die-cutting

lavenderhousecreations

Soft Spring Colours

As You See It – Challenge #369 – Soft Spring Colours is a colour challenge this time and I’ve done my best to match them.

I started with the embossed layer using a Catherine Pooler/Sizzix folder. When done I went over the panel with Tumbled Glass ink and cut it down to the size I required. After some searching I located this stiped piece and added it as you see. Then I cut a square white piece and a smaller piece to go on top so that there would be a border showing. This piece I inked green and added them together. While it was drying I inked up another strip of white card in the blue and cut 2 small squares which I then added as you can see. With a small piece of the striped section I added that to join the 2 pieces together. With a stamp set from Inkadinkado I took a small floral, stamped it and heat set then fussy cut it. When that was done I added colour using Prisma pencils and a little bit of the green ink. This was popped up on the center striped square.

My sentiment was from some vellum sentiments I’ve had for a while and this one was beginning to curl so I decided I had better use it before it was too damaged to use at all.

I find it annoying when a photograph seems to change the colours on a card as appears to have happened here. The striped piece is actually a lot lighter in colour than it shows, but it looks much darker now. In fact the entire photo looks darker than it does in real life. I also think I should have used a different folder as this one is quite busy and I’m not sure about the card now. Oh well, it isn’t a disaster, just not quite what I imagined.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate that you do and also any comments you may leave for me.

lavenderhousecreations

3-2-1 Recipe

Welcome to a new Something, Anything and Everything challenge #213 here at Double Trouble and the recipe is as follows: 3 of something, 2 of anything, and 1 of everything else, all from your stash. Twisted sister double dares you to add an Easter element, but using the sketch is optional.

As I’m someone who often uses up bits and pieces left over from other projects using a recipe such as this is fun. My main circle piece was created using a technique shared by Natasha Foote and the different paper scraps were cut into 3 before adding them to the left over silver die cut. I used another scrap piece to die cut the banner which I then added behind the circle. The little nest and bird are from Gummiapan and I paper pieced the red breast on the bird before adding it to the nest. Both of these were added to a vellum oval before placing on the circle. I should mention that the circles were cut with Hero Arts infinity dies but the doily is from a Gina Kay set as is the sentiment. The embellishments are ancient and are from my stash. The mirror card background is the last bit I have in this colour and I thought it worked for that layer.

I rotated the card to landscape before adding everything to the base and although it isn’t an exact rendition of the sketch at TSOT #692 it is a loose interpretation of it. Due to backlinking I cannot enter the card into this challenge, but you can if you are careful of the backlinking rule. My card has 3 circles and 3 gems, 2 images, 1 banner and 1 sentiment which includes the Easter element.

Please have fun creating and we look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, you, your time and any comments are always appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

First Grandchild Congrats

The current challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to make a card without white. My challenge was to make a new baby card for a dragon boat team member and hubby, who have the joyful experience of becoming a grandparents for the first time. Being able to combine what I needed with the challenge was a bonus.

Its funny how one can own a die for quite a number of years and not really use it, then in one week suddenly find uses for it. I had this MFT die set on my desk and the idea came to try to make a shaker card. (I’m generally not good at these, so rarely do them). As the baby is a boy I went with some blue DSP and cut the panel. I then backed it with some packaging plastic and adhered some of the letters that were sticking up a little too much. Using 3 of the confetti dies and some scrap glitter CS I die cut the confetti. After going around the congrats layer with some foam tape strips I added the confetti bits inside and used a scrap piece of silver CS to cover it all. This layer was then added to the card front. Taking a very old wooden block stamp, I scribbled some flesh coloured alcohol ink, let it dry, then stamped the baby on top, after which I fussy cut it. The safety pin and rocking horse are from a set made by a company called Little B. Don’t think they exist anymore as this is another set I’ve had for a very long time. I coloured the rocking horse with some Sakura gelly roll pens. Unfortunately the glitter CS confetti tends to clump together and it doesn’t shake freely so another lesson learned here. Told you making these isn’t one of my talents. The inside words were generated on my computer – Between the earth and the sky above, Nothing can match a Grandparent’s
LOVE.

I guess you could say, I truly shopped my stash to make this card. It is now in the mail and I hope they like it. Many thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

Winter Roses

Having seen quite a few of these eclipse style cards on line, I really wanted to try for myself. When the opportunity arrived to buy the Craft Addiction dies here in Canada, I jumped at it. So my first set is ovals, but I do have another set coming soon which is different.

Sunday Stamps has this theme: SSC382 Oval Things and as it happens I had already created this card, but not yet posted it. Sometimes the universe works in my favour. The key to using the dies this way is to ensure you have two of the exact same image and I had this paper as a partial scrap already on my desk. All I had to do was pull another sheet and line things up properly. I’m not sure I can explain it well, but there are several people on YouTube and on Pinterest who explain it or who you can follow along with. Once my design was cut I went around the back with foam tape and also carefully around the oval section so it won’t collapse. The lines are too thin to successfully add foam, but I found they are fine without. The main layer was then added to a silver card front.

My sentiment comes from Hampton Art. I fussy cut around it and added a bit of colour to the edges. I also added a couple of clear gems into the larger letters and a few very tiny ones here and there on the rose. Just enough to catch the light when the card is moved.

It isn’t often that I become enamored with a paper pad, but I do love this specific pad. There are so many beautiful images on one side and matching colours but a more marbled design on the back side. Many thanks for stopping by, your time and you are much appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

X is for X-Ray – Black and White Only

So The Alphabet challenge has a black and white only theme and this is what I came up with. I had seen something similar on Pinterest so I’ve kind of CASE’d it. Took the idea and changed it quite a lot.

Don’t ask where the little ticket die came from. I’ve had it for a long time and probably only used it once. When Winners first opened they had a small craft section and I purchased quite a few little items but never thought to keep information on them.

To begin I cut 5 tickets in both white and black. To stretch the black to the sides for a border, I cut them down the middle and then glued. I laid them out on the layer to ensure they would fit and then glued them as you see adding the hearts back into the centers. Using a scrap piece of patterned paper I added a strip down the left side. The I cut the letters from black paper using a die set from First Edition Craft and I added them as you see.

Somehow there was a scratch mark on the layer so I covered this with the twine bow. The word birthday is from a Spellbinders set and I offset the white layer onto a black layer. The little embellishments are from an old Die-namics MFT Confetti set. I’ve never actually used this set, but it came in handy today. This card will likely go to my B.I.L later this year.

I quite like how this one turned out. It is flat enough to mail and yet still has texture and dimension. I’m on a roll with making a few masculine style cards to add to my stash. And I still have a few more ideas to work on too. Thanks so much for stopping by, I do appreciate it.

lavenderhousecreations

Ducks in a Row?

Let me say from the outset, that I can’t take full credit for this particular design. A while back I came across a UK demonstrator, named Christine Stokes and started to follow her because I really like her work. She created a card like this one and it made me smile. Because I’m not sure the CASEing rules we have in N. America apply elsewhere, I asked for permission to use her design, which was given. Of course it has taken me months to actually use her idea, but finally here it is. And if you want to see the original go HERE.

When I was part of StampTV I used to also regularly enter challenges at The Paper Players and I’m not sure why I stopped. So for a change, I am entering this card into their current challenge. As well it fits the challenge at Allsorts so it will go there too.

Obviously, I didn’t use ducks but I did have these little chicks from Kokorosa and like Christine, I created my own words on my computer. My layout is quite similar but my saying does include a Happy Birthday greeting as I thought the little flowers the last two chicks are holding deserved that.

Once the die cutting was done I used pencils to colour them and I lifted their wings a little bit too. It took me a while to decide on my phrase, but amused myself with what I eventually came up with. As an afterthought I realize that this could quite easily have been an Easter card, but too late now. As it is I made a spelling error that I didn’t notice until after I started adding my chicks and basically had to carefully remove them so I could replace the layer with a corrected version. I did use foam tape for a little dimension. I also added an additional thin layer in yellow before adding it to the white card front.

I had fun making this one and may look for the dies that Christine used if they are still available. Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

just to say …

Welcome back to another challenge here at Double Trouble. Your recipe is to use 3 Colours from the No 3 primary colour wheel and the neutral wheel as well, 2 images and 1 sentiment. You may choose to add the dare from Twisted Sister and add a four footed animal and if you follow the sketch you may add your card to the TSOT challenge too. Be careful not to backlink if you choose to add it at TSOT.

My card incorporates more than 3 primary colours and several of the neutrals. I made my own section of PP by randomly stamping the fish bones in black, after which I added some colour using Sakura glaze pens. The second half strip is from a paper pack by GKD that I’ve had for a long time. I backed these pieces with a black layer and added it to the kraft card front.

After stamping my cats, all from the Crazy Cats by Tim Holtz, I coloured them using Prisma pencils and Gamsol. Then they were die cut using the matching dies from the set. I set them aside so I could work on the rest. I had these die cut circles left from a different project so I sponged colour using Distress Oxides 2 colours per circle. Once they were dry and I knew I liked them, I added the cats and fitted them to the other layers. Because I had already added the layers to the card front, I used a pencil mark on the two circles that overlapped and cut them on my Fiskars unit. My sentiment comes from a note pad by Hunky Dory that has pages of pre printed sentiments intended for the inside of cards. I’ve only just purchased this and it is handy as it has 120 Essential card inserts. The inside of this one says Many Happy Returns.

I’m happy with how this turned out and it was a fun one to create. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and hope you have fun with the challenge.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Beer Truck

There are some masculine birthdays coming in April so I used the sketch challenge found here, Challenge #368 – Floral Sketch Design. As the instructions said we can change the shape I chose a truck with beer barrels from a new unbranded set I’ve just gotten.

To begin, I wanted an interesting background so after sorting through some bits and pieces I found 2 inked backgrounds that I could cut up. I cut them into different size strips and glued them to some paper on the diagonal. Using a StampinUP die I cut this piece and glued it to a larger blue piece. This layer didn’t have a die that would give me the same edge as the striped layer, but I found a border die that I adapted to add the holes along the edge. The large background piece I distressed on the edges before adding to the card front. Then the other layers were added on top.

After stamping and heat embossing my truck and the barrels, I coloured them with Prisma pencils. Stamps and matching dies are from Amazon. Then I die cut my images and stacked other die cuts underneath for dimension. When they were dry I added some Nuvo Crystal drops to the windows of the truck, around the tires and to the lights. While this was drying I chose a sentiment from a Crafters Companion set, stamped and heat set it and then fussy cut. After placing the truck I chose to add the sentiment above it.

The friend for whom this is intended is a vintage car nut and he recently bought himself an amazing vintage truck. While my image is clearly not vintage, it is at least, a vehicle. He appreciates my cards and as a brilliant wood carver understands the work that goes into making them.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Birthday Fishes

I bought this stamp and die set, by Pink Ink Designs, along with other items from a sale basket at a local craft store late last year. The items were set aside and then our computer tech friend came to install my new computer and to transfer all my files from the old one. He needed a lot of desk space while using two monitors and two CPU’s so I cleared everything away. In the process I put these items somewhere and couldn’t find them until today. They were safely set inside a cupboard but until I pulled out my stencil storage I couldn’t see them. I knew I would find them eventually haha.

Anyway the challenge at Seize the Birthday #322-Green as Main Color so I went to town with different shades. After stamping the image I used Prisma pencils to colour it and using the dies I cut the fish from the frame. I also used some scrap card and cut several fish layers so I could stack them for dimension. Before I popped the fish back into their places I used a little ink on the background. After playing with it I decided I wanted to cut the frame down so I carefully went round it with scissors. Before adhering I also went around the edges with a green marker. I did the same to all the fish layers before I glued them together. Then I just popped them back into their places on the image. Initially I had a white card base ready, but decided to go with this green one instead.

My sentiment was created on my computer as I had nothing that I liked enough in my stash. I had no idea of whether this card was going to work, but now that it is done, I’m quite pleased with it. It took me most of the afternoon to make, but as the day progressed the weather also deteriorated so being inside crafting was just the ticket.

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

lavenderhousecreations

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

CAS has a colour challenge – Challenge #580 – Colour Challenge and this is what I came up with. I’m still learning ways to use these Craft Addiction slatted dies but am enjoying playing with them.

Having the Inkadoo stamp set still on my desk along with a new, as yet unused, stencil/die from Waffle Flower helped my process. After searching through all my paper scraps I finally found a piece large enough and in the right colour to fit behind the slatted section. At first I thought I would make a square card, but I didn’t measure the layer properly and because I didn’t want to waste the piece I’ve used it the way you see it here. I added some foam tape around the slatted piece and then added the blue background in behind it.

After stamping the tulips I coloured them with pencils and then fussy cut them even going into the crevices to take out the white bits. There is a little foam tape added behind the flower heads and I split the leaves slightly at the bottom so I could tuck everything into the slats but have the leaves drooping over the top a little. I also added a tiny amount of gold sparkle to the petals of the flowers on one side but it doesn’t show on the photo. After die cutting the word, I added the stencil and using inks I brushed in the colours. Using more foam tape I added the floral layer to the card front and then placed the word close to the bottom. Three Pop of Color dots from Scrapbook.com finished the card.

I had thought I might use a technique shown by Christine Stokes to add more dimension to the flowers, but I forgot. Hopefully I’ll remember the next time as it really makes a difference to the look. We are off to an art exhibition this afternoon, so I’m happy I’ve managed to get this posted.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by. You and your time are appreciated.