ink-blending

lavenderhousecreations

Through the Window

Being in need of a masculine birthday card for a special friend, I set about creating this one. First I created the die cut window, using an older Art Impressions die set. I like that the window can be folded open. To give it some strength and dimension I cut several and glued them together.

Setting the window aside I took a small piece of watercolour paper and inked it using speckled egg Distress Oxide ink. When it was fully dry I stamped the image using two stamps from an Inspired by Stamping set that I won years ago. I used weathered wood ink for this as I wanted a softer impression than black ink would have given. I placed this piece behind the window gluing it and then cutting around the edges so it fit perfectly. I wanted a weathered look to the card so I took some wood grain CS and swiped the same ink so the grain stands out. I found the striped scrap of paper in my stash and cut that to the same size adding both to the card front. Using a white scrap I added it so the join was covered, after which I added the window.

As I didn’t have the right size stamp for an anchor, I searched online and found the one I’ve used here as it was a free download. This I then fussy cut and punched a hole at the top so the cord could be pushed through. I had the piece of net in my stash so I cut it to the size I wanted and added it. Then I added the anchor and twisted the cord gluing it here and there so it would stay attached. My sentiment is from Open Studio and I used the tiny fallout heart from the window underneath it.

I quite like how this card looks and am pretty sure our sailing friend will love it. He is always fascinated with my card designs. Although I wasn’t creating this card for any specific challenge it seems to work for the one at Sunday Stamps #SSC397 and it also works for the Anything Goes at: Ally’s Angels #111 Anything Goes theme + #110 brags for 15 Oct 2026 – a first time entry into this challenge for me.

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

lavenderhousecreations

“Leafin’ It Up To You”

Welcome to another 3-2-1 challenge recipe. You need 3 colours using Combo Colour Wheel #3, 2 Autumn images, 1 metallic or glitter element. Thing 3 by Twisted Sister is to have the option to add pumpkins, gourds, harvest fruits, vegetables and/or Halloween images. Thing 2 is a Double Dare to use and enter the sketch challenge #706 at TSOT. One caveat here is to watch for back linking. My card cannot be entered due to that rule.

The large die cut leaf is from an unbranded die and I’ve had it on my desk since it wasn’t used in a different project. Too meet the glitter element I back it with some glitter which allows the deer image to show up. The other leaves are also left over and I believe are from an Altenew die. The sentiment is from Spellbinders and it was stamped and then heat set. As a member of the design team for Double Trouble, I’m required to use all the optional parts of the recipe and occasionally I forget. Fortunately, I remembered but only after I had completed the card. I had the pumpkins die cut and coloured as they weren’t used on a previous card to I tucked them in under the leaves in order to fulfill the recipe properly.

My card base is a textured CS to which I added a strip of glitter CS and some metallic gold bits. I then added the larger leaf using some foam tape and the smaller leaf underneath without any dimension.

Now it is your turn and we look forward to seeing your interpretation of the challenge in the gallery. Above all, have fun!

Many thanks for stopping by, you are appreciated in a big way.

lavenderhousecreations

Happy Fall

The latest 3-2-1 recipe is all about Fall here at Double Trouble. use 3 colours from Combo Wheel #3, a 2 worded sentiment, and 1 autumn image. Thing 3 – Twisted Sister has the opt of adding pumpkins, Gourds and/or other harvest fruits and vegetables. And thing 2 is a Double Dare Opt: use the TSOT sketch #705 and enter your card there as well. Be aware of the backlinking rule. My card fits the sketch but cannot be entered.

As you can see I followed the sketch using strips of colour from my scrap pile. Once these were glued I used a YNS stamp and added colour after heat embossing the edges so they wouldn’t bleed. Initially I used pencils, but I wasn’t happy so I added Spectrum Noir markers over the top. I had seen a red squirrel photo, but no matter what I did, my colouring skills couldn’t recreate it. Sentiment is from the same set and I heat embossed it in gold. The tiny leaves and acorns are also from YNS as they came from a background plate. The pumpkin is from a GKD set and I fussy cut around it and did the same with the squirrel image. I scattered the leaves and then glued them where they fell except for in front of the pumpkin and along the right edge. These were placed. Oh and by the way, an acorn is considered a fruit according to my research.

Its a shame that so many red squirrels have been lost due to the introduction of the gray ones. In the U.K. I don’t believe there are any left at all, but here we do see one or two very small ones occasionally. We also have black ones. They are so brazen and the dog has made it her mission to get them away from the bird feeder if she can.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery and hope you have a lot of fun creating. Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Masculine Card

I’m not sure where my mojo is, but it definitely isn’t around at the moment. It took me forever to decide on a card for the challenge at As You See It and as many of you know, it is one of my favourite challenge sites. The current one is about colour, Challenge #381 – High Tech Handsomeness and here is my effort. And because I’ve used a folder I am entering it as a second card at CYHYP Anything Goes With A Twist of Cloudy Day . Twist not taken.

Even though I like the colours and the image that was part of the inspiration it took me some time to decide what to do. I started with the folder which is by Sizzix called Mechanics Texture Fades. I chose the slate gray CS and embossed it then went over the raised parts with a blue ink cube. My card base is basic gray so the layer was cut down to allow the darker gray to show up as a frame. I actually got this layer on straight for a change. I remembered that I had a stamp/die set that is an unbranded set. After stamping the truck I stamped the packages, heat embossed them, then die cutting after they were coloured. Prisma pencils were used to colour. These unbranded sets are useful but not fantastic and in the one I have there is a fault in the die for the parcels. As well the stamps are so soft that one has to be careful to get a decent impression.

Once I had everything coloured and put together I added foam tape behind for dimension, looked for some PP that allowed me to ground the truck and added it to the 3D layer. I wasn’t sure about a sentiment but in looking for the PP I also found some sentiment strips from Idea-ology so I chose one of those and added it at the bottom.

We had a massive and violent lightning storm right overhead a few weekends ago. It lasted 6 hours and hit one of the transformers on a pole that brought power to 5 houses. It was an almighty bang and almost made us fall out of bed with shock at the noise. Of course everything went dark and we waited for our generator to kick in. Sadly it didn’t, because the lightning also took out the control panel on the generator. Fortunately we have surge protectors on our panel and we had turned off the computers and other electronics as a precaution. We’ve been dealing with the aftermath ever since as so many little things no longer work. I have two kitchen appliances not working, our ventilation system control panel has to be replaced, a roof exhaust fan is also broken and many LED light bulbs just gave out. Now that we have quotes on most of it we’ve started an insurance claim. Just the generator alone is a $2,000 repair. We would have preferred not to claim but we are now way over the deductible and after speaking with the company the adjuster agrees that it is necessary and likely to be covered. We consider ourselves lucky as it could have been so much worse. One of our neighbors had a power bar start to smoke and burn and it freaked me out because if she hadn’t been awake to find it her house might have burned down. I guess this saga is the reason my mojo is a bit lacking. Anyone denying climate change needs to start rethinking in my humble opinion.

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

lavenderhousecreations

A Fall Retirement

Our neighbor is retiring soon and as he loves his garden and very generously shares some of his produce with us, I decided to make him a retirement card. We harvested a bunch of his apples yesterday. The Card Concept #229 {Sunflower Delight} has a delightful image to use as inspiration and I was intrigued by the mix of sunflowers and other items as part of the mantle. As my card uses an embossing folder I am also entering it into Anything Goes With A Twist of Cloudy Day at CYHTP but no twist taken.

The other day I pulled out some stencils as some of my pastes were going very hard and I thought perhaps I could use them up before throwing them away. I finished off a Brutus Munroe glitter paste using a brick wall stencil and I used some gold butter paste on another scrap card stock with the same stencil. I tried mixing some colour into an old white paste but it had gone too far to be successful so I ditched it almost right away. Anyway these pieces were sitting on my desk where I had left them to dry.

I remembered that I had an EF that was also a brick wall – this one by Tim Holtz if I remember correctly. I ran it through and used some lost Shadow ink over the raised sections so the embossing showed better. As you can see the Inspo image became my focus and I built my card to look somewhat similar. With all that has been going on for a week or so, I hadn’t felt much like creating, so having a photo to follow helped a lot in my creativity. In my stash I have some laser cut florals by 49th and Market so I took some of them to add to my fireplace. Using the glitter piece I cut it down leaving enough on each side to become a flap so when added it would stand up. I also cut the space for the fire. Then I added the black mantle top and glued it all to the embossed background. Taking the laser cuts I played until I had something I liked and then glued or added foam tape to make it stand out. The two sunflowers are from a forgotten bunch of florals I’ve had for a long time. I cut off the stems and made them as flat as possible on the back before using them here. They are a little bigger than I would have preferred but sadly, I don’t have any sunflower stamps or dies, so using something already made was the best way for me today.

The sentiment was created on my computer, cut to size and added as you see. I’m not sure of my style for this card, but after looking at the definitions on the website I believe it is a combination of Mixed Media, and Freestyle collage. Hopefully my mojo will be back properly after working on this card. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

FRIEND

A twofer to fit these challenges: (DD 8/26) WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS Challenge and Seize the Birthday #333-No Stamping Dies Only.

I had begun this card but didn’t get it finished before our house guests arrived. I thought perhaps I wouldn’t manage to complete it, but this morning my hubby and Ron are putting up a special rail for his photograph gallery and Dale is outside doing our garden. I’m in charge of the kitchen but in between I managed to put this card together so I could post it. These particular friends are amazing and always end up helping with something.

My card uses a Spellbinder folder and dies for the lemon arrangement, a die from Craft Addictions UK and a word die from MFT. Although it is hard to tell from the photo I did swipe a light yellow ink over the raised parts. It shows more in real life.

After die cutting all the small pieces I spent the time arranging and gluing until I was happy with the look. I then added it to the small green piece before adding that to the embossed section. The word was die cut in gold and attached at the bottom and then the entire layer was added to a note card.

In a minute I shall be making lunch and helping haul away some of the garden waste that Dale produces. She tells me she suffers from withdrawal symptoms if she doesn’t manage to be working in a garden for a few hours. Everyone should be as lucky as we are to have friends like these in ones life.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by. I do appreciate it.

lavenderhousecreations

Quacker

Welcome to a 3-2-1 new recipe at Double Trouble. This one entitled “Scrappers GORP”. You need: 3 patterned papers, 2 colours of choice (neutrals do not count, but can be used in addition) 1 image. Thing 3 Twisted Sister has the opt. to use stitches on the project and Thing 2 is a Double Dare Opt. to add to the TSOT #703 Sketch.

Although I followed the sketch, I would be breaking backlinking rules if I added it so be aware of this rule.

Having purchased a couple of new stamp and die sets from Craft Addiction UK I was excited to use them on this project. I have used a couple of the stamps here as well as the center pieces from the frame die set. First I chose my papers and let them also be my colour choices, in my case more than 2. Then following the basic sketch idea I added my papers as you see. All of them come from a SSS kit so are colour coordinated. After stamping my Duck I coloured him with a combination of water colour pencils then when dry, die cut him. To give him some dimension I cut a few more gluing and stacking them together. I realized that I had forgotten the optional twist but found the stitched oval leftover piece on my desk so I swiped it with a yellow ink pad and added the sentiment on top. After adding a few flat embellishments I decided it was finished.

It is going to be interesting to see what you all come up with when you participate in this challenge. There is so much choice in papers and colours. Have fun creating. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate that you do.

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

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.