base panel slightly narrower than the magnolia panel itself. This was a happy accident, as the base panel was slightly too narrow, but it sparked the idea for this interesting card front. So I brought the sides in and created the bowed front, which sits so nicely in reality, but is very hard to capture on film. I used black foam for the dimension on these creations, as white would have shown on the sides. A clever trick if you don't have black foam, is to run a black sharpie or similar along the white edges after they're in place to disguise the white edge. I've done this before and it works a treat! I added a little golden sparkle on the Magnolia centres with a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen and gold heat embossed the sentiment on a little tag. I added a pretty triple bow in organza ribbon, it's otherwise very simple and understated.


My second design, uses that same beautiful sketchy flowers stamp that I've shown in a couple of previous creations, but this time heat embossed, black on black. I've used black cardstocks of different textures for added  interest and a pretty frame to cut the panel out, but I kept the 'waste' and just popped the panel up from the base, so it sits a little proud of this. I love the look of panels layered up where the design continues across the base layers. It's a favourite technique of mine and I think it's really lovely on this creation. I chose to heat emboss the sentiment in black also, which is much easier to read in person than it is to capture in a photo, but a good alternative would have been to gold emboss it. I added another organza ribbon to this creation and did a triple bow again, this time I used a wider ribbon, so it's very full, which I think finishes this card nicely.


I'm curious to know what you think of these black on black designs as sympathy cards. I personally love them, but it's interesting to know others thoughts too. I hope you've enjoyed my crafty adventures this month. I'm crazy prepping for our May creations now, but do have another cute creation to share with you in a couple of days, which will be part of a blog hop with some great prizes, so watch this space! Hugs and happy crafting xoxo






Comments

Sarah said…
I think they are really lovely Wends. The different textures and shades of black make such fabulous compositions and the ribbon softens them. The domed die cut panel looks incredible xx
Chris said…
It's very unusual to see black cards Wends, these look amazing- very elegant!
xx
coldwaters2 said…
Wow Wends these are so beautiful also elegant I love how you have created the domed effect with the Magnolia panel the stamp one is divine the added bows make these something special. I love them both so much
hugs
lorraine x
Kathi said…
Both cards are beautiful. I popped over from FB to see how you created them. I always love black on black embossing and the bowed die-cut adds so much to the top card. Both cards' bows are gorgeous.

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