Writing A Sympathy Card For Loss Of Mother

Create a unique personal Mother's Day card

Each year I spend a lot of time trying to think of the best way to tell my mum that I love and appreciate her on Mother's Day. We all do it, right? We want Mum to know that she's tops. That she is the reason for all of our good traits and we want her to know we're thinking of her.

I tend to make my mother something more often than not and this year is no exception – I want Mum to know that she made a daughter who uses her talents to show others a bit of love! Instead of relying on a greeting card template, this year I decided to hand draw my Mother's Day card in a very unique way and let it be a series, rather than one card to open up.

Instead of doing a traditional card, I'm going to create a progressive, Mother's Day text message of appreciative notes paired with old photos to remind Mum of all the great times we've had together. And instead of using cursive fonts I'm going to use my Bamboo Spark and iPhone to capture each moment and send them as texts throughout Mother's Day!

A bit about the Bamboo Spark: it's a smart note-taking device that takes your analogue sketches and notes into the digital realm seamlessly, with the touch of a button. Here you can read Creative Bloq's review of the Wacom Bamboo Spark.

Follow along with my step-by-step guide to see how I completed this project.

01. Select three images

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 1 — Author Molly Jacques selected these three special memories

Pick out three pictures that represent special moments between you and your mum.

02. Write some notes

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 2 — Roughly style up your three messages

Come up with three notes about those photos that you'd like to illustrate for the photo series.

03. Illustrate the text

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 3 — Start drawing out your messages

Illustrate each note separately using your Bamboo Spark. To do this, I paired my preferred device, the iPhone, with my Bamboo Spark using the Bamboo Spark app and Wacom Cloud (Bamboo Spark works with any Bluetooth 3 enabled device, however).

Tips on illustrating notes

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 4 — Author Jacques dishes out some typography tips

For each note, focus on having one or two important words stand out. For example, MUM, or I LOVE YOU, or THANKS. To make these words stand out, draw them out at a larger size in cursive. Make the rest of your lettering in a more subtle, smaller, style like your regular handwriting.

If you're up for it, try adding line weight to the down strokes of your letters to give them dimension. Also, adding fun illustration elements like banners or little flourishes will help give your illustration a finished feel.

Okay, now you've drawn on paper. Press the Spark button, open the Bamboo Spark app on your phone, and there's your first note.

Want to take your work further? Export your note as a WILL (Wacom Ink Layer Language) file to Wacom's notetaking and light sketching app Bamboo Paper, and colour, highlight or edit your images.

04. Snap your images

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 5 — Take a photo of your photos, if that makes sense…

Using your iPhone, snap a photo of each photograph you picked out for your progressive text.

05. Send to Mum

Wacom Bamboo Spark unique Mother's Day card 6 — The Bamboo Spark app is a great way to upload your hand-written messages

On Mother's Day, send your mum three separate texts, one at breakfast, one at lunch, and one at dinner. Each text should first include your hand-drawn note using your Bamboo Spark, and next, the corresponding photo moment.