Sympathy and Religious card swap on Splitcoast

You know how you join a swap, and then have stampers block? HAHAHAH!! This swap is due on Nov. 18th. I am normally the person that has their cards in first... but this time, I just hit stampers block. Casing is great, but I'm typically not a caser. I like to come up with ideas on my own. And this time, I struggled with it. But I think they came out nicely. Let me know what you think.

This was a bookmark card I was going to make as my religious card. Instead, I decided to use it as my Thank you card to the hostess of the swap. I got to use my handy dandy perforator that I bought a little bit ago. AND... the image goes back 10+ years ago.

(OK... little story here. A LONG time ago, I was into stamping. I was an SU demonstrator, but before that, I loved stamping with my friends, Cindy, Robin and Patty. There was a terrific little stamp store in California, woman who owned it, her name is Adele. (Can't remember the store). She sold sheets of stamp sets. I did a lot of things on my computer and sent them to her. In return, she would send me a sheet of stamps for free. This is a set that I purchased from her. I absolutely loved this artist and even went to Pennsylvania to meet her. And this stuff was put on VELCRO!!! This was before cushion was really out. Kinda like the VHS vs. Beta fight... Velcro lost and cushion won. But I had a ton of stamps on velcro. When I got out of stamping, my friend Robin took all of my velcro'd stamps. Earlier this spring, Robin contacted me and had a flood in her basement. She went through her stuff and found the stamps untouched. But she really didn't use them. And can you believe she contacted me and asked me if I wanted them back!?!?!?!? THANK YOU SO MUCH ROBIN!!!! This set is from those velcro backed stamps.)

This is my Sympathy card. I used SU French Foliage in Basic Gray, Black and Soft Suede. It has vellum over it to make it look softer. The "Always Remember" set is from The Angel Co.

Ohhh I had fun with this. This saying is also from the elusive velcro backed stamps I have. This is the "general" religious card. I used Sizzix Leaves #2, and then ran them through different cuttlebug folders. The lace is antique lace my mother-in-law found and had given me some of it. I've been hoarding it, but figured it's not going to be appreciated until I use it.