stampin-up

lavenderhousecreations

From me to You

Double D’s latest challenge mood board is all about pink and a stamping friend of mine mentioned a brand new challenge blog called Heart’s Quest and they too have a mostly pink challenge happening. I decided that my card fits both so I managed a twofer.

I wanted to play with my newest stamp/die set from Craft Addition UK as I had only used one of the stamps so far. I really liked the floral heart and decided to start with that and see how my thinking evolved. I chose a Distress Oxide ink Victorian Velvet and stamped it after which I used clear embossing and heat set it. When it was fully dry I used the matching die and cut it. Setting it aside I decided to use another of the Quacker stamps, stamped, heat set and die cut. Using pencils I added some colour keeping to the pink theme. It’s art, so who says a duck has to be white? I knew I would be popping up the duck so I added foam tape and set it aside for a few minutes more.

My card front is a pink from GKD and I remembered I still had some StampinUP DSP that looked marbled in different colours and this piece was one of them. I used the less marbled effect to keep the soft look as a background. The other side is lovely too but a but too busy for this card. Once I had glued the DSP to the card front I played a moment with placement before adding the other elements. It needed a sentiment and I thought this one was perfect and it helps to ground my quacker too. A few pink Pops of Color and the card was done. I guess you could say this card is an almost CAS style. I quite like how this one has turned out, although perhaps adding a bit more than just pink may have given it a little more Oomph as my hubby likes to say.

Thanks a lot for stopping by, I appreciate that you take the time to look.

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 Little Bird …

Welcome to the latest Double Trouble recipe challenge #224. Thing 1 – 3 Patterned papers, 2 colours of choice (neutrals do not count, but can be used in addition) 1 image. Thing 3 – Twisted Sister Opt: Include Stitches on Project and Thing 2 is a double dare to use the sketch from TSOT and enter into TSOT #703 challenge. Note the backlinking rule.

My card uses patterned paper from a HunkyDory Duo Design paper pad and some patterned vellum. My colours are blue, yellow and green along with the neutrals in the paper. The little bird is from Gummiapan and was coloured using pencils. The tiny butterflies are also Gummiapan. I used a GKD stamp to add the branch for the bird to perch on. The circle dies and the stitched sentiment dies are from StampinUP. The actual gold embossed sentiment is from Joy Clair and my die cut flowers are from Memory Box.

When I began this card I didn’t really have a firm idea of what I wanted to create, but as so often happens it evolved by itself. I quite like the result, which is always a bonus for me.

Now it is your turn and we look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. Above all, have fun! Thanks for stopping by, you, your time and your comments are 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

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

A Penguin Tree

My version
Where the idea came from.

At Christmas last year, we received the displayed Santa card from a friend in Japan. Japan often has amazing mass produced 3D style cards. I often keep cards like this and put them on display each year, but I kept this one to hand as I knew I wanted to try to make one.

The challenge for me was I had to stamp, colour and die cut 19 penguins to build a card, whereas the original was printed and then laser cut one section at a time making it easy to build. I had to figure out how to attach them together and be strong enough to stand up, as well as getting the box size and scoring correct. As anything to do with arithmetic or math is always an issue, it took 3 tries and help from my hubby before I got the box size and scoring right. I deliberately went with a larger base as I knew my penguins would be heavier than the original card is. I added a center piece to the box ready for the middle layer to be attached. The penguin and die come from a Divinity Design set. I stamped with VersaMark and heat set in black. Each were coloured with pencils, then die cut, then I divided them into the stacks required for each section. During the colouring process I had been thinking of how I could attach them knowing that the tallest stack would need some support. I ended up using some fairly stiff packaging plastic cut into strips, long enough to attach inside the back part of the box and provide support for the next row of penguins. The image was chosen for the light string they are holding and I glued each light string to the next one in rows while also adding some glue to the feet. Each layer was built the same way, although I only needed the stiff plastic strips for the back layer. When I looked a the back of each layer it looked messy so I cut another lot of shapes to glue behind each one making it look tidy and clean. My gluing ended up slightly crooked, but the basic shape was there and no real tree is uniform, and I decided it didn’t matter. The box base was covered in some scrap PP before I attached any of the layers and it all folds flat quite easily. My sentiment is also a Divinity Design stamp but from a different set.

Making this box card was a long process, but I enjoyed the experience and actually making it from scratch without any tutorials to follow helps me realize just how far I have come since I started making cards all those year ago. I probably won’t make another, due to how time consuming it was, but it was fun to try.

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

The card will be entered into the following three challenges all relating to Christmas:

https://lilredwagon.blogspot.com

Peace on Earth Challenge #116

MLCCB #69 Anything Christmas Goes

lavenderhousecreations

More Christmas in July

Welcome to another Double Trouble challenge. The recipe this time is: 3 colours of choice (neutrals not included) 2-layers (card base doesn’t count) 1 holiday image. Thing 3 Twisted Sister has the option of using non-traditional colours and thing 2 Double Dare is choose TSOT #699 and/or #700 Jingle Belles Unicorn color challenge.

My card fits the sketch at TSOT but cannot be entered due to the backlinking rule. To create it I used a Crafters Companion Rays of Light die set and using scraps I die cut all the coloured pieces first and then attached them to the other pieces before paper piecing them into the frame I had already glued to the card front. This die set gives me 3 layers, but with the addition of the StampinUP die cut circle I now have 4. I used scrap pieces to cut the tree, deer and rabbit adding a bit of colour around edges and some gold sparkle to the deer. I used the star and snowflake dies with some gold CS to add some embellishments. These dies come from an unbranded set. The sentiment is from a Divinity Designs set.

My workspace looks as if a bomb has gone off, so my next task is to clean up and put everything away so I can find it again easily. I was outside this morning working in the garden, and now I’m tired so I guess the tidy up will be tomorrow.

We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and of course hope you have fun creating. Thanks a lot for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

lavenderhousecreations

Blooming

The current challenge at As You See It is a fill in the blank on embossing folders and although I use them and like them, they also frustrate me due to never having exactly the right sandwich to go through my machine easily. It takes me forever to figure out the right amount of pressure to get the impression without hurting myself or the machine. Because of this I don’t use them anywhere near as much as I ought to.

My fill in the blank favourite is a 3D StampinUp folder called Soft Waves and I have actually used this one quite a lot. However the folder I’ve actually used for this card is a new 3D folder from Spellbinders and I backed it with some black CS to give a border before adding it to the card front. The arched die cuts are from Craft Addiction UK and I used some scrap CS to cut a medium size one and a smaller one. They were added with some foam tape and I turned the yellow piece upside down before attaching. The floral image is from Inkadinkadoo. I coloured it with watercolour pencils, then fussy cut before attaching on top of the yellow arch. The sentiment is from GKD which I inked using Dusty Concord and then heat set clear before fussy cutting around it. A few small gems finished the card. I thought I had some purple twine or very thin ribbon, but I don’t and what I do have on hand doesn’t look right on this design so the gems have to be enough.

My camera seems to have changed the lighting somehow as the photo looks cream instead of the actual bright white card stock I’ve used. The challenge at CYHTP has an optional twist of using purple. I have already added a card here but it doesn’t use the twist, which surprised my stamping buddies, who know its my favourite colour in any shade. So here is a second card for this challenge using the colour purple.

Thanks for stopping by, your time and of course you are appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Standing Out

One of my favourite challenge sites is As You See It, and this card is intended for Challenge #375 – Jungle Colour.

When I purchased this ephemera set a while back, I set it aside and then couldn’t find it. I found it the other day languishing in a drawer and cannot think how it got there. I also didn’t realize until going through the entire package that each envelope held parts of the same image as it was designed to be decoupaged together. I chose one of the hummingbirds that best used the colours in this challenge and built him using foam pieces between the layers. The sentiment is from the Weekender kit and I heat set it clear before using the matching die to cut it. The shaped pieces are a very old and hardly used set by either Sizzix or Spellbinders and my card stock is from StampinUp. It was recently found in a cupboard in my hubby’s studio. A friend had given me this CS before we moved to the island and I guess this was packed with some of his items and although I wondered what had happened to it, finding it 5 years later is funny.

I realized recently, that when I first began making cards, dies and clear stamps didn’t exist and I fussy cut everything, used clip art that I could alter on the computer and created other things to get what I wanted. I never did do well with the wooden block stamps although I used a few once in a while. Having family in The Netherlands and being able to visit them, I found a lot of crafty things at local markets and decoupage pages were among what I purchased. In those days I had to fussy cut each piece. Then dies started to become popular and I had no money for them or the machines necessary to use them. When I got my first machine I had no idea of what to do with much of it and although I purchased a few dies here and there I wasn’t skilled enough to figure out the best way to use what I had. As the Internet became more popular and more accessible I discovered a world I didn’t know existed and here we are today using it as a source for education, creative ideas and tutorials along with other stuff. I also have to give a shout out to Gina K. By accident I found StampTV and I learned so much from her and made a few stamping buddies along the way too. This creative community is amazing and I’m happy to be part of it.

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

lavenderhousecreations

Huey Chameleon

I started this card mainly with Seize the Birthday in mind, but it sat on my desk for a couple of days because I didn’t have enough time to continue with it. In the meantime a second challenge began at CYHTP and I realized it would work for that too.

The printed acetate sheet is the last of a bunch I purchased many years ago because I thought they were pretty. Then I couldn’t think how to use them due to my lack of knowledge and skill. These days I wouldn’t have kept them so long unused.

The challenge at Seize the Birthday is to use acetate or vellum and the one at CYHTP is always an Embossing Folder, but with an optional twist. The twist this time is Boys to Men. My card fits both challenges, although I acknowledge that Huey would work for a woman as well.

Using my latest folder from Spellbinders and some watercolour CS I embossed the background and then used ink in two shades to add colour. I like the texture on the watercolour, it takes ink well and it seems to work great for these leaves. I wondered about adding dimension around the sides of the acetate, but it showed through too much so that idea was clearly not going to work. I already knew I was going to use the chameleon die set, and I set the acetate to one side giving me time to think about it and proceeded to cut and build Huey. Once he was built I took another 2 dies from a different set in this kit and cut the branch and the vine fronds.

I added Huey and the fronds to the branch and then placed him on the card front laying the acetate piece on top. Deciding this would work I glued him down and added a strip of scortape to the acetate at the top only. Using the sentiment and matching dies from the kit, I stamped the sentiment and heat set it clear. The It’s your Day was placed underneath the acetate at the top and the other part was added on top of the acetate at the bottom.

The card size is slightly larger than I would normally do, but I wanted to be sure the acetate would fit nicely and making an envelope for it is pretty easy. Although making Huey was time consuming, it wasn’t difficult and I was smart enough to print out the explanation for each piece which I’m keeping with the set. The hardest part of this card was taking the photo and it took several tries to get this one, which is still not that great. No matter where I put the card there was a light source that glared on the acetate, which is why you can’t see the entire sentiment at the top. All in all, I’m pleased with how this turned out and I have a few coloured stripes left to have the next Huey partially prepared.

Chellenges entered:

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