cardmaking

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.

lavenderhousecreations

oodles of doodles

Challenge #679 here at Double Trouble is to make a doodle style image card. You may hand draw, use a stamp or die as long as it looks like a doodle. You need 3 doodles, 2 layers including card base and 1 sentiment. If you wish you can take the optional thing 3 by Twisted sister and do a pop of colour and thing 2 is to use the sketch and enter into TSOT as long as you take care not to backlink.

As you can see I used a clown image as my doodle and it is from an old wooden block stamp from Stampers Choice. I also chose to do a pop of colour which I added using pencils and some glitter Sakara pens. My sentiments come from SSS. The background PP is from Simple Stories.

Have fun doodling and we look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery.

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

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

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

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

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.