Simple Sympathy

I very much like the clean & simple look for sympathy cards.  Our church is in need of a stash of sympathy cards so I was determined to make today's CAS Challenge at SplitCoast stampers a sympathy card.  The card that we were to CASE is quite cheerful even with all the white space - so I found this fairly difficult to do, although I am happy with the results!

I am not affiliated with any company in any way, so when I mention a product it really isn't to push it on you.  But I realized this morning how often I pull out the set of stamps that includes the "So Very Sorry" sentiment so wanted to share it with you.  It's from Clear Dollar Stamps and is called Heartfelt Sentiments.  The sentiments are teeny tiny so fit in those small spaces and they include a nice script - here's the set:

I am excited by something Clear Dollar Stamps has just announced and that is that they are releasing SCAL files to match their stamp sets (they just announced this so there are only a few files).  I hate cutting things out.  I love that so many companies are going to dies that coordinate with their stamps - but these get expensive.  SCAL is a nice alternative.  (If you are going "huh?", SCAL is Sure Cuts a Lot and is a piece of software that you use with your Cricut machine that allows you to cut virtually anything WITHOUT a Cricut cartridge!)

My children are off school today which is a love/hate thing with me.  On the love side: I don't end up in the car for hours driving them back and forth (Our school charges for the bus and since I am free to drive - I might as well, but I sure resent the 2-3 hours of my time that it takes to drive, but mostly to get to the school early enough to get a spot in the pick-up line!  Yes...I am ranting!).  On the hate side: I have made a mistake in raising them and they are completely unable to entertain themselves unless it is with video games.  Being outside is usually a great alternative - skateboarding, basketball, lacrosse, cross-country running - but right now the ground is covered with snow and ice chunks from melting and refreezing snows so they can't run easily without twisted ankles and they can't dribble a basketball, etc.  I actually think I am going to take my 11-yr old son to Costco - he LOVES the samples and it will literally kill a few hours!

• Stamps: CDStamps Heartfelt Sentiments
• Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Gray
• Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, white
• Accessories: Stampin' Up embossing folder, Basic Gray Taffeta, and oval punch, Nestabilities cross, button from Joann (it's actually a pretty shell button with lots of texture and sheen)