Masculine and Feminine Sympathy

A co-worker recently lost her father and I tried to do something a little masculine in a sympathy card.  This card has a Chocolate Chip base and the front panel is River Rock.  I use the images from My Friend and the sentiment is from a recently retired set (I think).  When I stamped the silhouette image in Chocolate Chip on the River Rock cs it didn't cover completely so I took my SU marker and added some more color and then blended that together gently with my blender pen.  You can't really tell from the picture, but it gave the image a someone suede look.  The droplets were colored in with a white pencil.

Another friend lost her mother-in-law recently and I put this together to send to them.  The base is Calypso Coral and there are a few stamp sets that I used with this one - Clearly for You, Pocket Silhouettes, Elements of Style and Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment.  I framed the Clearly for you image in strips of Lucky Limeade paper.  The Very Vanilla oval that I stamped the Pocket Silhouette image on was framed with a split scalloped oval of Blush Blossom.  The flowers were punched from Calypso Coral and I added sticky pearls in the centers.  The butterfly embosslit provided the butterflies in Pink Pirouette. I like this combination and may use it again changing the sentiment to almost anything. 

Still another co-worker lost her father this past week.  This card is done on Island Indigo paper.  The background is En Francais (retired) and the other images come from Just Believe.  The circles are popped up and backed with Pool Party circles (and they're centered much better than they look in the picture.  I stamped the image with the sentiment once directly on the card and then again on Whisper White so I could add the sentiment (from Teeny Tiny Wishes).  Another quick layout that can be used for any occasion.

One would think that with all the supplies that I have invested in that I would have a stash of suitable cards for these kinds of moments, but I do not.   Aside from some generic thank you cards, I don't have much of a "stash" of cards - not counting my teapot cards pre-destination station days, some of which are hard to pair with a specific occasion or person. 

I prefer to make birthday cards for the person's taste, as well as thank you's for the most part.  Sympathy cards can be made ahead as they pretty much are mostly either masculine or feminine.  I do not have any sentiments that say specifically for loss of father, mother, etc.  And I usually try to write a short note on the inside of them, especially if I personally knew the person who passed.  I remember looking at the cards that my family and I got when my father and sister died and the one's that stood out among them were the one's with the notes inside relating personal remembrances.  I found that to be very touching and have since tried to do that when I can.  I did not personally know any of those that these cards are for, but letting friends know that we care is important and part of the circle of life as well.