cardmaking

lavenderhousecreations

fairy dreams

Challenge #261 as chosen by Debbie, is to make a card for a little girl. For me this was a challenge as I don’t have any children in my life so I’m not into making cards with them in mind. That said, I remember being very enamored with fairies when I was a little girl, so I decided to make a card incorporating them. The larger fairy is from Crafters Companion, while the smaller fairy and the sentiment came from an older set from GKD. Paper is from a pad and the dragonfly is a sticker. The larger fairy was stamped onto vellum with Versamark and then gold heat embossed, after which I fussy cut. The smaller fairy was stamped directly onto paper and heat embossed as was the sentiment. I added a feathered skirt to the larger fairy, just because I could.

I’m thinking of giving this card to my neighbor as she has female grandchildren who may like it. We hope you have fun making your own creations and look forward to seeing what you create in our gallery. Thanks for stopping by.

lavenderhousecreations

uncluttered

After a week of not really being in the mood to create, I finally had a small break through and these cards are the result. As the challenge at https://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/ is asking for uncluttered and/or vertical I decided that my card would work for the challenge. In addition, it works for another Christmas challenge at https://12monthsofchristmaslinkup.blogspot.com/. This one is an anything goes challenge. I’ve not entered here before and haven’t entered often at ABC either.

To make my cards, I used a lamp die by YNS, and an unbranded die set that includes wavy dies to make hills etc. My wreaths are cut from a scrap piece of last years PP and by cutting out the center I was able to hang it from the lamp post. The sentiment is from a Woodware set. I used a gold glitter pen on the lamp light. The little houses were bacled with some gold paper and my tiny trees are cut from a scraps. Using a Sakura glitter pen I added some lines to the hill tops and snowman as well as to the berries on the wreath. I felt the snow needed more so using a glue pen and super fine StampinUp glitter I was able to make it sparkle. The other two cards were done in a similar fashion only one has been sprayed and the other uses the super fine glitter. I quite like the simplicity of these cards and they are still flat enough to mail easily, if and when the service goes back to work. I think the postal strike has been a factor in my lack of mojo.

It is Thanksgiving here in Canada, and we are expecting guests later on. I’ve been preparing food for their 2 day stay since Friday. No turkey though, instead I’ve prepared a stuffed Pork roll and for tomorrow a lasagna. It took a while to put the rooms together as there is 4 people coming, all members of my hubby’s former photo club. Fortunately I am able to split the king bed into twins and after adding a camp cot to the other room they should be fine. After a deluge of rain yesterday, today is cold, sunny and extremely windy which means a porch full of leaves to clean up again.

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

lavenderhousecreations

shades of fall

After this long hot and dry summer it is a relief to be heading for some coolness and hopefully some rain. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this way, although for sure we will all eventually be longing for winter to be over.

Our current challenge is to use the shades of fall and our recipe is to use 3 colours, 2 images, 1 stenciled or dry embossed piece, with an optional Twisted Sister idea to use either a fall fruit or veggie. As well you can use the Twisted Sister thing 2 double dare, which is to participate in the TSOT sketch #681 and/or the alternate Pearly Sparkles challenge #112. Bear in mind the risk of backlinking so your entry isn’t disqualified.

My card doesn’t fit the sketch challenge at TSOT, but I did add a fruit to my project. In case anyone isn’t quite sure – an Acorn is considered to be both a fruit and a nut. In a way my card uses the spotlight technique as I stamped the images onto the layer first and then again on a separate piece so I could die cut. Because I used Distress Oxides to stamp I was able to heat set the images clear making it easier to colour them. At the same time I added the sentiment and heat embossed it too. I coloured each image exactly the same using more than 3 colours and I did this with both ink and water colour pencils. The stamp set is from YNS and has matching dies although I didn’t use them here. I wish the company was still in business as I noticed that the sentiment stamp has a slight fault that I didn’t realize was there when I purchased the set. When everything was dry I die cut 3 small circles using Infinity circles from Hero Arts, making sure the die was smaller than the main stamped image. After adding some foam tape I carefully attached the circles on top of the main images. I also used an alcohol marker to go around the edge of this layer for a bit more definition although it is glued flat. The dry embossed layer was done using a Sizzix Tim Holtz 3D foliage folder and I swiped inks over the raised parts in the same colours as used when colouring the images.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and your time. We look forward to seeing your creations for this challenge and above all hope you have fun creating.

lavenderhousecreations

splish splash

The challenge this time is basically splashy – interpreted anyway you like – rain, puddles, swimming, bath time, splashy drinks or just getting splishy splashy with inks. That said if you create something that isn’t totally obvious do make a point of letting the team know what it is in your post.

As you can see, I’ve chosen bath time as my theme because I wanted to revisit a technique learned a long time ago and not used much since. First I decided on a square shape and cut my layers accordingly. Then taking the main background layer I scored it in both ways at half inch indrements giving a tile effect. I stamped a leafy branch silhouette image from Crafters Companion randomly in Broken China ink to created patterned tile look. Setting it aside to dry I proceeded to stamp and die cut the other elements from a Hero Arts stamp and die set. Before cutting them I coloured the images using a combination of alcohol markers, inks and pencils. I also added some Nuvo Glaze to the bubbles and the water edges. After die cutting I played around with placement and added different thicknesses of foam tape where needed, but it required something more so I traced and fussy cut a shelf shape, coloured it and popped it up to give it more dimension. I found an image on the Internet that had bathrobes hanging and cut one out after I added some colour. This too was popped up with foam tape. The sentiment is from the same set and I used it above the shelf after fussy cutting around it.

Although I liked the finished card, I felt the background leaves were too strong in colour, because I obviously forgot to stamp off when doing the images. I needed to find a fix and I settled on using white pigment ink and a water brush to soften the colour. It took several layers but it worked and because the leafy image wasn’t too defined I didn’t have to be too careful doing it either. I have to say my artist friend was really helpful in trying this as she suggested trying to lift some of the ink. The problem with her suggestion was that the card was already assembled and I wasn’t prepared to pull it apart. So instead we tested it out on some scrap before actually doing it on the card.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and your time. I had a lot of fun creating this card and look forward to seeing what you come up with in your own designs. Have fun creating.

lavenderhousecreations

stacked banners

The challenge here at Double Trouble is to use Something, Anything and Everything. Hard to interpret you may say – no, actually easy as you will see from my process. The recipe says, 3 of something, 2 of anything and 1 of everything. My card can be considered in several ways using this formula. Firstly I used 3 X 3 layers of banners in a stacked design. This idea came from something I saw Natasha Foote do. As these were cut using a StampinUP die set my design says three die cuts too.

Secondly I have two layers, one of which is also a die cut and for this I used a Spellbinders border die. In addition I have 2 gem embellishments so I met the requirement in 2 ways.

And last but not least my sentiment layer is my everything, after all a card with no sentiment can look unfinished, but just in case I also added a sparkle glitter piece of tape. This served two purposes, it adds some glamour to the card but it also covers up the edge of that layer so it looks nicer. The PP is scraps from my stash although the middle set is actually from a photograph that didn’t print well. Waste not want not LOL. Sentiment is from a Hampton Arts set.

I did not follow the TSOT 680 sketch in my design, but I highly recommend that you try the dare as it gives you more chances to win. If you prefer to try an alternate challenge have a look at https://welove2create.blogspot.com/, and also at Sunday Stamps with their new challenge SSC370 Squared Away. Entering gives you another chance to win. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery, but above all we want you to have fun.

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

lavenderhousecreations

CAS stencil

My second card as a guest designer at Seize the Birthday and the challenge this time is to use a stencil and keep the card clean and simple.

My stencil was a hand made one gifted to me by a talented card crafter and is similar to the fleur de lis in pattern. I used stencil butter called Ocean Mist by TCW to do mine. As I had viewed a card on Pinterest that incorporated some drawn circles and a partial frame, I decided to try it on my card. I traced around the inside of two dies to get them as good as possible and used a T-ruler to do the partial frame. I’m not sure it was a good idea although it isn’t absolutely horrible. In retrospect I’m thinking using gray pen or pencil may have been a better choice.

The sentiment is from an incentive stamp set by GKD and I cut it into 3 to make it work better on my card. We look forward to seeing your amazing creations in the gallery and above all have fun!

Thanks for stopping by, your time and your comments are always appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

just enough spookiness

Most of you know generally I am not into Halloween, but occasionally I’ll make one or two just for fun. This card is one of those and came about because of the challenge at Double D – Make Your Own Background Challenge. And while I was at it, I thought why not add it to the https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/ as well. Their mood board features a cat, but I confess only checking that after the card was complete.

In going through my stamps the other day, I rediscovered some Concord & 9th Turnabout stamps and this marbling is using one of those stamps. It has been so long since I used these stamps I had to consult old videos by J. McGuire to remember how to do it.

After deciding on my colours I proceeded to ink up the background and added some shimmer spray to it because I felt like it. When it was dry I added it as you see to the card front. My cat is also ancient and is from the Crazy Cats and Dogs by Tim Holtz, the witch hat is from the same sets. The little ghost and sentiment come from GKD and my additional background piece is from a photo that a friend had printed and didn’t like. She reprints and I get to use the poor ones if I think I can. Using a WeR cutter, which allows me to choose the blade I like, I trimmed it the size. The ghost and hat were fussy cut. I used pencils to colour the images and did the hat buckle with a silver sparkle pen. Googly eyes finished the cat and I added some highlights using a Posca pen. I’m not good at this but our artist friend is going to help me develop my skill once she has gotten my hubby and his upcoming exhibition sorted. They have been working really hard on this and it is an eye opener to learn just how much work goes into preparing for an exhibition on a bigger scale than just one or two pictures.

I think I like the result, but even if I’m uncertain, I do have a friend who will enjoy receiving it as she is nuts about cats. Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate it.

lavenderhousecreations

postcard christmas

Although when I started this card I was thinking it may work for the next Peace on Earth Challenge #96, at the time I hadn’t seen their mood board or the DT designs. However, one example features a postcard and here is mine.

I was thinking about my Woodware postage frame die the other day and wondering how I might use it for a Christmas card? As it happens, I had already pulled out the MFT village stamp set I’ve used here, so I inked up some CS to give the blue background and stamped the scene in the middle. I used the accompanying stencil only to assess where to add other images. I added the trees, some from GKD, another MFT, the tiny mouse is Hero Arts and the sentiment is StampinUP. Everything was clear embossed as I worked and I coloured everything before I used the die to add the postage holes. I did trim down the edges to ensure it fit onto my card front which is from Spellbinders. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but after my hubby and our artist friend were complimentary about it, I’m more comfortable with it myself.

I’m really trying to keep my cards as flat as possible for this season, as postage has become more expensive and the rules about some items keep changing.

Thanks for spending time with me today, I appreciate you and any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

skeleton leaves

It always puzzles me as to why the colours in a photo don’t look quite the same as in reality. This photo is a case in point. Here at home it isn’t as yellow as it shows here and is in fact more like the colours needed for the challenge. As You See It has a colour theme and a photo for inspiration this week.

My card started a while back as a mop up piece from some inking I had been doing. I set it aside for a few days and then stamped the skeleton leaves, an incentive set from GKD, setting it aside once more. I had intended to use it, and had already cut the piece using the unbranded die set I’ve just acquired, but in the end, went in a totally different direction. So once again it languished in my waiting to use pile.

It seems it was waiting for this challenge so I cut another piece using the next size die, using CS similar in colour to the one in the challenge and put the two together. My card front is dark gray but is CS from GKD. The sentiment strip is also GKD and I edged it with a black pen and added some copper glitter to the words before attaching it on top. Two Waffle Flower enamel dots completed the card.

Thanks for joining me today. I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

wishes for Christmas

Challenge #259 at cardz4galz has been chosen by Lynda and she has chosen the theme of using dies and or punches. This gives you a lot of choice for your own ideas.

In my case I’ve used a die from Waffle Flower that is still fairly new and not fully used until now called Elegant Envelope. I die cut the base flap and bottom of the envelope in cream and then a decorative piece in gold. The embossed base uses a new folder from Taylored Expressions which I added to a darker matte gold card front. The flower piece is a stamp from GKD that I inked in Seedless Preserves ink and clear heat embossed along with the sentiment, which is from another GKD set. I used Inktense pencils to colour in my flowers after which I fussy cut them before adding them as you see in the photo. I also used a Sakura gelly roll pen to give colour to the stamens of the flowers. I’ve kept the card as flat as possible for mailing as I recently had to pay a large sum to mail something internationally, that was slightly too thick for the system. Its no surprise to me that Canada Post is having financial issues because people simply can’t pay the ridiculous stamp fees these days.

I enjoyed making this card and quite like the end result. We hope you have fun making your own designs and look forward to seeing them in our gallery.