stampin-up

lavenderhousecreations

Chocolates anyone

We are in need of a thank you card, and As You See It is asking for candy, so I decided to combine the need with the challenge.

I saw something briefly where a crafter was making paper chocolates and I thought what a good idea. Somehow I missed saving it, and of course when I went to look again, couldn’t find it. That said, my chocolates are roughly based on what I saw.

Using my Hero Arts Infinity dies and some scrap, chocolate coloured, CS I cut 6 hearts in 2 sizes. Using some foam tape I put those pieces together. Pulling out some very old embellishments that look like sprinkles I chose the colours I wanted and glued them on top.

I thought about making a heart chocolate box, but decided I preferred a square box so I used a window frame (no idea of the brand) to die cut my piece and added foam tape to the back for dimension. In retrospect, it would have been easier to die cut several layers and glue them together, but we live and learn and it is something to note for next time. After cutting a 5″x5″ card front I added the window piece to it and then I carefully added the chocolates, tucking them in as best I could. For my center and sentiment I die cut a gold piece that fit across the entire frame and added a smaller copper piece, it matches some of the sprinkle colours, and then cut another white piece for that. I stamped the words and using some copper coloured Recollections EB I heat set it. An unbranded bow die set was used to cut a bow in copper and to this I added a tiny StampinUp heart embellishment. The white piece was a bit too white so I used an inking sponge with Lost Shadow ink to soften it. All in all, I’m very pleased with the result and my hubby is thrilled as he is going to be giving it to our nurse practitioner when he sees her later this week. She deserves this thank you, as she was the one who did her due diligence and got him checked out. We feel that the outcome could have been an unwanted and serious heart attack as we had no idea that it was his heart giving him trouble.

We’ve had another dry day with a bit of sunshine, so were able to get outside and walk a little. It is good to be in the fresh air even if only for a short time. All of us, including the dog, need to lose some weight so once we are sure my hubby is completely stable, we will be concentrating on a diet plan.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Rhapsody in Red, not a valentine

partly open card
closed card

The challenge is all about using reds and I decided on this design and papers for the As You See It, Challenge #365 – Rhapsody in Red. There is a recipe included so I ensured I got all the ingredients as well.

Firstly I chose my papers using a small paper pad from a dollar store. Having seen something like this on Pinterest that also had measurements and a tutorial, I took a closer look to see how best to proceed. The demonstrator explained her process and I followed it mostly, except that I wanted borders around my papers so changed it up a little bit. Once I had my strips ready I chose a neutral matte old gold card front and added them as you see. I die cut 2 hearts, one in white CS and one in Vellum using a set from Memory Box. Actually before I cut the vellum one I used a stamp from a Crafters Companion set already on my desk. I then stamped the floral sprig in Barn Door Distress Oxide and then heat embossed it with a clear powder. Once I was happy with it, I die cut it and attached it to the white one. I hope the vellum can be seen. I did try several coloured pieces behind it, but the white looked best. In my bits and pieces box I found a gold heat embossed sentiment which I fussy cut and added to the heart. And I also added a small bow. The heart is popped up on foam tape. The inside panel was stamped using a Hampton Arts set with Aged Mahogany ink, and I also added more red floral sprigs in a couple of places. The embellishments are from my stash and I used the bigger gems so they would show up more.

Thanks for spending time with me today. I appreciate that you stop by and also any comments you may leave.


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

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

stacked banners

The challenge here at Double Trouble is to use Something, Anything and Everything. Hard to interpret you may say – no, actually easy as you will see from my process. The recipe says, 3 of something, 2 of anything and 1 of everything. My card can be considered in several ways using this formula. Firstly I used 3 X 3 layers of banners in a stacked design. This idea came from something I saw Natasha Foote do. As these were cut using a StampinUP die set my design says three die cuts too.

Secondly I have two layers, one of which is also a die cut and for this I used a Spellbinders border die. In addition I have 2 gem embellishments so I met the requirement in 2 ways.

And last but not least my sentiment layer is my everything, after all a card with no sentiment can look unfinished, but just in case I also added a sparkle glitter piece of tape. This served two purposes, it adds some glamour to the card but it also covers up the edge of that layer so it looks nicer. The PP is scraps from my stash although the middle set is actually from a photograph that didn’t print well. Waste not want not LOL. Sentiment is from a Hampton Arts set.

I did not follow the TSOT 680 sketch in my design, but I highly recommend that you try the dare as it gives you more chances to win. If you prefer to try an alternate challenge have a look at https://welove2create.blogspot.com/, and also at Sunday Stamps with their new challenge SSC370 Squared Away. Entering gives you another chance to win. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery, but above all we want you to have fun.

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

lavenderhousecreations

postcard christmas

Although when I started this card I was thinking it may work for the next Peace on Earth Challenge #96, at the time I hadn’t seen their mood board or the DT designs. However, one example features a postcard and here is mine.

I was thinking about my Woodware postage frame die the other day and wondering how I might use it for a Christmas card? As it happens, I had already pulled out the MFT village stamp set I’ve used here, so I inked up some CS to give the blue background and stamped the scene in the middle. I used the accompanying stencil only to assess where to add other images. I added the trees, some from GKD, another MFT, the tiny mouse is Hero Arts and the sentiment is StampinUP. Everything was clear embossed as I worked and I coloured everything before I used the die to add the postage holes. I did trim down the edges to ensure it fit onto my card front which is from Spellbinders. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but after my hubby and our artist friend were complimentary about it, I’m more comfortable with it myself.

I’m really trying to keep my cards as flat as possible for this season, as postage has become more expensive and the rules about some items keep changing.

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

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.

lavenderhousecreations

one for each decade

One of my aunts, is turning 90 soon, and I decided to make this card for her. As a bonus the card fits the current challenge at: The Sisterhood of Crafters – Strips and/or Dots. As you can see, the candles show both stripes and dots, but the PP also has them in its design.

I did consider making a card that incorporated 90 candles, but discarded the idea due to the thickness and cost of mailing one that is oversize. So instead I used the double Z fold technique and added 9 candles to represent 9 decades. The stamp used is an old (very) Hero Arts wooden block and I found it isn’t stamping well so I shall be discarding it. That said I got a good enough impression to use for this card although I did have to use a sharpie to fill in edges. After stamping enough, along with a few extra just in case, I coloured them using pencils, Sakura Gelli roll pens and some Perfect Pearls for additional shine. Took a while to fussy cut, but cutting mostly straight lines isn’t hard.

Using some GKD CS, I had prepared my card base and added some PP, the music panel is from a napkin, the back panel is StampinUP DSP that had a shade of the same colour blue as the card base in the design and the other PP was gifted to me a long time ago and I think is from Michaels. The bottom is the Z fold strip after I had added the PP to it. Glued all the candles down as you see and checked the folding to ensure no errors. Of course I found a big one so a little bit of cursing was in order. I had to get very creative to fix it. What had happened was that I used both sides of the white CS to stamp the candles because the first try didn’t get good results. Figuring mistakes wouldn’t show once they were glued I stamped again on the other side. On a different design this this wouldn’t have been an issue, but I forgot that when the card is folded the backside of the candles shows and it was ugly. Fixing it required stamping another 6 candles onto white CS, fussy cutting and then adding them behind the glued ones. A little bit more cursing to get them glued, but it worked for the most part. I decided not to worry about perfection so while still not pretty, it’s a lot better than it was. If I do another card similar to this I will ensure that both sides of the stamped image are the same. My hands didn’t like the effort though and I’m paying for it now.

With a leftover piece of the blue CS I die cut the sentiment letters using a Scrapbook.com set of alphabet dies and glued them along the bottom deliberately skewing them slightly for a fun look. I felt it needed something on the last piece so I used a Forever in Time dollar store set, stamped the star and fussy cut it before adhering as you see. I’ve created a white piece for the back of the card so I can write a personal message, which will include an explanation for the quantity of candles.

All in all, I’m pleased with the end result and shall be mailing it tomorrow morning. Thanks for stopping by, your time and you are appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

musical note Christmas

The Christmas challenge at Peace on Earth Challenge #90 had some lovely colours in the inspiration photos with the bottom right corner one appealing to me the most. I’ve used a few here but slightly muted.

The other day I was playing with a napkin image of musical notes and I attached a larger portion of it to some card stock for a future background. With the piece leftover I was about to set it aside when I wondered what it would look like behind an opening? On my desk was a scrap piece of CS that I had already die cut some banners from and I placed this over the top. It looked good so I cut two more banner openings from the opposite direction then attached it to the napkin piece. After trimming the edges I decided to ink around them and slightly on top to age the CS a little. I remembered that I had this MFT set of bird and die stamps so on another scrap piece I stamped two birds and some foliage. Coloured it all with pencils and water, die cut them and attached as you see here. I used the Just a Note sentiment, from the set, at the top, but as I’d decided I wanted it to be a Christmas card the wishing you and Merry sentiments came from a Divinity Designs set. I had the embossed piece leftover from a project and I added the bird piece to this. Taking some copper thread I added a few turns and tied into a bow before adding the small gem to the middle. Then I added the layers to the main card front. Not a good day for tying bows as it took me more than 10 minutes to do with a bit of swearing thrown in.

Its a Dragon Boat paddling evening, so I have to leave in a few minutes, but thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

bird-day greetings

Challenge #339 – Winter Frost is the latest challenge at As You See It and this one is a colour challenge. I thought about a design for a couple of days and then sawsomething in the group from GKD, by Karen Hightower, that was set out like this one and I went with that. My colours are as close as I can get with what I have using Distress inks and card stock from different sources. Card base is a darker basic gray with a slate gray background for the rest of the card. Ribbon is from my stash – no idea where I got these and I’ve had them for a long time. Stamp set is from YNS and the EF is another oldie that I have no name for but it definitely is a brand not a knock off. I did the birds and the balloon initially on some scrap CS and heat embossed them so I could add more colour. When they were dry I fussy cut each piece but took off the legs and the string. Then I added foam tape to the bodies and laid them on the top piece temporarily so I could lay out the stamps again. I re-stamped everything in Hickory Smoke and heat embossed for more definition. Then I added them fussy cut pieces on top so the birds now had their legs back as well as the balloon it’s string. I had cut the dry embossed piece to size, added foam tape and then added it to the lighter gray panel. Added the top portion the same way and left a small gap between the two. I wasn’t happy, so I had the idea of adding the ribbon which I liked much more. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed but this stamp has a slight fault in it at one end and I tried several times to remove it. Nothing worked so in the end I angle cut the strip on both sides. It isn’t perfect, but better than the original. Too bad the company has gone as I would ask them for a replacement stamp if I could. I may try to cut the fault off, but it requires a very steady hand and I’m concerned I may ruin it completely. Overall I’m happy enough with the card that I am posting and entering it.

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