autumn

lavenderhousecreations

Fall birthday

Seize The Birthday is asking for Favourite fall treats which leaves quite a lot of scope for your designs. As an invited guest DT I came up with this card.

As an Ex-Pat Brit, we didn’t have all the hoopla that is part of living here and I’ve never quite gotten used to the N. American way of celebrating it. Asking me what my favourite treat is, is a hard question for me to answer. I’m kind of boring, as I only like regular coffee, so all the flavours available aren’t something I would go for, and although I enjoy pumpkin pie, I can’t say I’m mad for it. Likely because of this I don’t have a lot in my stash that pertains to this theme. I do however enjoy the fall colours and seeing pumpkins stacked up in a store, or watching kids at a pumpkin patch, choosing the one they want to carve up as part of the upcoming Halloween fun.

All that to say making a card for this challenge was somewhat of a real challenge for me. In the end I chose to do a fall scene. I pulled out a Birch/Aspen tree stencil and added the blue sky and some grass to show between the trees. Then using a fine brush and some ink I shaded the actual trees with Lost Shadow and some Hickory smoke to give them some definition. My gate and the small topper are dies from Gummiapan and I stacked a bunch together to give the gate some dimension. I cut the topper in green as well as yellow and stacked them so that there was some green showing after I cut off some of the yellow bits I didn’t need. I also went around the wood edges with some ink, but the actual wood grain is from a dollar store paper pad. A Tim Holtz stencil was used for the pumpkins and I moved the stencil around to try to get a stack. Once it was dry I added some additional colour for definition and then fussy cut. After adding the main layer to the card base I placed the gate and the pumpkin stack where I felt they looked best and glued them down. The sentiment came from Hampton Arts and I used foam tape to get it to sit over the edge of the gate frame.

I’ve had a lot of fun being the guest designer here and there is one more to go before my stint is finished. I sure hope you have fun creating your own favourite fall treat cards. Thanks for stopping by, your time and any comments you leave are highly 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

fall is coming

On a dog walk yesterday I found a beautiful fall leaf that was mostly intact so I brought it home. Not having the time to play with it, I set it aside with a damp cloth on top so it wouldn’t dry out too quickly. This morning I decided to use it and while thinking about it, I also checked out the latest challenge at Double D. They were calling for butterflies so I decided to combine my leaf with a butterfly.

I cut a 6X6″ card then spent some time painting the back of my leaf with colour, which when done, I spritzed slightly before laying it in position on my card. Using the tool I generally use to press stamps in my Misti or Stamping wheel, I carefully ensured it was pressed fully onto the card. I left it for a minute or two and then gently peeled off the leaf and what you see here is the result. I did stipple a little bit of green with a brush. There was enough colour left that I was able to do another much smaller piece for use later. The sentiment comes from a Joy Clair set and my butterfly is die cut using scraps and a StampinUP set. I chose to use some green embellishments from my stash that came from a package purchased at Michaels a long time ago.

My hubby was so enamored with the leaf print that he stole the card from me before I put it together and proceeded to take photos of it. When I got it back I went around the edges with a brown Spectrum Noir marker and then added the rest. I have to say I’m quite pleased with the end result and the leaf sure makes an interesting texture on the card.

Thanks for spending time with me today, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

Seeds and Acorns

Challenge #336 – The Seeds of A Corny Theme

The past couple of weeks have been hectic and I haven’t been very motivated from a creative standpoint. I’ve been trying to do Christmas cards, sort of successfully, but I’m still very behind. I didn’t want to miss the challenge at As You See It because my goal is to enter each one this year and it would be a shame to fail now.

I pulled out a scrap piece of Kraft CS and two stamps from a YNS set along with one from Lavinia Stamps and a sentiment from GKD. I stamped the acorns and then randomly added the seed head here and there. Using some shimmer watercolour paints I added colour to the acorns and outlined some things with a sparkly gold Sakura pen. With a small sponge I added some gold ink to the seed heads. Then I used a die from StampinUP to cut the Kraft piece down slightly and a gold background piece as well. These were angled as you see in the photo. In my scrap file I found my last piece of CTMH hound’s-tooth paper and used it as the background. In retrospect it may have been better to use a Kraft piece for the sentiment as the white seems a bit stark. I may tone it down a bit, but too late for my post.

Thanks for spending time with me today, and thanks too, for any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

leaf print thank you

For a while now, I have been wanting to try using a real leaf to get a print onto card stock. This morning the perfect leaf was in my driveway – damp from rain – but intact and pretty. I brought it inside and before it had a chance to dry I placed it onto a scrap piece of CS added another piece on top and ran it through my Sizzix making sure it was pressed down quite hard. The result was quite a surprise and while the piece didn’t show the entire leaf, I still liked it. Using a StampinUP die I cut it as a rectangle. At the time I wasn’t sure what my intentions were, but checking some challenges I realized that it would fit at least 3 if I used it. What I came up with is this card. I took a Kokorosa die and cut the Maple leaf. I added some ink but kept it very soft as it was a background piece. Then I found the copper sparkle CS and cut the panel before adding it to my card front. From there I added the Maple leaf and then the leaf print layer. The pumpkin is stamped with a GKD stamp and fussy cut before popping it up as you see. The sentiment is from a set for which I have lost the brand information but I suspect it is either MFT or Spellbinders. I’m not sure if the sparkle layer is a bit strong but nevertheless I like the card. You can be sure I shall be looking for other leaves to try this technique with and my hubby loved it.

Challenges I shall be entering: https://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.com/ fall/leaves, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Who’s Got the Pumpkin, Challenge #327 – Seasonal

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave me.