Today, I found myself in need of a nice sympathy card because of a death in our extended family. Instead of running out the store to grab one, I wanted to take a shot at designing one myself.
A few weeks ago I picked up a couple sets of blank notecards and envelopes from Michaels. (Here: http://www.michaels.com/value-pack-cards-envelopes-kraft-recollections/10239830.html).
For my design, I started by downloading a design called “Bird on Branch” from the Silhouette Studio store (https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/8459). I thought it was simple and pretty design that would be appropriate for a sympathy card.
I also wanted to create a frame for the Bird on Branch design on the card. I found a stock photo of a “Chinese lattice window” and used the outline and an internal offset to create a beautifully shaped frame for the design. I welded the Bird on Branch design into the frame and cleaned up the cut lines a bit as well. You can see my steps in Silhouette Studio below:
For the lettering, I found a simple handwriting font – “Snell Roundhand” – for the “Thinking of You” text. After sizing and centering the design and text it was time to cut.
I chose the adhesive foil material I had picked up a few weeks ago. I used the cut settings recommended by Silhouette Studio for adhesive foil and the cut came out pretty well. The small “dots” over the i did not make it through the weeding process. Also, I cut two instances of the full design and I think a loose “dot” got caught in the blade and messed up the cut of the letters in the second design.
I weeding the foil and used transfer tape to apply to the notecard. Overall, I was happy with this project and now I have a nice design I can use again.
