Sympathy in red ...

....  I've been feeling a bit rough this morning, but I was able to play in my craft room before my headache became too bad!  I've had another go at card and I've combined two challenges.  The OLW challenge from Susan at Simplicity which is to make a sympathy card that does not feature a tree or flower, and the Less Is More challenge which is to use a touch of red in the card.  A lot of the inspiration for this card comes from seeing Karen's LIM9 card which features a beautiful flower and gave me the idea.  Here's my card:

I really liked the effect of text around the image and I remembered this lovely cross that I have in my stamp stash, which has only seen ink once before!!  So this card has fulfilled another resolution to use much neglected stamps ;)  I started off by looking for a nice shape into which I could stamp the image and text.  Then I masked the card and using my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the cross in black.  Next I masked the cross and reinked the stamp with red and stamped the image again - the cross has a very subtle red hint.  Leaving the mask in place, I inked up the large text stamp and stamped over the whole image.  I very carefully removed all the masks.  Then I stamped a really simple "with sympathy" sentiment - and just as I lifted the stamp it slipped!!  Darn!!  One smudged sentiment.  So, sorry Susan, it's not quite one layer, as I had to rescue the card.  I applied a simple black ribbon on to which I attached a plain oval sentiment.  Result - I'm really pleased with this.

Stamps:  Papermania - PMA10058 (Cross); Stampin' Up! - En Francais
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black, London Fog, Lady Bug
Accessories:  Card, sentiment, ribbon and oval shape from stash

Now that I've posted this, I'm off to bed to have a sleep - my head is thumping!!