Seeing Me Through

I love cards that celebrate or commemorate fun occasions – birthday cards, holiday cards and congratulations cards are always fun to make.  Every once in a while, though, we need to make a sympathy card or a solemn thank you card – and those can be enjoyably therapeutic.  Things have been pretty amazingly happy for me lately, but I know how important it is to have supportive friends when things are rough.  When someone helps you get through a tough snag, that friend deserves a beautiful card like this:

Me=Grateful, It's Wild, From Land to Sea, Stampin' Up!, Brian King Tips, Tricks and Reminders

  • A Union of Three Unrelated Stamp Sets.  I love the fonts in this sentiment from the Me=Grateful stamp set, so I’ve been drawn to it from the start.  While it would easily pair with flowers or soft images, I really, really wanted to pair it with this lighthouse found in the From Land to Sea stamp set.  It’s easy to make the lighthouse-darkness-guidance relationship, but I didn’t want the card to be dark at all.  The wavy pattern in It’s Wild is stamped in the background of this card (I stamped off once before stamping the image on the Pool Party piece) to create a soft texture that mimics waves.

    Me=Grateful, It's Wild, From Land to Sea

    Me=Grateful, It’s Wild, From Land to Sea

  • Quick-and-Easy Coloring.  The lighthouse and sentiment are stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.  While StazOn is better for traditional watercoloring, I used a Blender Pen to lightly brush a bit of Pool Party onto the helix of stripes around the lighthouse.  It was enough to not distort the image.  If I were really moistening the image, the black would bleed and blend.  NOTE:  In the upcoming Holiday Catalog, Stampin’ Up! is releasing a new Archival Ink in Basic Black and Basic Gray that will be PERFECT for watercoloring without having to clean the StazOn. Me=Grateful, It's Wild, From Land to Sea, Stampin' Up!, Brian King
  • Color Combination.  Again, I wanted a color combination that was bright without being cheery – there’s still a bit of a solemnness to the card.  This combination of Basic Gray, Basic Black and Pool Party gave me the balance I wanted for this card.Stampin' Up! Color Inspiration: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Pool Party

Stamp Sets:  Me = Grateful, From Land to Sea, It’s Wild  Papers:  Basic Gray, Basic Black, Pool Party, Whisper White  Inks:  Tuxedo Black Memento, Pool Party  Accessories:  Stampin’ Dimensionals

Don’t forget the envelope!  I lined the envelope for this card with a piece of Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack – while some colors in these packs are designed with a colored background and white words, the Basic Gray piece is white with Basic Gray words.  Cropped with Envelope Liner Framelits, the liner is a lovely complement to this card, don’t you think?

Me=Grateful, It's Wild, From Land to Sea, Stampin' Up!, Brian King

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

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33 Comments

  1. A stunning card and the colors are perfect. I love the lighthouse with the sentiment stamp.

  2. A lovely looking card. Great colours – and I love the typeface of the sentiment. Very nice. The envelope liner is a perfect accompaniment

  3. An amazingly beautiful and thoughtful card Brian. Love the color combination and the simplistic elegance as well!

  4. Fabulous card Brian, this light house image is so beautiful, I love the background your created with the “It’s Wild” stamp, the design looks amazing stamped tone on tone.

  5. I adore this. The colour balance is beautiful, the combination of the sentiment and image is inspired, and the clean and simple layered look complements it all wonderfully. Oh, Brian, you are such an inspiring crafter! Thanks, as always, for sharing these gorgeous creations. (And I know I am gushing, but it is all sincerely meant!)
    Oh, and that envelope liner is spot-on!

  6. Hi Brian, This card is beautiful. The colors are fabulous and the sentiment and light house are perfect too. What a great idea.
    🙂

  7. I like how you used the background stamp…very creative!

  8. Suzie Patt Cullen

    Ditto! Everything about it, Brian!

  9. Brian, sheer perfection as always! You are a true card designer. I’ve learned so much from your three tips. Color, layout, symmetry without symetricness (is that a word ?).

    And your sense of humor is flippin’ precious. I literally LOL. My boyfriend is jealous of my “online” relationship. Good to keep him on his toes! ?

    Thank you for sharing! It’s an amazing gift.

  10. Brilliant my friend! What a fabulous card and way to think out of the box! Love it!

  11. LOVE IT! Now I want all three of those sets. And I just told myself last night that I really didn’t need anything more from the main catalog…
    Bwaaahaaa… Just kidding!

  12. What a beautiful card Brian. A coincidence too that my blog today also has a sympathy card using that same sentiment and a lighthouse (although mine’s from the Settin’ Sail stamp set). I love the background stamp and never saw it as waves though, you might just have given me the excuse to add it to my wish list.

  13. Brian, I simply love this card. All the images you combined perfectly and it’s just amazing. This one is a keeper for me! Thanks!

  14. Love the use of that background stamp. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Brilliant!”.

  15. Love it ! I love light houses and these colors are soft ….just a great card !

  16. Great combo, Brian…. I have a VERY old lighthouse set. I have never thought of using it like this…..

  17. A vary beautiful card Brian, Tfs,
    Hugs Frenchie,

  18. Clean and elegant. Love it.

  19. This is truly one of the most gorgeous cards I’ve seen you make. There isn’t one thing that could be changed up to make it better. Way to go! Into my faves!

  20. I love it Brian! Your cards are always lean, clean, and stunning!

  21. This might be my favorite card you’ve made! I want to buy all three sets just to case it! Beautiful!!

  22. Home-run, you covered all the bases!

  23. Brian, this card is brilliant! You are amazing, my friend.

  24. Hi Brian:

    Well, after reading all the comments there really isn’t much left to say. Magnificent? Superb? Fantastic? Imaginative? Beautiful? All of these and more. What a perfect lighthouse image to make note cards from Maine with and who better to inspire us but the King! LOL Love it, can you tell?

  25. Woo hoo! Perfect card and great sentiment. Love that “wild” background.

  26. I was fortunate enough to see it “live” and it is even more stunning! Nice job, Brian!

  27. Wow! Love the wavy background and your coloring is great! A perfect, classy clean card. You’re the best at inspiring us!

  28. Barbara Jean Wind

    This is one of my favorite cards that you have ever done. Combining three stamp sets to create such a heartfelt card is quite something. Thank you for the inspiration.

  29. A truly inspired card. AWESOME news about the new black ink!!

  30. Oh Brian, I so wish I had this to send to a friend. This is a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL card! A very dear friend of mine had seen me through some very dark days some years ago.
    Absolutely love it! TFS 😀

  31. This card is just beautiful! I love the way your brain works. So glad to hear that you’re amazingly happy, I think it shows in your work?

  32. Oh Brian, you are truly amazing. In the few short months that I have been following your delightful daily postings you have demonstrated boundless energy, impeccable style & taste, all wrapped in a warm and genuine sense of humor. And now I see you are kind, sensitive and supportive.

    I know that this is sounding a lot like what those “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent” young men are really all about.

    MORE IMPORTANTLY: THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL CARD I’VE SEEN OF YOURS. It probably would be crass to have one of your infinity shots of rows & rows of this card [but I’d love to see it] – because just about everyone needs a card like this once in a while.

    Thanks so much for all the great stuff you share.

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