stamping

lavenderhousecreations

build me a snowman

Welcome to our latest challenge here at cardz4galz, chosen and hosted by Caz. She wants us to build a snowman and I took the build part very literally and actually built my snowman.

Using a die set from Sizzix, I die cut two sizes of scalloped circles and then one smaller regular circle from Spellbinders. An old stamp set from Dare 2B Artzy was used as a template for his hat which I stamped separately and then fussy cut to adhere on top of the circle and I used the nose and scarf from this set as well. The twig arms I did by cutting from a scrap piece and I added the eyes, mouth and buttons by hand. A black Spectrum Noir sparkle pen was used on his hat along with some Sakura glitter pens for his hat band, flower and nose. And I added some shading using a gray pencil on his body. I assembled the snowman and set him aside.

Using a navy blue piece of card stock, a stencil called WarmWishes along with some sparkle stencil butter from TCW, I made the background. When dry I cut it to size attached it to the card front and then added my snowman. The sentiment is from the same stamp set as the other bits, but I cut it into two pieces so I could make it fit where I wanted it to go.

We look forward to seeing your snow people in our gallery soon. Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and any comments you may leave.

lavenderhousecreations

colour blocks

Challenge #204, here at Double Trouble is called ‘Its a Tall Order’ and if you’ve guessed its about creating a slimline or a mini slimline card you would be right. If you follow the sketch at TSOT #683 then you get an extra chance to win, but be careful to ensure you don’t backlink. My card follows the sketch but I can’t add it to the challenge because it would definitely be backlinking. The recipe calls for 3 colours, 2 images, 1 Slim line or mini and the twist is to use something beginning with T.

First I masked off a section of my card layer and then using a mask I could move up and down easily I proceeded to sponge ink in colour blocks similar to a paint chip. I used 5 different greens . My focal image is from a GKD stamp set that I’ve had for a long time and I stamped it with Versamark and then heat set in gold. Using another GKD set I chose 2 stamps that I could use in the top right hand corner. These were stamped in yellow and I added a green Pop of Colour dot to their centers. The sentiment is from Hampton Arts and my added twist, which I almost forgot, is a twine bow. Before adding the layer to the main card I used a yellow distress Oxide to colour in my daffodils and I went around this layer with a black marker to give a border.

Thanks for stopping by, your time and your comments are always appreciated. We look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery and hope you have fun coming up with your own ideas.

lavenderhousecreations

Fall birthday

Seize The Birthday is asking for Favourite fall treats which leaves quite a lot of scope for your designs. As an invited guest DT I came up with this card.

As an Ex-Pat Brit, we didn’t have all the hoopla that is part of living here and I’ve never quite gotten used to the N. American way of celebrating it. Asking me what my favourite treat is, is a hard question for me to answer. I’m kind of boring, as I only like regular coffee, so all the flavours available aren’t something I would go for, and although I enjoy pumpkin pie, I can’t say I’m mad for it. Likely because of this I don’t have a lot in my stash that pertains to this theme. I do however enjoy the fall colours and seeing pumpkins stacked up in a store, or watching kids at a pumpkin patch, choosing the one they want to carve up as part of the upcoming Halloween fun.

All that to say making a card for this challenge was somewhat of a real challenge for me. In the end I chose to do a fall scene. I pulled out a Birch/Aspen tree stencil and added the blue sky and some grass to show between the trees. Then using a fine brush and some ink I shaded the actual trees with Lost Shadow and some Hickory smoke to give them some definition. My gate and the small topper are dies from Gummiapan and I stacked a bunch together to give the gate some dimension. I cut the topper in green as well as yellow and stacked them so that there was some green showing after I cut off some of the yellow bits I didn’t need. I also went around the wood edges with some ink, but the actual wood grain is from a dollar store paper pad. A Tim Holtz stencil was used for the pumpkins and I moved the stencil around to try to get a stack. Once it was dry I added some additional colour for definition and then fussy cut. After adding the main layer to the card base I placed the gate and the pumpkin stack where I felt they looked best and glued them down. The sentiment came from Hampton Arts and I used foam tape to get it to sit over the edge of the gate frame.

I’ve had a lot of fun being the guest designer here and there is one more to go before my stint is finished. I sure hope you have fun creating your own favourite fall treat cards. Thanks for stopping by, your time and any comments you leave are highly appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

fairy dreams

Challenge #261 as chosen by Debbie, is to make a card for a little girl. For me this was a challenge as I don’t have any children in my life so I’m not into making cards with them in mind. That said, I remember being very enamored with fairies when I was a little girl, so I decided to make a card incorporating them. The larger fairy is from Crafters Companion, while the smaller fairy and the sentiment came from an older set from GKD. Paper is from a pad and the dragonfly is a sticker. The larger fairy was stamped onto vellum with Versamark and then gold heat embossed, after which I fussy cut. The smaller fairy was stamped directly onto paper and heat embossed as was the sentiment. I added a feathered skirt to the larger fairy, just because I could.

I’m thinking of giving this card to my neighbor as she has female grandchildren who may like it. We hope you have fun making your own creations and look forward to seeing what you create in our gallery. Thanks for stopping by.

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

harvest moon

I’ve been puzzling over the challenge at As You See It – Challenge #358 – My Favourite Autumn Things for a few days and eventually come up with this card. A few of my favourite things about fall are the Harvest moon, the crisp mornings and evenings, as well as beginning to see the skeleton shape of the trees. Lately I’m in a creative slump and have been avoiding my craft room except for keeping up with my duties as a DT.

Yesterday I saw a card by Frenchie Stamps that actually gave me an idea and I decided to CASE the design. I found some paper and created the base of my card, but when I created the die cut circle scene, I realized it didn’t work for the background part. After setting it aside, I decided that instead of doing the scene in miniature I would create it on a larger piece.

First I created a scrap piece I could use as a stencil to do the moon and I used the die cut as a mask, so I could ink the background fully. I also added a little brown and gray ink to the moon to make it look more realistic. Taking a Design by Rynn stencil I sponged through it with a gray ink to do my tree. Using another die cut circle, a sentiment and a leaf, from a Gina K set, I stamped the sentiment and then inked the circle some what to take away the starkness of the white. I used this to cover up a mark made during the inking of the background. After adding a few Nuvo Crystal Dots I stamped the leaf randomly three times and called the card complete.

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

lavenderhousecreations

splish splash

The challenge this time is basically splashy – interpreted anyway you like – rain, puddles, swimming, bath time, splashy drinks or just getting splishy splashy with inks. That said if you create something that isn’t totally obvious do make a point of letting the team know what it is in your post.

As you can see, I’ve chosen bath time as my theme because I wanted to revisit a technique learned a long time ago and not used much since. First I decided on a square shape and cut my layers accordingly. Then taking the main background layer I scored it in both ways at half inch indrements giving a tile effect. I stamped a leafy branch silhouette image from Crafters Companion randomly in Broken China ink to created patterned tile look. Setting it aside to dry I proceeded to stamp and die cut the other elements from a Hero Arts stamp and die set. Before cutting them I coloured the images using a combination of alcohol markers, inks and pencils. I also added some Nuvo Glaze to the bubbles and the water edges. After die cutting I played around with placement and added different thicknesses of foam tape where needed, but it required something more so I traced and fussy cut a shelf shape, coloured it and popped it up to give it more dimension. I found an image on the Internet that had bathrobes hanging and cut one out after I added some colour. This too was popped up with foam tape. The sentiment is from the same set and I used it above the shelf after fussy cutting around it.

Although I liked the finished card, I felt the background leaves were too strong in colour, because I obviously forgot to stamp off when doing the images. I needed to find a fix and I settled on using white pigment ink and a water brush to soften the colour. It took several layers but it worked and because the leafy image wasn’t too defined I didn’t have to be too careful doing it either. I have to say my artist friend was really helpful in trying this as she suggested trying to lift some of the ink. The problem with her suggestion was that the card was already assembled and I wasn’t prepared to pull it apart. So instead we tested it out on some scrap before actually doing it on the card.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and your time. I had a lot of fun creating this card and look forward to seeing what you come up with in your own designs. Have fun creating.

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

CAS stencil

My second card as a guest designer at Seize the Birthday and the challenge this time is to use a stencil and keep the card clean and simple.

My stencil was a hand made one gifted to me by a talented card crafter and is similar to the fleur de lis in pattern. I used stencil butter called Ocean Mist by TCW to do mine. As I had viewed a card on Pinterest that incorporated some drawn circles and a partial frame, I decided to try it on my card. I traced around the inside of two dies to get them as good as possible and used a T-ruler to do the partial frame. I’m not sure it was a good idea although it isn’t absolutely horrible. In retrospect I’m thinking using gray pen or pencil may have been a better choice.

The sentiment is from an incentive stamp set by GKD and I cut it into 3 to make it work better on my card. We look forward to seeing your amazing creations in the gallery and above all have fun!

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

lavenderhousecreations

just enough spookiness

Most of you know generally I am not into Halloween, but occasionally I’ll make one or two just for fun. This card is one of those and came about because of the challenge at Double D – Make Your Own Background Challenge. And while I was at it, I thought why not add it to the https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/ as well. Their mood board features a cat, but I confess only checking that after the card was complete.

In going through my stamps the other day, I rediscovered some Concord & 9th Turnabout stamps and this marbling is using one of those stamps. It has been so long since I used these stamps I had to consult old videos by J. McGuire to remember how to do it.

After deciding on my colours I proceeded to ink up the background and added some shimmer spray to it because I felt like it. When it was dry I added it as you see to the card front. My cat is also ancient and is from the Crazy Cats and Dogs by Tim Holtz, the witch hat is from the same sets. The little ghost and sentiment come from GKD and my additional background piece is from a photo that a friend had printed and didn’t like. She reprints and I get to use the poor ones if I think I can. Using a WeR cutter, which allows me to choose the blade I like, I trimmed it the size. The ghost and hat were fussy cut. I used pencils to colour the images and did the hat buckle with a silver sparkle pen. Googly eyes finished the cat and I added some highlights using a Posca pen. I’m not good at this but our artist friend is going to help me develop my skill once she has gotten my hubby and his upcoming exhibition sorted. They have been working really hard on this and it is an eye opener to learn just how much work goes into preparing for an exhibition on a bigger scale than just one or two pictures.

I think I like the result, but even if I’m uncertain, I do have a friend who will enjoy receiving it as she is nuts about cats. Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate it.