Dear reader, you may recall that I’m not a fan of ‘anything goes’ card challenges. Many entries to the two challenges I contribute to are not clean and simple, despite this remaining a requirement of the ‘anything goes’ theme. Well, this week at Less is More, we have our monthly ‘anything goes’ challenge – do play along with us, but keep your design clean and simple! Without a defined subject matter, I struggled to get inspiration but came up with this sympathy card after rummaging through some unused die sets:

This is a ridiculously simple card… it took longer to find the kit than it did to make. I used a die set with my Big Shot die cutter to get the frame and dove. Then I used a Xyron sticker maker to add adhesive to the fiddly bits and stuck them to the card blank. The sentiment was stamped direct to the card twice, to get a good solid black, using a stamping platform. That was it.

The sentiment was going to be ‘with sympathy’, but the clear stamp was old and crumbled when I less-than-gently wiped it clean after using it on a separate piece of card. It’s now in the bin. This wording is from the same set, so I was a little more careful cleaning it after stamping. It’s a smaller font size than my first choice and I think it works better – serendipity at work 🙂

The die set I found in my stash has a price marked on it in dollars. If Canadian dollars, it has been languishing unloved in the cupboard for at least five years. If it’s US dollars, then it has been ignored for over nine years! I suspect the latter as I only visited quilting shops whilst in Canada and definitely recall visiting a craft shop when I was in New York City (The Ink Pad, no longer open).

Used for this sympathy card

• Nellie’s Choice Vintasia Frame Dies: Rectangle [VIND003]
• Sentiment from discontinued Craftwork Cards clear stamp set
• Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
• A6 card blank
• Xyron 150 Create-a-Sticker machine (permanent)