Encouraging Cards Keeping in Touch
Have you ever sent a sympathy card? As time goes by, do you ever think about that recipient again, maybe pray over their situation? I know I have, and wanted to check in with them and see how they’re doing. I needed to come up with a way to not only keep in touch with encouraging words, but take action.
Sending cards that only express sympathy again and again doesn’t seem right, and doesn’t seem helpful, so I needed sentiments that say what I mean. In this case, I wanted my friend to know that I was thinking of them again six weeks later, so I came up with this card.
Once a month I create a stack of cards that will be used for Card Ministry, and this time I used a stamp set from Concord & Ninth from quite a few years ago. It’s a two-step stamp set! Easy to color your images, a two-step stamp set is one of the kinds that I reach for on those days of bulk operations. I leave all of the cards without sentiments on the front, and add them when writing inside and mailing them.
I have a few spread sheets for groups of mailings to family, friends, card ministry, and more. On the days that I am creating in bulk, I print out a label for everyone getting a monthly mailing. On my tracking sheets, I have a picture of the card. Then, as I address and prepare the cards for mailing, I peel the label off and place on the tracking sheet with little notes like, “6 month anniversary.”
SUPPLIES:
- Stamps: Lovely You, Nature’s Prints, Flowing Flowers, Kindness & Compassion, and Dandelion Wishes are all great stamp sets with sentiments I use often
- Ink: Smokey Slate, Lemon Lolly, Powder Pink, Boho Blue, Mango Melody, Soft Seafoam
- Paper: Note Cards & Envelopes
ASSEMBLY:
- I’VE CHANGED MY TECHNIQUE: I don’t score my notecards until all the stamping and coloring is finished. I have started using stamps that are too large for the card face and I like the way the image trails onto the back a little. I also have found that fighting a card wanting to open again after folding makes it difficult to stamp without smearing. UGH! I hate ruining a card after I’ve gotten it half finished.
- These large stamps work best when mounted in a positioning tool like a MISTI large enough for you to work with the Note Card fully open! I’m still using the retired Stamparatus because I love having two open sides of the tool.
- Choose your color scheme to either feature the line image color strongly or not. Pinterest has many cards using this stamp set, and the coloring methods are very inspiring!
- Stamp a little something in the lower left corner of the face of your envelopes.
- Stamp the back of your cards with your personalized stamp.
I am familiar with the superstition that having sympathy cards on hand attracts bad news. Making your monthly batch of cards without a sentiment leaves room for using them as Thank You cards, or even Birthdays!
