cards

lavenderhousecreations

Christmas Sparkle

Our last cardz4galz challenge of 2025, as chosen by Dawn, is Christmas sparkle. Although the photo doesn’t show it clearly, my card is full of sparkle as I used sparkle pens by Sakura as well as a shimmer spray over the entire card.

To make this card I die cut, using Hero Arts infinity dies, a circle in a piece that could be used as a stencil. Following an idea seen on Pinterest, I used some fine tip brush pens by Sakura and flicked colour through the stencil. I added the hanging cord by hand using a glitter pen and other glitter pens over the brush strokes. The sentiment is from a set from Woodware.

I kept this design CAS as I felt the glitter was enough. Now it’s your turn and we hope you find the time to add your own designs to our gallery. We know the season is a busy one for everyone and hope that you have the Merriest of Christmases and a Happy New Year too.

lavenderhousecreations

butterfly sympathy

As You See It – Challenge #362 – Bits and Pieces has a sketch challenge as the latest theme and unfortunately, we’ve had a recent death in our neighborhood, which affects two families. It is a close knit community so I decided to make a card today for the widow, and used the sketch as a guide to my design. I shall do the other one later.

My card uses StampinUP DSP and the butterfly is also from them. The sentiment is from GKD, The piece holding the butterfly is from an unbranded die set and the tiny gems are from Trinity Stamps.

Once I had the papers cut it was easy to put together and I like the monochromatic look that was the result. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.

It has been quite a week, I caught a cold, which settled into a bad cough, leaving me feeling a bit like a space cadet. Our friends were coming to help with the Christmas decor as they do each year, and I let them know that they might prefer not to come, just in case. They came anyway, and the house has been transformed into a magical wonderland. It always amazes me how Dale makes it come together, after seeing the mess of boxes and supplies everywhere for a few days. Before I realized I wasn’t 100% I had managed to put together several meals that would keep until they were here making it easier to handle the few days of their visit. I had also put the tree together with the exception of some beads which I had trouble with. Dale soon sorted that issue. The guys did the finishing touches to the outside, repairing a broken snowman and figuring out an issue we had with another set of lights. I helped as much as possible inside, but the bulk of it was done by Dale and her imagination.

Today is the party for my yoga group, and fortunately, I’m well enough and no longer contagious, to be able to host it. We’ve had a few cancellations due to others coming down with this cold. It is certainly going around at the moment. I finished the cake this morning and will put the table together soon so all will be ready and I can relax for a short time before.

Thanks for stopping by, you are appreciated, as are any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

colour blocks

Challenge #204, here at Double Trouble is called ‘Its a Tall Order’ and if you’ve guessed its about creating a slimline or a mini slimline card you would be right. If you follow the sketch at TSOT #683 then you get an extra chance to win, but be careful to ensure you don’t backlink. My card follows the sketch but I can’t add it to the challenge because it would definitely be backlinking. The recipe calls for 3 colours, 2 images, 1 Slim line or mini and the twist is to use something beginning with T.

First I masked off a section of my card layer and then using a mask I could move up and down easily I proceeded to sponge ink in colour blocks similar to a paint chip. I used 5 different greens . My focal image is from a GKD stamp set that I’ve had for a long time and I stamped it with Versamark and then heat set in gold. Using another GKD set I chose 2 stamps that I could use in the top right hand corner. These were stamped in yellow and I added a green Pop of Colour dot to their centers. The sentiment is from Hampton Arts and my added twist, which I almost forgot, is a twine bow. Before adding the layer to the main card I used a yellow distress Oxide to colour in my daffodils and I went around this layer with a black marker to give a border.

Thanks for stopping by, your time and your comments are always appreciated. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and hope you have fun coming up with your own ideas.

lavenderhousecreations

caroling snow people

With my mojo mostly absent in recent weeks, I was so fed up that I headed to a craft store in the hopes of reviving it. While there I discovered this set of Spellbinder dies, promptly purchased it and made this card almost as soon as I got home.

My papers are from StampinUp and I added sparkle to the stars in the background. After cutting the pieces I attached them as you see and then added the snow people as you see. It was a bit fiddly putting them together but I was smart enough to keep the pieces in little cups so I didn’t lose any. Spellbinders thought of everything here, as they even had dies that work to cover the holes from the back. I would have added black paper anyway, but having them die cut made it so much easier. They also thought of adding a small mark where the noses should go.

I’ve managed to get quite a few cards done this past week, so I must count them to see where I am at. My aim today is to get all the labels done and the cards signed and into envelopes. Our mail is working (kind of) as they are back to doing rotational strikes so some items are getting through. I shall likely mail most of my cards as soon as they are ready in the hopes that they get through the system. Better too early than awfully late and people can put them aside until they are ready to deal with Christmas décor if they wish.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave.

This card works for the challenge at Peace on Earth Challenge #98 so I am entering it there.

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

harvest moon

I’ve been puzzling over the challenge at As You See It – Challenge #358 – My Favourite Autumn Things for a few days and eventually come up with this card. A few of my favourite things about fall are the Harvest moon, the crisp mornings and evenings, as well as beginning to see the skeleton shape of the trees. Lately I’m in a creative slump and have been avoiding my craft room except for keeping up with my duties as a DT.

Yesterday I saw a card by Frenchie Stamps that actually gave me an idea and I decided to CASE the design. I found some paper and created the base of my card, but when I created the die cut circle scene, I realized it didn’t work for the background part. After setting it aside, I decided that instead of doing the scene in miniature I would create it on a larger piece.

First I created a scrap piece I could use as a stencil to do the moon and I used the die cut as a mask, so I could ink the background fully. I also added a little brown and gray ink to the moon to make it look more realistic. Taking a Design by Rynn stencil I sponged through it with a gray ink to do my tree. Using another die cut circle, a sentiment and a leaf, from a Gina K set, I stamped the sentiment and then inked the circle some what to take away the starkness of the white. I used this to cover up a mark made during the inking of the background. After adding a few Nuvo Crystal Dots I stamped the leaf randomly three times and called the card complete.

Thanks 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

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

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.