card-making

lavenderhousecreations

Bird of Paradise

Using my new kit from Spellbinders and thinking this particular die set would be perfect for a colour challenge, I set about creating this card for Sunday Stamps – SSC387 Garden Grandeur. I think I’ve managed to use all the colours in this card although only 3 are truly required.

There is quite a lot of fiddly work to create everything here and my shading of various pieces isn’t brilliant. It takes time and practice to get this 100% right, but I’m sure my next card will show improvement. I picked out the various colours from my scrap pieces and die cut what I wanted to use. Laying them all out on a sticky mat I tried to add the shading, but one of my inks was too dry and I don’t have a reinker for it so it didn’t go as well as I needed it to. Then I proceeded to build the bird of paradise flowers and added the stems to the various leaves. My background was embossed using the folder from the kit and because I used a textured CS the raised pieces ended up white. I went over them with some ink so they turned a light shade of pink. I played with placement until I had something I thought would work and glued everything in place. It needed a bit more so using another set from the kit I cut a few flowers and added them as you see. The sentiment is from Open Studio because I was too lazy to use one from the kit and the tiny opal embellishments came with kit and are exclusive to the Weekender. The embellishments are truly pretty at Spellbinders so I’m sure crafters will be asking for them. I also added some Nuvo Crystal glaze to the flower centers.

I think I will pick a day when my hands are not as painful and die cut all these pieces again so I can practice putting things together and get better shading results. Actually I may do this with the other sets as well. It will help me to create some of the other ideas I have floating in my head.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Jungle Blooms

If I am honest, I’m not at all sure I like this card although as often happens it may grow on me. I’m not sure why I feel this way about it, maybe it’s the splatter or my less than stellar stenciling? Oh well, it’s an entry into a colour challenge – Color Hues # 134 Pink and Turquoise and I did my best.

To make it, I used a few dies from my Spellbinders Weekender kit, most of them coming from the Tiki Toucan set. The slatted arch is from Craft Addiction and the sentiment is another Spellbinders as is the die that cut it.

I used the stencil set from the kit, first time I’ve done any layering stenciling and although far from perfect, it’s not a bad effort. When the piece was dry I cut it a little smaller and then added to the pink card front. Before I added it I used a little of the Picket Fence splatter paint but I think I went a bit mad. The flowers and leaves were cut from bits and pieces of scrap CS in close tones of the colours after which I inked each of them to give more impact. I played around with placement before adhering anything and managed to wind the little hanging vine pieces in between the flowers without messing it all up. I stamped the Hello with VersaMark ink and heat embossed white, but now I think I should have done it in black as it would show a little better. Using some embellishments from my stash I added a few here and there.

Now that I have opened up all the different die and stamp sets, I am about to put them away properly. Already I found a die I used yesterday underneath my machine instead of with the set and if I delay any of this I could lose some of the small pieces. Thankfully I have magnets and envelopes to put them in so I can label and add the graphics that show what each set contains and how they layer.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Untamed

My hubby gave me an early birthday gift, which allowed me to take part in the Weekender Retreat held by Spellbinders. This exclusive kit is an amazing one and I enjoyed the 15 hours of participation, although I didn’t actually create anything during the tutorials. I did this retreat last year and by accident my kit was late, meaning that I couldn’t prepare die cutting for the event. That experience made me realize that for me, it is better to watch, learn and create later. Therefore this year I made no attempt at homework and just watched to learn.

One of the things I noticed when reading some of the chat, was that so many participators seemed to get hung up on following exactly what the demonstrator showed that they forgot to be creative in their own way. Some even complained that the kit didn’t have all the colour card stock shown in the booklet. The booklet clearly states that not every thing used in the tutorials was available in the kit.

I already knew I wanted to create the jungle cat, but I also didn’t want to be cutting up my new and beautiful card stock to do it. So I went to my scrap envelopes and pulled out various bits to use. My cat uses a shiny dark brown background piece with a muted but metallic gold overlay and some cream shimmery scrap for the chest, stomach and face. I was just curious to see how he would turn out and I cut and put him together during a break between sessions. I was quite pleased with how he turned out. In the next break period I went searching for the leafy frame die which I thought was from Hero Arts, now part of the Spellbinders family, but is in fact from MFT. I decided to use this although I could have used quite a lot of dies from the kit and got something similar in design. Once it was cut I added some foam tape along the edges and underneath the leaves. The white of the foam tape was showing in a couple of places so I used a black sharpie and went around the edges that showed and then I attached it to the card front. With two dies from the kit I cut a cloud and the sun and added them behind the frame. And I had the little flowers made in a tray and decided to use them rather than cut others. These flowers come from last years Weekender kit and all I had to add was the flower centers which I did with enamel dots. The sentiment is from this years kit which includes the stamps and matching dies. Once I had this done all I needed to do was situate my Cheetah and foam dimension helped me get him to look good. A couple of tiny black gems for the eyes and the card was complete.

My card fits the masculine challenge at Inspirational – Challenge #368 – Word Prompt – For the Guys so I am entering it there.

lavenderhousecreations

Splatter

In many ways I had no idea what I might do for the latest Double D challenge which is a SPLATTER Challenge. I looked at a lot of different card ideas, but nothing really spoke to me. In the end I decided to just fool around a bit and this card is the result of playing.

I used several stamps from my Crafters Companion set that is still on my desk. Choosing the floral silhouette image, I decided to ink it half way in green, stamped along the bottom of the panel, then I cleaned the stamp and using a purple ink I stamped the top part of the flowers. This looked okay to me so I chose another of the small stamps in this set and stamped the butterfly twice. Using a splatter image stamp which I tested on a piece of paper first, I then stamped in various places above the flowers. While doing this I remembered an incentive set from GKD that was also about paint splotches and splatter and I pulled out the splatter one testing it first on a separate scrap piece to make sure the yellow was the right tone. In my head I was thinking it might look a bit like sunshine. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed clear. I added a little Distress spray and some shimmer on top. I also used a sponge around the edges of the layer before adding it to the card base.

This ended up being better than I expected considering I had no clear plan in my head when I started. It’s a lot like a mixed media card and I quite like the look that occurred. Easy to mail as well because there are no dimensional pieces to it.

We had a crew of people here earlier as they were scheduled to pressure wash the outside of the house and then do the windows inside and out. The back of our home is all windows and mostly they are 10 feet tall. Makes the house beautiful but too much for me to clean myself and I detest cleaning glass anyway. We also have 3 ceiling fans and the blades on those were quite dusty, so they kindly cleaned them for me. Not really their job, but they did it anyway as a favour. I’m now trying to catch up on other chores like laundry which was delayed due to the pressure washing. Being on a well, means we have to ensure that the pump can handle the load. Next year I shall try to schedule for a day that isn’t a laundry one. It is quite amazing to see clearly outside now the windows are sparkling.

Thanks for spending time with me today, it is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Seize the Birthday #326-Feature an Animal

I sure hope my sheep image is front and center enough for this challenge. The image and sentiment came from Art Impressions and I used watercolour pencils after heat embossing it. I did stamp the image on water colour paper in order to be able to use water colour pencils.

The oval aperture was cut using a CraftAddictions die set and I added some watercolour to the die cut oval, but then decided to add a rub on transfer from 49 and Market on top. All the leaves came from an older Hero Arts kit and were water coloured as well. I couldn’t find the die set I originally planned on using, which would have been more in keeping with the transfer, but in the end I quite like the quirkiness of having jungle leaves with a sheep and pine branch image. Its ridiculous but amuses me. And the sheep image is in itself quirky and fun.

Foam tape was used on the top layer to lift it from the oval shape below and to allow room for adding the jungle leaves. The stitched oval was added flat, but I did add dimension behind the sheep so the card has a 3D look and feel.

The card will be added to Seize the Birthday for their current challenge. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you, your time and any comments you may leave for me. Hope you all have a great weekend. It is Victoria Day here in Canada, with many families enjoying an additional day with family.

lavenderhousecreations

Beside the Sea Vacation Time

It seems a couple of challenge blogs have a water or beach type scene as their challenges at the moment. When I first created my post for the As You See It challenge, my original intention was to do something similar to this post, but my brain went in a totally different direction that day. In the meantime the Card Concept came up with a new challenge that was nautical in nature and my brain went back to this idea. I think my card fits into their Clean and Layered definition. And because I used a stamp set from GKD that I’ve had forever and not used in recent years, I dragged it out to use here and that qualifies the card for the challenge at The Neglected Stuff. Believe it or not, the sentiment stamp had never seen ink until today.

The small gold squares were leftover pieces from a post I did a while ago and my new Memory Box nested squares arrived the other day, so I chose one slightly smaller than these and using some scraps I die cut the next layer. I added them together and set aside while I did the next few steps. Taking a wave folder from StampinUp I embossed the white layer and cut it down so it was slightly smaller than the card front. Then I carefully added the squares doing my best to keep them centered and straight. Once ready I added it to the card front. Then using a few stamps from the set, I stamped the fish and star fish using Black Soot ink and heat embossed clear, doing the same with the sentiment. I coloured these images with Prisma pencils using an alcohol blending pen to smooth out the colours. Once fussy cut I added them as you see. I felt the fish needed a bit extra so I die cut some seaweed using another Memory Box die set. I matched the sentiment piece to the others using a scrap piece of the same gold CS. The tiny embellishments were added and the card was complete.

When taking the photograph I had some issues with how the light was on the card and I can see here that the embossing isn’t as visible in the picture as it is in reality. This 3D folder has quite a visual impact usually.

Thanks for spending time with me today, I appreciate that you take the time to look and comment.

lavenderhousecreations

Happy Circles

Welcome to our latest challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and the challenge theme has been chosen by me. I will also choose the winners when the time comes. The theme is anything with circles.

I’ve always loved purple and gold/yellow together and as I also wanted a feminine style card these are the colours I chose. Starting with Hero Arts infinity circle dies and a silver patterned scrap piece of Purple CS I die cut 5 circles. With another slightly smaller die and gold scrap I cut another 5. My Scrapbook.com alphabet dies were located and I die cut the letters from some silver CS.

I went on the hunt for an old die that had the tailors dummy outline with the corset piece in the middle. I don’t know which company, but based on how long I’ve had it, I’m sure it is one of three, Spellbinders, Sizzix or Memory Box. The birthday word is from another ancient set by Sizzix. As you can see I used some yellow CS to cut these pieces. The tailors dummy piece was a bit too large for my purpose so I cut it down and used only a portion of the stand, adding the corset on top. I also dry embossed the corset piece so it has dimension and interest. I lost the point for the i in the word so I used a small StampinUP enamel heart instead. I used a ruler to ensure the larger circles were properly aligned as I glued them down and deliberately offset the gold ones on top just a bit.

Not a difficult card to make thankfully and now it is your turn. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and above all, hope you have fun making them. Many thanks for stopping by, you are appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

“It’s a Wheelie Cool Day”

Welcome to challenge #216 here at Double Trouble and the recipe this time is as follows: Thing 1, 3-layers, 2 shapes and 1 image. Thing 3 is to include at least one wheel, Cam and/or gears. Thing 2 is a double dare to use the sketch at TSOT and to enter your card there. If you are entering into the TSOT challenge be careful not to back link.

To make my card, I pulled out a Spellbinders set that came in the Weekender kit last year and using various coloured bits of scrap card stock I die cut everything. Once the pieces were cut I assembled my sun. To give my sun some eyelids I cut the image twice and turned the other piece upside down and glued it behind. Then I added all the other pieces. It is fiddly work and needs tweezers but is fun nevertheless. I set my sun to the side and stenciled my background using an older stencil (can’t remember the brand) using 3 different inks. Initially I wasn’t sure what to pair it all with and then I remembered that I had some golfing images shared with me, from a stamping buddy. The golf cart and the sentiment seemed to fit the bill so these are the ones I chose. The sun is big and detailed so I didn’t want to add anything too much as I felt it would be way too busy to look at. The sentiment appeals to my weird sense of humour.

Due to the timing of our challenge my card cannot be entered at TSOT. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and trust you have fun creating. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate that you do as I know how busy people can get.

lavenderhousecreations

Fun Fold – Looks like an M Shape when Upright

closed and flat

Earlier in the week I was testing out a 3D folder to ensure which was the raised side versus the debossed side before I used the coloured card stock for the specific card I was working on. As the embossing was quite pretty on the test piece I decide I would use it in a project and this is what I came up with. I had seen a card like this on Pinterest and I followed it to Suestampfield.com where I could see her create it. I figured out the measurements, because paying for a tutorial in US dollars makes no sense to me, and this is my version of one of her examples. The folder is an unbranded one, the papers are all StampinUP as is the circle die cut. The sentiment die was a gift and I don’t know the brand, and the florals are decoupage that came in a kit by Crafters Companion. I had them put together for a while and decided this card would be a good way to use them.

These cards look complicated but they are actually much easier than we imagine and I enjoyed making this one. The back of the card is okay for writing a personal sentiment, but one could enhance it with some stamping if desired. This card fits into the current challenge at CYHTP and includes the twist of flowers.

Thanks for stopping by, you, your time and any comments you may leave are always appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Primarily Pink

After I had posted yesterdays pink card, I realized that it may have worked for this one here at Seize the Birthday #325-Primarily PINK! The challenge with that would have been trying to say Happy Birthday with only one word. So this morning I set about making one specific to this challenge and this is what I came up with.

In my searching for items yesterday, I came across this stenciled background piece that was left over from a long ago project. I remember using an unbranded die to make the stencil from some cardboard which was then discarded after use. I took some glitter CS and cut a layer for the base and added the heart layer on top. Using a new die from Uniquely Creative and some scrap pink CS I die cut the postage stamp layer. I found a floral stamped piece of vellum that I had left over from a while back and cut the vellum to fit the top and bottom spaces. The florals are from Crafters Companion. Then I took a die set from Altenew called Sunlit Butterflies and cut the base butterfly in a darker pink and a vellum topper. I added them together in the middle space leaving the vellum loose in the wing section.

The sentiment is from Hampton Arts and was stamped in Picked Raspberry ink and then heat embossed. I cut the sentiment into two pieces and stacked them as you see.

I spent 30 minutes outside weeding in my garden, which is sadly a bit of a mess. To avoid getting stupidly overtired and sore I actually took a timer along and when it beeped I stopped. This worked quite well so I may do this again throughout this week. Even if I only get a tiny section done it will be better than nothing at all and it is rather nice to be outside at the moment. We have beautiful weather. We are going with friends for Sushi later so I don’t have to be in my kitchen at all, Yay!

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