Cards for Charity: Sympathy cards with Gelli Plate Backgrounds

I have been creating cards to give to my friend Pam for her church charity sales. They sell them for $5 each and the money goes to really good charities, like blankets for the homeless. She recently said they needed more Happy Birthday and Sympathy cards. I showed you the Birthday cards in my last post here. We are now making 15 of each design so that they can put them on their blog. You can see the blog here, and if you are local, you can order. They are not able to send orders out, so you would have to pick your cards up if you order any.

 The backgrounds of these cards were made one day when I was playing with my gelli plate (mono printing). I wasn't even using any images or stencils, but I used brayers and cardstocks with different textures. The medium was Distress Oxide inks, which I loved using. Cleanup was easy and there is a huge variety of colors. I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire, and you can see her post here.

When I'm making multiple cards, I make a prototype first, then I like to prep all the pieces and sit and listen to audio books or podcasts while I'm putting them together. I was able to cut the gelli plate panels in half and get two cards out of each one.

This was my prototype. I like how the Distress colors in the gelli plate panels are soft and not too bold for a sympathy card. The die for the flowers and leaves is from Poppy Stamps, 2319 Leafy Garden Border. I added a strip of the blue cardstock I used for the mat under the border. The sentiment die and stamp are from Avery Elle, ST and D-17-16 Sentimental Too Stamps and dies.

I have really enjoyed making cards for this worthy charity. It keeps me busy doing what I love.

Products Used:

5" x 7" Gelli Plate

Various Distress Oxide Inks

Various brayers and textured cardstock

Poppy Stamps 2319 Leafy Garden Border

Avery Elle ST-17-16 Sentimental Too Stamps

Avery Elle D-17-16 Sentimental Too Dies

Malmero Blue cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock

By the way, I have been using a glue that I really do love. It's called Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue, and I've been using it for awhile. I used it on this project to stick down all of those leaves. I usually use Elizabeth Craft Be Creative tape for my card panels, but when I need glue, I use this one.

The set I bought has a bottle of glue, with another larger bottle for refilling, and also a little jar with these pieces

The green cap acts as a stopper. To use the glue, you take it out and put in one of the black nozzles. I have never used the larger one. The smaller one is perfect for me -it's really tiny, and I can apply small amounts of glue in small spaces. I use the pin as a stopper if I'm leaving the glue open for long periods while I'm working. When I'm finished, I take off the black nozzle and put the green stopper back on. I clean out the black nozzle every time, and when I want to use it again it works perfectly with no clogging issues. This is the best glue I have found. You can get it directly from the company here, or at Amazon. I receive nothing from the company for this recommendation, it's just a product that I think works really well.