stamping

lavenderhousecreations

balance

prepared pieces ready to begin.

Well this almost turned into a disaster, but I coped and still had 3 seconds left on the clock when done. Why, you ask – its the ‘dreaded’ speed challenge at As You See It Challenge #349 – Rapid Water and of course when in a hurry, whatever can go wrong usually does. In this case my die didn’t cut properly and I had to repeat the process on another piece of CS. That will teach me to make sure my cutting plates are in good shape LOL. After I stamped the image I quickly coloured using Inktense pencils and a water pen and then fussy cut as best as possible. I also stamped the sentiment and fussy cut around that. Stamp set is an unbranded one and the quality is definitely not there so the sentiments don’t stamp really clear on the word edges. With the more expensive brand sets this is never an issue. Anyway once I had these pieces ready it was mainly an assembly of the parts. After a quick glance at the clock and a deep breath, I cut down the blue layer to fit over the top fold square card base and adhered it. Then I added the water layer and even used two of the fallouts to create a wider splash zone. In adding the yoga frog and the sentiment the glue point jammed so I didn’t get enough glue to stick them properly. Doesn’t show here and is an easy fix now I’m no longer in a hurry. The die used is from Memory Box and I’ve had it for a long time.

After I’ve improved it one of my yoga group will receive this sometime this year. I shall also give my glass mat a good clean in a minute. Actually my entire desk needs a good clean. I need a craft fairy to magically inventory my new supplies and put them away and then to clean my entire space.

Had a fun Friday evening and full day Saturday with the Spellbinder’s Weekend Retreat. The items in the kit are going to be fun to use. I could have crafted along with the designers, but chose not to as it was more relaxing to just view. Had I tried to craft along I think I would have gotten quite frustrated. As it was, I became exhausted and fell asleep in my chair. I only woke up when I almost fell out of the chair. At least it was done in my time zone. Some attendees were watching and crafting at ridiculous times of the day and night. Took me all of yesterday to stop being so tired. The entire event is available to watch at anytime so I can always watch again if I need to.

Thanks for spending time with me today. We have sunshine with a cold wind here but it is supposed to get quite warm this week. Wildfires are burning in other provinces and our hope is that they don’t start here. It is so sad for those affected.

lavenderhousecreations

Flipped over Christmas card

There is a sketch challenge at Sunday Stamps and this is my take on the challenge. It is the second one of two as I wasn’t 100% happy with my first try. I like this much better. I am adding the card at Peace on Earth as well.

I started with some silver metallic CS which I dry embossed with a SSS folder called Filigree snowflakes. To get the flip side I added a piece to the back and when properly attached scored the line for the fold. I wanted more depth, so I went over the piece with some ink and then heat set that with some WOW powder. It needed a bit more oomph, as my hubby would say, so I also spritzed some mica spray. I learned that mica sprayed embossed bits don’t stick well so it took some doing to get the fold to stick down. While waiting for it to dry I took an old GKD set and stamped the snow people using watercolour pencils and Stickles to colour them. After checking placement was what I wanted I glued them flat to the card front, after which I added the embossed panel. Using a die from GKD I cut two snowflakes in a blue CS, added some sparkle and attached them together before adding them to the folded corner. The sentiment is from a Divinity Designs set. A small blue gem completed the card.

Here is a photo of the first one, which is okay, but not quite what I envisioned.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time. Two more cards for my Christmas stash is nice to have. And I have a few other stamped images that I thought I might use for one of this style card so hopefully another couple will get done when I have time.

Happy Easter to all.

lavenderhousecreations

art deco step/easel card

Challenge #248, as chosen by me, here at https://cardz4galz.blogspot.com/ is all about Art Deco. I shall also be choosing the winners for this challenge.

Recently I purchased a new paper pad that has a lot of night sky designs as well as patterns that I’ve used here. It is a good quality pad, but still a little flimsy to use without a card base. That said the card design called for a card base that is bigger than any heavier stock I have so I used the PP on its own and reinforced it underneath in a few places with scraps. The easel part of the card wasn’t holding the steps up properly so I added a band underneath that holds them more securely.

The black art deco frames are a set by Altenew and don’t show up as much as I wanted them to because of the darker PP in the background. I jazzed up a few sections a little with a gold pen. The corners are done with stickers from my stash, I don’t use them that much these days but at least I remembered I had them. The swirly bits are from a Memory Box die and I cut 2 then cut them in half. The images are off the Internet and then jazzed up with sparkle pens. The smallest image on the front I fussy cut and just popped up. The middle one I die cut with a Hero Arts circle and the back panel I fussy cut around the lamps and the arch before popping up with foam tape.

The photo doesn’t do the card justice, as although it’s somewhat dark, it isn’t as dark as it appears here. My hubby likes the card, and I’m sure it will grow on me over time. Right now I’m not sure how I will use it but there is space on the back to write a message when the time comes.

Thanks for joining me today, and I hope to see some spectacular designs in our gallery. Have fun creating.

lavenderhousecreations

layered butterfly birthday

https://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/ challenge #303, is requesting layers and this is what I came up with. I started with a 5 and one half square card front and layered a half size smaller pattern piece, then half size again with the pink sparkle layer. Next I used a darker pink scrap that I ensured would fit in the rotation and layered another pattern piece on that before gluing to the rest. It seems that right now I am fixated on my butterfly bundle from StampinUp as this is the 4th or 5th card I’ve done using it. Using up a scrap piece of pink vellum I die cut the lacy part of the butterfly and then layered this onto a regular piece of vellum. Before I attached the layers I decided the pink vellum needed to be brighter so using a Wow embossing pen I went over it, then used some glitter embossing powder before heat setting. I also went around the edge of the plain vellum with the pen and heat set the edge in gold. When I placed it onto the PP it still didn’t have enough presence so I added a bottom layer in gold metallic CS, which I also used to create the sentiment and the body of the butterfly. The sentiment is from Hampton Arts and I heat set this in black before die cutting. Added 2 pink embellishments from Studio G to the label. Not counting the card front, this became a 9 layer card, but fortunately it is still thin enough to mail easily. The PP is very old and is from Recollections. Because I store my papers in vinyl sleeves they seem to stay clean and don’t fade so I can use them even when old.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and your time. Its a dragon boat paddling event for me soon, so this is it for today’s crafting. I’m glad I managed one card.

lavenderhousecreations

linked together decorative

Having recently purchased these Decorative masks from StampinUp, they’ve been languishing on my desk waiting for me to use them and I finally got around to playing with them yesterday. For some reason the colours at As You See It were stuck in my head so this first piece was the result of using the first 3 masks and colours. I hadn’t planned on a second entry but as it works it will be added and it will also be added to the April 2025 Stencil Fun Challenge at Crazy is our Fame – Stencils are our game. Quite by accident it meets the pattern twist, which is fun for me. As I don’t do a lot of stenciling I wasn’t too sure if I liked the result at first. I had some fall outs on my desk from a previous project and thought I could use them but they kind of disappeared initially. After a bit of thinking I pulled out an Altenew stamp and die set and used one of the leaf stamps, which I stamped in green, and then heat embossed clear. After adding some foam tape to the back I placed it on the stenciled piece but didn’t like it much. More thinking and I cut a panel of vellum and then added the leaf to that. The fallouts were added on top and I attached it all to the stenciled piece. I stamped the sentiment, heat embossed that, then added it to a black piece and attached as you see. As I didn’t have the colour Peach Pie I used Tea Dye ink and edged the card front with it before adding the other piece on top. Stamped the sentiment in the same colour ink and heat embossed clear. The vellum mutes the background just enough for the rest to work and I’m happy with the solution.

For a card that I didn’t plan this turned out much better than I expected. I still have several other stenciled pieces to make into cards when I feel like it. Thanks for joining me today, your time and comments are appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Easter bunnies

The colour challenge and Just Add Ink made me want to make a card, the Easter theme at Double D and the usual anything goes at CYHTP ensured I combined my idea so the card would fit into the three challenges. In general I don’t do many of the holiday themed cards except for Christmas, but I do want to send a few Easter cards this year so I’ve completed a few. Using the colours from Just add Ink I created an Easter egg and decorated it. I first cut the egg shape by hand and then using some scrap strips of CS I inked colour to each strip. When it was dry I cut the fringe using scissors that are actually designed for cutting herbs. They are more useful in my craft room. After cutting off the excess I set it aside. I pulled out an old Easter set from GKD, and stamped the rabbit on some scrap that has rough finish similar to linen and used some Prisma pencils to colour it. I did use an alcohol pen for his ears, nose and cheeks and a white glaze pen for his tail. Using a blender pencil I smoothed out the colour but deliberately left it a bit rough so it looks like fur. After finding a pink piece of vellum I dry embossed it with this tulip folder. I added the egg and took a Doodlebug sticker of a rabbit head and added it behind the egg before fully sticking it down. Some additional stickers were added as a decoration and the sentiment, from the same set, was stamped, embossed and fussy cut as I wanted it to be stacked not side by side. The other rabbit is popped up on foam tape. The gray note card makes the pink vellum look slightly darker than it actually is.

As so often happens, I’ve already thought of an easier way to add the fringed elements to get a better edge line, but too late for this particular card. All in all I’m happy with the card.

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

lavenderhousecreations

you hold the key

V is for Vintage is the current theme at the Alphabet Challenge blog. In general, vintage isn’t a style I use so this was a challenge for me to achieve. However, I had this gold layer on my desk as a leftover from an Altenew Art Deco die I used elsewhere. I liked the edges so decided to use it here. Then I took a piece of thick vellum and dry embossed it with a StampinUP folder called Starstruck. I went over the larger raised parts with a coppery glitter pen and this was also used on the the label and fussy cut stamping pieces. The stamp set is from Crafters Companion and was a freebie of vintage style stamps. I took the key and the feather pen, stamped them with Vintage photo ink and then fussy cut each one even getting into the scrolling on the key with a small craft knife. The sentiment was computer generated and I used a font that looks as if it was hand done with the feather pen. The embellishments are from my stash. The label is a die from Penny Black.

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

lavenderhousecreations

masculine best wishes

SOS540 – Crafty Remnants – this challenge is right down my alley and I’ve had this card, done just after the holidays, ready on my desk waiting for the right challenge to enter into. My stamping buddies know I try to use all my scraps whenever possible. Only 3 things are not remnants, the black card, the sentiment die cut, (Sizzix) and the rushes die cut, (can’t remember by whom and temporarily misplaced). Everything else was leftover from prior projects some as far back as mid 2024. The blue layer was attached to the black card front and the stenciled piece added on top. Before adding it, I went around the edges with a blue pen. Stenciling was already done as it was a scrap I saved. Stencil by TCW titled screen view. At first, I wasn’t sure how I would use this leftover piece and then had the idea to make what you see here. The Canada Goose was something I found online for another project last year so as I had kept the image I printed it on CS and then fussy cut, before adding foam and popping it up. The single embellishment is covering up a small smudged area and is from my stash. It is nice to have a few masculine style cards done for this year.

I still have one more card made from scraps waiting for the right challenge to post too. I guess I shall soon have other scraps to use up, but for now I’m done.

Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated.

lavenderhousecreations

Red and Kraft

Seize the Birthday #298-Kraft and Red is the latest challenge and this is my 2nd attempt at a card. For the first time in long while, I actually ditched the 1st try. Although this is certainly better, I’m not sure I like it that much.

The MFT die used is a new one that I got on sale at our local craft store last week. The central portion is a background die, called floating hearts from SSS, that I cut and glued inside. Before I glued anything I used Barn Door ink and sponged over the birthday section and then the background piece. Using clear embossing I heat set it all. The inside section was created with a bit of fiddling and finessing. When satisfied I added the entire piece to the card front. The red border at the bottom is from ribbon strip dies and these pieces were gifted it to me by a stamping buddy. She sent a lot (a long time ago already) and I’m slowly using them up. Gems are from my stash. My reds match better under normal light although they are slightly different in tone.

I am not a person who likes browns and beiges so although I admire cards done on Kraft CS, I don’t use it very often myself. That is probably why I’m not sure I like this card.

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

lavenderhousecreations

chess anyone?

As You See It, my favourite challenge, is asking for our crafting resolution for this year. I think mine is often the same thing as I always want to use as much of my current supplies as possible. This card also fits the challenge at Krafty Chicks Challenge #752 {Masculine} so I’m adding it there as well. Last year I was part of a Kit club as a store was offering kits over 3 months at a very reasonable price. My kits arrived, all Crafters Companion, were inspected, set aside and then nothing. So for sure, my resolution is to actually use them and soon. And I will also concentrate on using stamp sets and dies that don’t get used as often as they should.

One of my stamping friends gifted me with some printed images from her collection of stamps when I needed something specific and didn’t want to buy a set for a likely one time use. I picked a few images from her blog and then saw a card she had done using some game images, so I also requested the StampinUP chess pieces. This card features that image and I fussy cut it for using here. Using a small hexagon die, I think from Crafters Companion, I cut several in both white and black. These were then added to the beige background piece which is PP from an older paper pad. The sentiment is two different stamps from a SSS set and the raffia twine is from my stash. I added everything to the black card front and declared it finished.

I really appreciate you stopping in for a look. Wherever you are I hope that it isn’t too cold.