In Sympathy

I've been needing to make a sympathy card for a dear friend whose mother passed on earlier this year.  I found this quote on Becca's blog.  Since I love her cards, I tried going with something she might create.  I just have tons of practice to do before I can make a card even half as good as hers.  I used Photoshop to create an oval shape and then fit the text to the shape. Then I printed it on ivory cardstock and used a Nestabilities die to cut and emboss.

This afternoon, my DH took me to Joann's AND Michael's where I bought my very first container of embossing powder, along with some ribbon, pearl embellishments and other goodies.  I used my Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder and then ran the ink pad over the raised portions.  Finally, I embossed those raised areas with pearl embossing powder.  Some went into the unraised portions which I wasn't excited about; it turned out pretty nice anyways.

Becca has a tutorial on tying a beautiful knot, which I followed to a T.  The embossed portion was mounted on a dark chocolate piece of cardstock and the sentiment was mounted with foam tape.  I finished it off with pearls.

I am quite pleased with my creation.  It took all day to think about, shop for, do the graphics, etc.  Not bad, though, for a relative beginner!