die-cutting

lavenderhousecreations

Get Well Blues

Welcome to our latest challenge here at cardz4galz and Sue is asking us to create a card using any Kraft card stock and any shade of blue. She will also be choosing the winners.

My card ended up being something entirely different that what I had originally thought about, but I like how it evolved. The EF I’ve used is a Sizzix 4 pattern 3D folder. Using a scrap piece of blue CS I ran it through to get the impression and initially went over the raised parts with some white pigment ink. I did like it, but decided that it would look better with a dark blue and liked it more. Then I took a Spellbinders emboss and cut folder and cut the arch out of more Kraft CS. The sentiment was created on my computer and added to the back before I popped it onto some foam tape and adhered as you see. Taking a Memory box layered floral die I cut the flowers and leaves out of two blues and layered them. A few tiny blue gems and some larger ones for the flower centers and my card was done.

It always interests me how an idea changes into something else and yet the end result is usually pretty. So now it is your turn and we look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. Have fun while creating.

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

lavenderhousecreations

For the Artist in You!

A speed challenge always ensures the adrenaline is way up and for me it is also when I become the most clumsy. That said, I still managed to come up with a design and decent, if not truly creative, end result. This one was completed in 8 minutes and 10 seconds. As You See It – Challenge #379 – Hastened Handicrafts speed challenge has a theme of anything crafty.

I pulled out two stamp sets, one from Amazon Globeland and the other GKD which is where my sentiment came from. As well I pulled the larger arch die from a slatted die set by Craft Addictions UK. I used the stitched outline along with the arch but didn’t use the slatted piece here. I also used a homemade, gifted to me, stencil in yellow and orange. I did think about fussy cutting the images, but realized that my time would be affected too much.

Of course the fumbling started as soon as I started the clock and even though I used some tape to hold it, the die slipped slightly during the cutting leaving a sharp edge at the curve. I tried returning it to the die and running through again unsuccessfully, so I used scissors, which made it better but not perfect. Using the stencil and pre inked sponges I added the dots randomly. Then I stamped the images and sentiment on top. I forgot that the dots would show through the images (silly me) so now I’m definitely not happy and no time to correct. My solution was to use Prisma pencils and colour in the paint box and brush holder. This worked and for good measure I took some Sakura glitter pens in various colours and added colour to the paint pots. I already had the dark Teal card base ready but I took time to cut the burgundy PP and glued it as you see before adding the shaped piece on top. I completely forgot about adding an embellishment until after I stopped the clock and likely I will add one or two before I use the card.

Many thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

Garnish Your Margarita

It took a while for me to settle on the right images and ideas for this card challenge, but once I did everything went smoothly. The current challenge at Seize the Birthday #332-Funny/Pun-ny requires funny/pun-ny and fortunately I have a few stamps sets in my stash that fit the bill. My images come from a YNS set that had matching dies and the pun sentiment is from that set. The Cheers sentiment is from Joy Clair and the Happy Birthday is from SSS. My EF is from Spellbinders but my ink pad was very juicy which meant the ink stayed wet. Because I’m impatient, I decided to heat emboss it clear. I cut it down slightly and added more ink around the edges before adding it to the card front. The oval is from a CraftAddiction UK set and I cut two to stack them for dimension. I did the same with the images so they have both strength and dimension.

Using a VersaMark pen I went around the edge of the oval and heat embossed it in gold and the sentiments were all heat embossed in gold too. The images were coloured with water colour pencils and to ensure they wouldn’t run I heat embossed the outlines after stamping.

I like the cuteness of the images in this stamp set and had fun putting the card together. This particular stamp had the 3 images close together, but I didn’t realize that each part had an individual die. Cutting that tiny heart was a challenge due to its size. The rest was much easier.

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

lavenderhousecreations

A Winter Scene

Welcome to Double Trouble Challenge #223. Your 3-2-1 recipe is as follows, “Something, Anything, Everything”

3 of something from your stash, 2 of anything from your stash and 1 of everything from your stash. Thing 3 Twisted Sister has the option of using foam tape or multilayering of item to add dimension and Thing 2 is the double dare of using the sketch and adding to TSOT #702 challenge. Remember the backlinking rule please.

I began my card by stamping a Penny Black scene and heat setting it so I could add colour. Using some inks and sponges I added the various colours working my way down the image. Taking an unbranded die set I cut one of the small deer and 3 rabbits to which I added a little colour before using thin foam tape to pop them on the front. My two fussy cut little birds are from a GKD set and I added some colour to these as well. The sentiment is from a YNS set and I used a Sakura glitter pen here and there for a little fun.

I had fun putting the scene together and hope that those of you participating also enjoy the process. We look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery. Many thanks for stopping by, you, your time and your comments are appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Leaf Wishes

The challenge at Color Hues is #138-Navy and Teal and I wasn’t sure if I had any ideas for it. However, a book I’ve been reading, had a very interesting and pretty cover and it set off an idea for something with stripes. This is what I ended up with.

My first step was to create the stripes and this is my second attempt as the first one was not what I wanted. I used Gina’s masking magic strips and my glass mat for getting them onto the card stock straight. Then I used Chipped Sapphire and a sponge to do the navy stripes. When they were done and dry I moved the masks so I could add the Peacock Feathers ink. While this was drying I looked through my stamps and found this set by SSS that includes dies as I wasn’t in the mood to fussy cut anything. I stamped them using Chipped Sapphire and then used clear heat embossing to set it. Using a several water colour pencils, I added colour using a darker teal and a lighter one, along with navy. While they were drying I added VersaMark ink using a fine tip brush and the liquid and doing 2 stripes at a time added clear heat embossing to give it the shine I wanted. This took enough time that the stamped pieces dried well so I die cut them and then added VersaMark onto a few leaves and clear heat embossed those as well. The teal stripes have a subtle shine as I used some Perfect Pearls powder on those. The sentiment is from Open Studio.

In thinking about the process I took to get this result, I’ve realized that I could have added VersaMark using the ink pad before I moved the masking strips, but as with so many things hind sight is always 20/20.

We’ve actually had some rain earlier today which is a relief because it is scary to see how dry things are. The fires in the Okanagan are very bad and so many communities are affected. In my thoughts I tried to send the rain to them, but we don’t have control over the weather unfortunately. It is depressing to see how many people have lost everything, but there are also stories of hope and heroes too. Other countries have sent crews to help which allows some of ours to get some rest and recharge their batteries.

My I-phone is giving me some issues since a recent update and the photo is way darker than the card looks in real life. It is a very strong card, but I like it and my hubby liked it too.

I’m off to finish some laundry now that the painters have moved to another section of the house. We are having some areas redone with the hallway to the laundry room being one section. It looks nice but I couldn’t get to my machines easily. Many thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it.

lavenderhousecreations

Sympathy Blooms

Sadly, I was in need of a sympathy card as a sick friend passed away on Friday. She was a part of my yoga group and will be sorely missed. I figured that if I must make one why not add it to a challenge while I was at it. It will be entered into the Triple B TB August 2026 Challenge.

I took an A2 panel and die cut a label aperture through it. Before doing anything else I ensured where to adhere the sentiment so it shows through because I knew I was going to use foam tape to lift it up from the main card. The actual sentiment comes from a book of essential inserts by HunkyDory Crafts and I used a larger label die to glue it behind. Dies are by Spellbinders Nestabilities. Once the layer was added to the main card front I proceeded with the rest.

Using an older die set from GKD, I die cut 9 flowers, placed them on a sticky mat, pounced colour, then using a Sakura gel pen I made the lines darker for more definition. With a paper styler and some foam I added a curve to all of them and then added the silver flat backs to their centers. These were then glued to the layer as you see in the photo.

I made an envelope for this card to ensure the flowers would have more space as the regular envelopes don’t allow for this much dimension. I will, however, be delivering this in person sometime later this week. We don’t have yoga for a few weeks as our teacher is on vacation, but we shall be having a coffee together on Thursday in Fern’s honour. A couple of us will miss her for more than just her personality as she also took care of our dogs once in a while.

Thanks for joining me today, you and your time is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Pinecone Bough

In my testing out some new dies, I ended up with extra pieces that were good enough to use elsewhere so I created this card for CYHTP. Their challenge is: Anything Goes With A Twist of Tie It Up. The die set used is from Karen Burniston and is called Pine cone. It also fits with the theme at The Card Concept too. The Card Concept #228a {Summer By The Sea} or #228b {Christmas in July}

My embossed background is from a folder by SSS and was a test piece made some time ago. While it wasn’t bad, I did set it aside for future use and used another one for the card I was making at that time. This one works perfectly here and I played around with the foliage and pinecones until I liked the placement before finally gluing it all. The sentiment strip is from an MFT stamp set and I edged it with the same ink used in the embossed layer. Taking two colours and lengths of twine I folded them together and in half before tying the bow and placing it as you see.

After adding the layers to the teal card front and a couple of extra berries to the sentiment I called the card complete. I’m trying to do a few Christmas cards a month to ensure I am not panicking later.

We are back in a hot dry spell and with what is happening in the Okanagan, everyone is slightly nervous. Things are tinder dry and one mistake would be a costly one. Everyone is sad for those in Summerland who are evacuating due to the wildfires nearby. It is awful to see how bad it is. I pray for them as I also pray we don’t get a fire here. The only upside for us, is that the wind has changed direction so any smoke is moving out and to the east. We were getting smoke from several places including the USA.

Thanks for stopping to take a look. I appreciate that you do and thanks in advance for any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

KINETIC CHRISTMAS CARD

Card front
inside movement four arms.

Sometime ago, I participated in adding a comment to Karen Burniston’s Facebook page and to my delight I won a $50 gift certificate. This kinetic style movement die set was my pick and I added to the order by buying the pinecone set. Everything has sat on my desk until this week when I finally decided to try my hand at making a card using the sets. Karen has tutorials available for most of the dies she sells so I followed along with the kinetic part, playing until I got the mechanism to work. It isn’t exactly hard, but it is very fiddly, which can be a challenge for my hands sometimes. I only cut the design elements once I was sure the mechanism was okay. My papers are from a pad I purchased on sale last year with the small image on the front being a corner of one of them. The frame was in my left over stash and its an unbranded die set. The sentiments are from Spellbinders cut using silver metallic card stock. All the foliage around the pinecones are part of the same new set but the Robins are fussy cut from a received store bought card. I love English robins, they are so cute and perfect on a winter style card. Pinecones and foliage were all done using paper scraps.

I did have some slight issues with one of the arms catching on another, but after bending the top one slightly it resolved easily. And I added a paper panel to the back with a Christmas verse and space to write something. Now that I have a reasonable idea of how to use these dies I will no doubt, find the next one much easier to do. My hubby was impressed though.

Many thanks for stopping by, I appreciate that you do and any comments you leave are always welcomed.

I’ve decided to share this card at the August 2026 Peace On Earth Challenge #117

lavenderhousecreations

Blue Sky

shows fold and closed
open showing swing panel pop up

Welcome to the latest challenge at Cardz4galz, where Lynda has chosen blue sky as the challenge theme. It can be anything you choose within the theme. She will also be choosing the winners.

As you can see I went quite literal with the challenge and chose some paper showing a blue sky with clouds. Having seen a Swing card on Pinterest, I followed the link to Frenchie Stamps and then basically followed her tutorial. I had done one in a circle some time ago, but had forgotten some of the steps and I find that this demonstrator explains things very well. She used a plane in her tutorial but I chose to use a dragonfly for mine.

My dragonfly was cut three times with a Paper Rose die using scrap paper that was different colours on both sides. By gluing 2 at the body only, I was able to offset slightly so both colours show up as well as adding a bit more strength to the die cut. The third one I only used the body. As you can see I added a few gems along the body, as well as a bit of sparkle pen here and there. The seagulls and small clouds are from an unbranded set, and my sentiment stamps are from Spellbinders.

I did find my mechanism isn’t 100% perfect and I think it is because I need a stronger card stock for it – I’ve made notes for the next one I may do. As well, I somehow managed to get glue along the side of the dragonfly tail and I couldn’t remove it properly without destroying the card. I used a silver and a sparkle pen along the sides that I hope denotes movement rather than a mess. Other than this, I am reasonably happy with the card.

We look forward to seeing your interpretations of the challenge in our gallery and hope that you have fun creating. Many thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Never Stop Dreaming

I’ve had this dollar store dream catcher stamp set for a while and have only used it once until today. The current Double D Feathers Challenge 2026 seemed like the perfect time to use it and this card is the result.

It was stamped in black ink and then clear heat embossed. Then I took some Perfect Pearls powders and proceeded to colour it. I used a gold pen to fill in the edges of the catchers and some Sakura pens to fill in the little bead strings which all give the card a subtle shimmer.

I managed to drop a bit of powder in the wrong place and it wouldn’t completely come off, so I used some tiny gems to hide the faint smudge. As well, I burned the edge of the card with my heat tool, first time I’ve ever done this. Instead of a white base card I chose this coloured one from Spellbinders and by trimming the edges of the burned piece I made it fit nicely.

I’m actually pleased with how this looks and as I’m going to donate some cards to a good cause this one is likely to be added to my donation. With the sentiment being a generic type it can be used for any occasion.

Many thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate that you do.