Author: lavenderhousecreations

lavenderhousecreations

bright as the sun

I was honored with an invitation to participate as a Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday and this is the first of five cards I have made. The day the email arrived I was so surprised and delighted that I almost fell of my chair.

This challenge features embossing and I have done both dry embossing and heat embossing. The idea for this card came from a lovely design done by Marie SanFilippo, but I’m unable to link, as it was part of a private group held by Spellbinders. I used a folder from Taylored Expressions for my background and added swipes of metallic gold ink from Scrapbook.com to add some colour. My sentiment and the sun face are from Spellbinders and my flowers are from Memory Box. I used some yellow pop of color from Scrapbook.com for my flower centers. And I used gold CS to cut a background piece for the sentiment so I could offset the main part on it.

Although I do like my card, I wish I was allowed to show you the one done by Marie as it was truly an amazing card. Mine is quite different but the idea of hers is here.

Thanks for joining me today. I appreciate you and any comments you may leave. Have fun making your own cards featuring embossing.

lavenderhousecreations

May your stocking be full

September 2025 Peace On Earth Challenge #95 which is an anything goes Christmas challenge although there is a mood board for anyone needing a boost for ideas. I had the stocking already done as I was playing with this die a few posts ago, and I decided to use it here.

The stocking is from a small die by Marianne Designs, purchased in the Netherlands and I cut it using different PP so I could paper piece a little to give it more definition. PP is from a Recollections pad. The background layer is actually from a store bought card received last year that I thought would work for something else one day and it works well here I think. The tiny sentiment is from a GKD set, and the star banner is from Scrapbook.com. The lacy piece is a border die from Crafters Companion that was poorly cut. I layered it with another poorly cut piece and decided it would work as a kind of mantlepiece to hang the stocking from. The twine is from my stash and it took me forever to tie it into a satisfactory bow. The threads kept separating but I managed in the end. I added some sparkle to the snowflakes in the stocking as well as some red dots to the leafy area.

This card is a fairly simple one and although there are layers its still flat enough to be mailed as regular postage, although not to the USA, as their regulations have changed and anything that isn’t paper means it has to go as a package, which is becoming expensive.

Thanks for spending time with me today.

lavenderhousecreations

musical notes birdie

Musical Challenge is the current challenge at Double D and because I already had this piece of napkin music attached to CS I decided to use it. I used a die from YNS to cut the top and the bottom and then added it to the leftover PP.

After searching through my stamp sets, I pulled out an old GKD set and used the bird (fussy cut after colouring) and the branch, stamped and heat set. From another GKD set I found the sentiment, stamped and die cut this with an infinity oval from HeroArts. A few small gems and a pen around the edges finished this nicely. I attached it to a shimmery note card and called it finished.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it a lot.

lavenderhousecreations

hot cocoa hugs

Challenge #258 at Cardz4galz is Billie’s choice and she is asking for Stitching, either faux or real. As you can see I have chosen faux and used an unbranded rectangle die set to cut my image and sentiment layers. My stamping is done using a YNS stamp that I found to be cute. Used Versamark and then heat embossed in gold before colouring it. I added a leftover strip of music tissue and some glitter strips to make a background.

My image was coloured using a combination of watercolour pencils, Prisma colour pencils and a Sakura glitter pen. The little stickers are from Doodlebug designs. The light caught the pink one in a weird way so it looks marked but it really isn’t.

Thanks for joining me today. We look forward to seeing your designs in our gallery and most of all we hope you have fun creating.

lavenderhousecreations

Sweet surprise

Our latest challenge here at Double Trouble is to have an aperture in your design. The recipe is to use 3 layers not including the card base, 2 images of your choice, it can be a die cut or ephemera as well as any stamped image, and last but not least an aperture. If you choose to follow the # 678 sketch at TSOT make sure you don’t post until after that challenge starts else you would be backlinking. My card follows the sketch but isn’t entered due to backlinking.

My Paper is from StampinUP and the aperture die is also from a set by them. In fact the sentiment base is another of the the dies from that specific set, called Everyday Details. The floral image was stamped and is from a new to me set by Inkadoo. I had done this floral some time back and didn’t use it at the time. As it was ready to go I fussy cut it and added it inside the aperture. I deliberately kept this card fairly flat as recently postage has gone up and it is becoming costly to mail anything that is thicker or that has embellishments. It has more than the 3 layers of the recipe but nothing has been popped up on foam tape. I think the little butterfly is also from StampinUP but cannot remember for sure but I definitely used some scrap DSP to die cut from. Sentiment is from a SSS set.

We sure hope to see your creations in our gallery and look forward to seeing them. Above all have fun and enjoy the process.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

Birthday music

It’s black and white time at Seize the Birthday #312-Black and White and this is my take on the challenge.

A few days ago, I cut a piece of card stock incorrectly so I ended up with a weird size. As it was already scored I set it aside knowing I would use it later, and later is now. Using two Kokorosa dies and some black CS I die cut both and then backed the piano with a small piece of holographic paper so there was a little bit of shimmer. I added the music notes first and then the piano after stamping the sentiment using a Joy Clair stamp. The tiny stars were cut using a Scrapbook.com set.

This is a very simple card, but it works nicely and can be used for male or female too. Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

fall colours

Yesterday I posted to the As You See It speed challenge and after I had, I realized that perhaps I hadn’t met the challenge properly. The Challenge #355 – Lively Leaves clearly says speed stamping on the image and my card had no stamping on it at all. Given that AYSI is one of my favourite sites to enter I decided I had better make another one and this is it.

I started by using some inks on a plastic sheet and a wet brush and swiped the brush across the panel in curves at the corners and not bothering to be careful. Then I took the Altenew leaf sprig stamp and stamped the leaf over the top. This took several tries as my inks weren’t quite dry. Sentiment is from the same set. Using a new die set from Amazon, I proceeded to cut the layer and then did a second one in gold. Why dies don’t cut properly when we are hurrying always puzzles me, as I had to repeat the cut and then spend more time than I wanted on getting all the bits out of the gold layer. I did take time to add the enamel dots but they were easy compared to poking out the gold piece. Had the die cut properly my card would have been finished in 6 minutes (a record for me) but hey ho, it took more time and I finished the card in 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

I’m not sure I like the end result, as my colours are a bit darker than I wished, but when doing something for speed it is not easy to fix or change.

Thanks for joining me today, I hope your Sunday has gone well. Ours has been so hot being outside was virtually impossible, but we shall do a BBQ tonight and eat on the patio.

lavenderhousecreations

put a bow on it

It has been a while since I had the time to enter into a Sunday Stamp challenge, but today I managed it. SSC367 Put A Bow On It is the theme and because I had been playing the past two days with using kitchen foil, alcohol inks and some leaf printing, in a way this card almost made itself.

I placed the leaf panel into a stitched rectangle unbranded die and cut it to size although it required some replacement of the die to achieve the length I wanted. Yesterday I had added some crumpled kitchen foil to some card stock and earlier today I played with adding inks to it. I quite liked how it ended up so using an Altenew die, I cut the leaf sprig you see here from part of it. After adding foam to the back I added it to my leaf print panel. The little tag is from a set that my hubby bought many moons ago and I didn’t keep the info on the 2 sets he gave me. The sentiment is from a SSS set and I heat embossed in gold. I found the red and gold thread in my box and by pulling the threads apart I was able to combine both and make a bow. A lot of blue air, as my fingers would not cooperate, but I managed in the end. After adding a bit of colour to the tag I attached it and using tweezers pulled a bit of the thread through the hole.

While playing I hadn’t really thought about a design for the finished panel, but I did have the Sunday Stamps challenge open on my computer and when I took another look at it, I realized I had the makings of a card to meet the challenge. As you can see I added a border of some CS that was similar in hue to the colours in the leaf and then using the leftover piece I added it to my card base so it fit the sketch. Once the top layer was added it met the theme perfectly.

I’m pleased with how it turned out and had fun playing with the inks although if you had seen the mess I made of my glass mat and fingers you would laugh. Fortunately a little alcohol on a sponge helped me to clean it all up easily. Many thanks for stopping by, your time and any comments you leave are truly appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

leaves – thinking of you

9:59 minutes

As You See It has one of the ‘dreaded’ speed challenges currently, Challenge #355 – Lively Leaves and I literally made it just under the wire with this card. Earlier this week I had been playing with leaf printing and I had a piece already done, but I thought it might be considered cheating if I used it here. In the end I decided on this design and once I had chosen my dies, Pattern paper and card front sorted it wasn’t too difficult. What took time was trying to add foam to the back and I resorted to cutting a black piece of foam with the die but it took forever to poke out the bits and of course it stretched a bit in the cutting so that was a bit of an issue too. Next time I do this I’m going to glue the PP to the foam ahead of any cutting and cut them out as one piece, but that thought was too late for this card.

So the die used is from MFT, the background piece is from an ancient paper pad and I ensured the dragonfly was front and center before cutting. The sentiment was on my desk as it had fallen out of a small pack of ephemera and I decided to use it because I had forgotten to prepare a stamp ahead of time. I tried to match the card front to the tiny dots in the leaves.

I learned yesterday, that a close friend has had what appears to be a mild stroke, so I am going to send this card to her. They still don’t know whether it was a stroke for sure, so a barrage of tests have been done but she won’t get all the results for a few days. In the meantime they are allowing her to return home. She is a semi retired Geriatric nurse and her hubby is as well, so I guess they feel she will be okay at home while they pursue it further. Because they live in a small town up north, most of the complicated testing has to be sent to Vancouver so results take a while.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

Vellum thanks

It is my turn to choose the theme for the latest challenge #257 here at https://cardz4galz.blogspot.com/. My theme is that you use vellum and here is my example. I found a piece of pink vellum in my scraps and decided it would work well. I used a very old rubber block stamp and stamped the words using Versamark ink which I then heat embossed in gold. I wanted it to pop up a little so it took me some time to figure out how to add foam tape so it wouldn’t show but I managed it. I had a scrap piece of gold card and I used an unbranded stitched rectangle set to cut out a piece the right size. I couldn’t find a way to turn it into a frame using a die, so I carefully measured and then with a ruler and craft knife cut the inside to give me a frame the thickness I was hoping for. I used some foam tape around all the sides for dimension and added the vellum to it. Taking an old corner floral stamp from a GKD set and using a slightly darker pink than the CS I stamped each corner not worrying about any doubling up as I knew most of it would be covered. Taking a butterfly stamp from Crafters Companion and a piece of regular vellum I stamped 3 and heat set them using clear embossing powder. When it was cool enough I turned it to the backside and used some inks direct to the vellum. Let that dry, but it was taking a bit too long so I did use some heat to hurry it a bit. Fussy cut them out and added the bodies in black glitter using a small die from a StampinUP set. They were added to the frame as you see and I finished the card off with 3 gems from my stash.

I honestly wasn’t sure this was going to work or even be pretty, but in the end I am happy with the result. It does look better in R.L. than on the photo.

Thanks for spending time with me today. We hope you join us in our gallery and we look forward to seeing what you create.