Victoria Lavender

So Cool Apple Cupcakes! Craft Number One

2012-02-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

Aren't these great! Check out "Make and Takes" "Apple Shaped Cupcakes". Easy for kids. I bet we could make pumpkin cupcakes this way too!

I haven't been making crafts lately (we're house searching and home repairing these days). But I still like to look, so I'm going to start dropping cool craft ideas here at Victoria Lavender and at Kids 4 Crafts. I'll leave a quick note and leave you directions to the website where I found the new idea at.

I hope you enjoy the crafts I highlight. And for me it will be fun collecting ideas I can't wait to do after we settle into a new home.

Peace, Victoria

I'm taking a break....

2012-01-11T07:14:00.001-07:00

Hello friends! My husband and I are starting the process of buying another home. I am preparing our current home to become a rental, and we've started looking at banks and new homes. We have an agent lined up.

I'll be busy and not doing much crafting. It may be a bit. I look forward to making new cards and crafts from a new studio room soon! If you have time give us a quickie prayer of Luck.

Peace, love and best wishes to all for a Happy New Year!

Walken in a Winter Wonderland, Shakey Head Card

2011-12-12T07:47:00.002-07:00

Happy Holidays! Mine are crazy! It's lots of fun, but the fun and preparing for fun just never ends. I can barley keep up with The Crafty Pad. Have you seen our latest challenge? It's "Send Someone A Smile". (please no Christmas or Birthday)

This is one of my joke cards. I like to do a silly one here and there. On an earlier post I did one of these with the phrase "Walken On Sunshine".

This is 80% computer done. The hardest part was the research to locate my best background, head shot and jacket choices. I just cut out the full card and score. Cut out the jacket and Christopher's head. Create a spring and attach to the head and use double sided tape under his elbows to wrists. Tape the spring low under where the jacket will go. Squeeze the image lightly to secure to the card creating a slight raised bump over the spring. Adjust spring behind the jacket neck. Bingo, goofy card to make someone smile.

I gave one of these to friend last year. She placed it on the hall table and when anyone passed by the breeze caused the head to shake. Great goofy fun! Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza and Happy Mother Spirit to all!

This silly card is entered is these card challenges...if I could find one that fits:)
Lexi's Creations, Untraditional Christmas, no Red or Green (1/7)

Sing a Song of Christmas, #150 with The Crafty Pad. Free Santa Label Digi too!

2011-12-04T07:29:00.013-07:00

Howdy! and Happy Holidays! It's a new challenge with The Crafty Pad. Challenge #150 is "use at least three punches". We offer a prize too! This week we are sponsored by Crafty Emma's and you could win a Crafty Emma's Store £10 voucher to spend in shopping. While you are here visit The Lavender Kitties for a FREE Santa Label digi. Click on the Lavender Kitties Free Stuff button.

My card is counting a cricut as one of the punches and Marvy helped me with the other two. I followed "Case Study" for the layout and I've taken my colors from "Pals Paper Arts". I really missed playing challenges with these folks.

I've used Debbie's digi stamp "Rudolph and Robin" this week (available at The Crafty Pad Design Store) and played with it on a graphics program (Corel). I broke up the image to use the characters independent of each other. I found a nice watermark image of a homey snow scene and placed the digi images "in the snow". With this I made a card liner and punched two holes (through the spine) and ran ribbon through to secure. I also took little Robin and made a little glittered covered medallion stamp out of him for the front of my card. The lace is machine sewn and the bow is handmade. So much fun making this card. I barely got it submitted in time for The Crafty Pad DT group. But I so wanted to play Case Study and Pals Paper Arts.

I hope you are inspired to play our challenge at The Crafty Pad. Drop by and see our fun at play. Merry Christmas!

This card is entered with these great challenges:
Case Study, casing Amy Sheffer, Dec Muse
Pals Paper Arts, color challenge, Cherry, Avocado, Vanilla
Colour Create Challenge, Red, Green, White 2wk (12/15)
Raise the Bar, It's beginning to look alot like Christmas (Jan/1)
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle, Holiday Card (12/10)
Clearly i Stamp, Christmas (12/10)
Through the Craftroom Door, Happy Holidays, (12/17)
Crop Stop, Punch your Holidays Away (12/10)
Ribbon Reel Challenge, Anything Goes, (12/11)
Cupcake Inspirations, Cupcake icing in Red, Green and White (12/11)

Ho Ho Ho Mailbox, Recipe Challenge with The Crafty Pad

2011-11-26T21:23:00.010-07:00

Making a card for The Crafty Pad today was almost impossible. The weddings continue around here. One more tomorrow in the park. But I digress...for our challenge this week with The Crafty Pad I went for a craft that also allows me to get a start on decorating my home. I've used the "Ho Ho Ho Santa" digital stamp, and you could too. It's available at The Crafty Pad Design Store- along with many, many other cute digital stamps. This week our challenge is a Theme Recipe of 3's - Use 3 papers, 3 brads or buttons, 3 ribbons.

I can put paper on MY mailbox...because I live in Tucson. Meaning, we don't get much rain. On the sunny side of the box (also where traffic passes by) I covered with 12 x 12 Christmas scrapbook paper. (covers my numbers too:) My extra large digi stamp is brightly colored, I did so in my Corel graphics program. I spray glittered everything except the 3 recipe pieces. For the challenge I made 3 little medallions with 3 buttons, 3 ribbons and 3 different papers. I then wrapped dark red organza ribbon around the whole box and tied a 3 layers bow. It's cute.

This is an easy project to do around the house. Any image can be used. To waterproof (a bit) you could spray the project in clear acrylic first. I wish you all a wonderful start to the new holiday season. Merry Christmas!

2 Sisters, Holiday (12/4)
Hiding in My Craft Room, Mix it Up-Holiday (12/3)
Simply Create Too, All About christmas (2wk 12/9)
Little Red Wagon, Christmas Theme (11/30)
Penny's Paper, Tie One On (2wk 12/7)
Stampin' With The Dragon, Anything Goes/Christmas (12/2)

(Well....it's been up a week. It rained. And it's still ok!!!! I sprayed oil based glitter over the project and it's REALLY made the wrapping last.)

Snowflake Card, last visit as GT with "4 Crafty Chicks"

2011-11-23T19:20:00.004-07:00

I've been a busy chick. We've had two quickie marriages in the family over the last week. I've been keeping assorted children here and there and I'm pooped. I did manage to create my last card for the "4 Crafty Chicks". The theme for this challenge round is "Snowflakes".

I computer drew the pointed stars and printed them and the labels. For all the points on the snowflake- I punched tiny, tiny flowers and also regular hole punch pieces. I've glued them to the points and covered everything in sugar glitter. (clear fine) My labels are glittered too. I use spray glue in a box. My box is great, I spray all kinds of stuff in it. Seam ribbon is self dyed and wrinkled. I used double tape to make the strip ribbon across the bottom. Pearls all around and a pin too. Last but not least.....gobs of pop tape!

This could be an easy card to reproduce for the many many more I still need to make. I hope you are doing well with your Christmas card creations this year too!
Thanks for the visit I hope you play the challenge at "4 Crafty Chicks".

This card is also entered with:
Charisma Cardz, Snowflakes (12/1)
Moving Along With The Times, Ribbons and Bows (12/1)
Pals Paper Arts, Pearls (12/1)
The House That Stamps Built, Christmas card w/ Snowflakes (12/5)
Inky Impressions, Make an Embellishment (I made the Snowflake) (12/5)
Scrapbook Sisters, Christmas Time (12/5)
Ladybug Crafts Ink, Winter Blues, (12/4)
Ribbon Carousal, Holiday Hoopla, something from a spool, I used old seam ribbon (12/4)

UPDATE: This card won with Ladybug Crafts! Whee! I nearly missed the win because I almost never check for wins under the name "Victoria" when I visit Feline Playful. I'll be changing my ways hereon.

Christmas Card Paper Piecing, Guest Designing for 4 Crafty Chicks

2011-11-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Good day to all! (This post should have come out this morning but life got in the way. I lost internet over night. All is back now, I hope.) Week 3 as guest designer for 4 Crafty Chicks and a challenge for Paper Piecing. I started with a base sketch I used a few months ago and ended up with this cutey.

Everything used on this card is old. The feathers are ancient. My medallian is pretty straight forward, I have this great retro Santa digital image and he was printed in dark red and covered in fine clear glitter. My ribbon is seam binding that I dyed last year. And so everything old is new again. Simple can be sooooo good.

The Lavender Kitties Free Stuff Post

2011-11-10T17:09:00.007-07:00

This post will slowly grow as more freebies become available. Green highlights take you to the blog post with the free stuff information.

Be a sweetie and become one of this sites FOLLOWERS if you've enjoyed a freebie. Peace and Love, Victoria Lavender

Paper Baby Shoe Pattern, jpeg by email request

Santa Label, Free Digi, simple copy & paste

Paper Baby Shoe, 1st Christmas with 4 Crafty Chicks and for Followers a FREE PATTERN

2011-11-10T07:03:00.009-07:00

Greetings! Today I have a paper baby shoe as a 1st Christmas ornament. As a guest designer for 4 Crafty Chicks this month, I was told our challenge will be "Baby". So cool! There ought to be a lot of beautiful card entered! The DT cards are outstanding! I hope you've checked them out and the ladies blogs.

I recently made some felt shoes for my new grandson and I thought the pattern would work for paper shoes too. I've been waiting for the moment to try this out. I've also included the gift box for the ornament. Take any right sized box and spray it white a few times. Go for it being white, but don't worry about really great coverage or drips. Good old glitter will cover and conceal that:) I sized the ribbon first. You need to move fast when you use spray glue! Spray, adhere ribbon then apply glitter. I use the low and wide mouth Tupperware container with a spoon and glitter method. All my heavy use glitters are kept in wide mouth containers. So convenient!

Shoe: pattern, scrapbook paper, cut to 8.5 x 11, printer, scissors, ribbon, tacky glue, stickles, flower

Box: white spray paint, glue spray, round clear glitter, ribbon, flower, decorative glittered scrolls

If you would like a jpeg of this pattern......become a new follower of my blog and email me with your freebie request. If you are already a follower (and thank you very much for all your support) simply email me and I'll send a copy 'round to you too!

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge (Sponsored by The Crafty Pad:) "Cute" (11/17)
Craft Ribbons, Anything But A Card (11/23)
Crafty Sentiments, New Baby (11/13)

White on White, Glitter and Feathers

2011-11-08T11:19:00.066-07:00

Greetings, It's Saturday, time for a new challenge with The Crafty Pad. Debbie made a lovely snowman stamp that we are using in our DT cards. The Crafty Pad Design Store is a great place to find digital stamps. Our challenge is #148 White on White. This should turn out to be a great challenge! I hope you all play!

This week I was able to work out a card from all old stuff. Heck the feathers themselves are over 6 years old. Everything else is more like 6 months old:)

To make a fancy, fancy label, I die cut two spellbinders "fancy" labels and one cut of labels 18. Scissor cut the two fancys in half. Tape these four pieces to the back of the punched label. Da Da! Pretty easy huh?

My card background is pop taped to the base card, as layer one. I randomly strip scored the background cardstock. After spraying glue and glittering with fine clear, it gives a little texture thanks to the scoring. My stamped image is clear glittered too. It does make for a difficult photograph of my card, but in person the glittered imaging is charming, like ice and snow. I made the pin from jewelry pieces picked up at Joanns. Just glue to the pin head. Light gray seam ribbon for my bow. A friend noted how nice the bow looks.......sweet kid....there's tape on the back of it to keep the loops where I want them. I wish I could make a great bow. Pearls and feathers make up the rest. The feathers of course mimic snow in a way, but it's also about as close as I'll get to real snow here in Tucson Az.

Well, thanks for stopping by...I always love the visit. Thanks so much! Take care.

This card has also been entered into these fine challenges:
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge, Texture (11/25)
Fab N Funky Challenges, Mostly White (11/16)

Dancing Sammy the Flower Pick, The Crafty Pad

2011-11-05T21:27:00.002-07:00

Greetings, I'm writing tonight from a beautiful southwestern hotel, The Lodge on the Desert, my husband and I are celebrating our anniversary. Last night was a little scary, a wind storm blew through Tucson. These are incredible! Luckily rain came with the night wind. Earlier in the day dust storms ran havoc on the interstate highways of Arizona. We did lose our phone line and I was in want of my computer all day!

So here I am at the hotel, catching up on my posts...like this one for The Crafty Pad Challenge, Paper Piecing. Our team is working with a digital stamp from The Crafty Pad Design Store called Sammy the Scarecrow. There's lot of cute stamps for winter time in there now...go take a peek:) There's prize too! A pack of 5 Grey Promarkers from Crafty Ribbons and Letraset.

My paper piecing this week is a craft that can be suitable for any season. I happen to be using Sammy, but any figure image will work. Locate some "picks", I used BBQ skewers. Print out two alike images of your size choice. Cut out the body of one and the limbs of the other image. Brads work great to connect the moveable limbs. And.......Boom! Quick craft for any occasion!

I hope you enjoyed this quickie. I once made these picks for a party my husband's MG car club was throwing. It was a theme party, Victorian England Christmas. I printed various famous Victorians and two were stuck into the twenty or so table poinsettia's on all of the tables. It was a lovely party too. We went as the Queen and Prince, I am Victoria!

Back to earth, thanks so much for this visit. Try the craft out. This is a good one to do with children too. Peace to All.

This card is also entered in these fine challenge blogs:
Cooking It Up With Katie, Anything But a Card (11/10)

New Guest Designer for "4 Crafty Chicks", Die Cuts Challenge

2011-11-03T04:47:00.005-07:00

Wow, I'm busy now. I just took on a month with 4 Crafty Chicks. And indeed it's a CRAFTY place! Please play and visit. Our challenge this week is highlighting the use of our die cuts. The DT examples are gorgeous! Check them out here.

My card is layered like a wedding cake. It must be an inch thick! I dug out discontinued embossed floral papers. (Been sitting on them for years) Die cuts used were Spellbinders, Labels 18, Labels 4, and Fancy Tags. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the doily layer. Rough, true... have you tried it yet? Cut lots of squares 7", 6.5", 6" etc, for practice with your border punches. Lots of messed up squares when you start out, but keep it up, you'll find the right size and border for doily making. The die cuts layer up beautifully! Yes, I've used lots of pop tape. I remembered a lovely phrase that I printed out before die cutting. Every thing I computer design as a stamp or sentiment I save, and call it a "Vicki Stamp". My personal digital stamp collection is getting huge! Oh goodness I can't forget the cute little butterfly! It's a left over too. She is cut out from scrap paper and covered/heated with UTEE. So she's all shiny and her wings are frozen in a 3-D pose. Too cute. I have a UTEE projects here & here from an earlier post.

I had a ball creating this card! It came together so nicely. Please visit my other creations if you like my style. Always looking for a few more followers. I hope you are going to play at 4 Crafty Chicks this week too!

Thanks again for visiting, Happy Holidays!

This card is also entered in these wonderful challenge blogs:
CCEE Stampers, (keyword CCEE1144) Use Four Embellishments (11/10)
Pixie Dust Studio Challenge, Paper Piecing (11/10)
Shelly's Images, Monochromatic Scheme (11/10)
Flutter By Wednesday's, Thankful/Gratitude & butterfly, fairy or angel
Heart song Inspirations, Embossing and/or 3 or more layers
The Crafty Pad (My Home Girls:) Friendship (11/6)

Friendship Card for The Crafty Pad Challenge #145

2011-10-29T21:31:00.003-07:00

Happy Halloween folks! We started a new challenge today at The Crafty Pad. Challenge #145, "Friendship". I'm using a cute little digi stamp, "Roshell Friends with Basket", available at The Crafty Pad Design Store. Our sponsor this week is Michelle's Scrap with a rubber stamp prize, Best Hugs by Alisa Ramirez. The Crafty Pad DT's have assembled a lovely group of cards expressing "Friendship", come play along with us!

My card is actually a hanging card. It has both a hanging ribbon and a magnetic strip on the back.

My lovely card was a deceivingly easy make for me. I selected a favorite digi background and printed the back layer of the card. This included the white bordering that was later punched and the sentiment. I sized and printed two 11 inch x 2.5 strips for the medallion. My duck stamp is altered to white with a blue line, I do this in my Corel 14 graphic program. I also have handy my Martha Stewart border punch, it's wonderful. The last item was a printed 2.5 circle with the now white stamp on the same digi paper.

There is zig zag sewing around the faux border, and I punched the medallion strip too before the folding. I've used a single blue silk rose and punched out little leaves. Punched holes for the ribbon to be knotted through and a business card sized magnet on the back. Whee, beautiful and fast for me. I need that sometimes.

Thanks for visiting me and my latest creation, please feel free to look all around The Crafty Pad blog for great ideas to enhance your creative fun!

This card is also entered into these fine challenge:
Penny Black Saturday Challenge, Sketch Time (11/5)
Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog, #52 Clean and Simple (11/2)

Halloween Candy Bag

2011-10-22T20:53:00.009-07:00

Hello, it's time for a new challenge with The Crafty Pad. This week we are using a Halloween stamp from The Crafty Pad Design Store. A great place to get digi's! And our challenge is one for the season..."Halloween". I hope you join us. I've taken another craft avenue other than cards again this week. A Halloween Candy Bag for my grand daughter, Emma. She's going treat or treating as the vampire in "Adventure Time". I have no idea idea what that is:)

This bag is digital and handmade. The purple frame is borrowed from the internet. The stamp in the center is from The Crafty Pad and it is computer colored with pop tape layering. The words and skulls and eyeballs come from a K & Company Halloween pack. I cut a black and green circle then corner punched the black for a creepy lace curve and did a pinking cut for the edge of the green circle. I cut both in half to create the top and bottom accents on the purple frame. My ribbon at the top of the bag looks like a spider. Cool. There is also a little bow and spider at the bottom. In this bright sunlight it's hard to see just how much stickle glitter has been used. Orange, yellow, black, diamond and red. I love glitter.

So fun to make. Take any bag and dress it up for a Halloween goodies bag. This is a great project to make for your little kids too. Take a second to visit Kids4Crafts.com. It's my other blog, it's been slow lately but it's starting to pick up. There's fun Holiday crafts for you and the kids over there. Enjoy.

Thanks for the visit, please come by anytime.

This craft is also entered into these fun challenges:
Allsorts, #126 Halloween (10/29)
Crafty Boots Challenges, Autumn or Halloween (10/30)
Papertake Weekly Challenge, Spooky Hues (10/25)
Crop Stop Challenge, Halloween (10/27)
Delightful Challenges, Halloween (10/26)

UPDATE: Goofy me! I just realized this treat bag won at Crop Stop! Cool, but dumb on my side. I use "Victoria Lavender" as one word and as my online moniker. On all my past wins I would check Feline Playful through their search box under my moniker, but I just realized some folks repeat my name only as "Victoria". So I just found that I've won a couple challenges. It's terribly rude to win and never contact. I'm so sorry to anyone I've been impolite to.

The Crafty Pad #143 Monochromatic Challenge, My Pencil Holder and Reindeer Pencil Topper

2011-10-16T05:24:00.008-07:00

Monochromatic Challenge with The Crafty Pad. Our stamp we are using for challenge examples is "Albert Snoozing" and he's available at The Crafty Pad Design Store. I just returned from a nice long trip to Maryland, and beside putting my house back together (1 son, 1 dog and 5 cats can trash a house when Mom is away) I needed to come up with my DT project quick!

I decided to make something that could also be used as a last minute gift item. My Grandmother used to keep a shelf in the closet for odd gifts she had made or purchased throughout the year. She was always ready with a present for ANY occasion:) While you're here please take a quick peek at my Reindeer Pencil Topper too! (Seen in the pencil box and a post at Victoria Lavender and Kids4Crafts) I wish I still had my Grandmom, this is the type of project she might have taught me once upon a time. She and my mom were great at sharing crafts with us as children. My sister, Kemi, and I shared this project with lots of kids already when we used to run "Kids 4 Crafts" demo sessions in Tucson and our crafting blogsite.

My little pencil holder box started out life as a Jack O' Lantern Box from Micheal's. I resurfaced the pumpkin face with "Albert". I made three layers out of him. He has a base scene, cutout of him and third layer cut outs of his hat and tacklebox. All nicely pop taped. Oh I wished I could have found my Cinnamon sticks, it would have smelled so good! But I've used twigs from the yard. Also used were natural wood buttons and hemp cord. Simple, manly and monochrome.

As always....THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS VISIT! Please take a second to check out the Reindeer and/or wander around Kids4Crafts. I'm looking for GT's for weekly posts on great family crafting. If you are playing the challenge at The Crafty Pad....Thanks so much - is'nt it fun! If you aren't...whats keeping you? Join the fun. Peace.

This card is also entered in these wonderful challenge blogs:
Wags'n Whiskers Stamps, Fall Colors (10/27)
Joyful Stamper, Inspire Me Fridays, "Always Anything Goes" (10/26)
Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog, "Masculine" (10/21)
Southern Girls Challenge, "Slugs, snails and puppydog tails" (10/17)

Reindeer Pencil Toppers, reposted from Kids4Crafts.com

2011-10-15T12:09:00.001-07:00

Hi, this is a November 15th 2008 repost from my other blog, Kids4Crafts.com.

These little reindeer are darling, even if I do say myself. Last month I made a few pencil toppers and the spiral ones gave me the idea to create these odd fellows. Really fun at school and make nice gifts from kid to kid. I borrowed my niece Holly for these step by step photos. Holly is 10 and did a wonderful job as my assistant. These are the now famous “Reindeer Pencil Toppers” that we will be doing in our demonstration on Dec. 13th at Bookman's on Speedway in Tucson. Children of all ages are welcome at the show and please try these at home and send us a note and photo.(UPDATE: this event was really quite a blast! We did 3 demo's and had lot's and lot's of kids:). I called these "now famous" because these Reindeer Pencils Toppers get SO MANY VISIT/HITS each fall and winter it's nearly monstrous!

Items Used:
2 Pipe Cleaners
1 New Pencil
Spare Pencil
5 Shiny Pony Beads
1 Red Pony Bead
2 Googly Eyes

Tacky Glue or Heavy Duty Glue Dots or Hot Glue
(depending on child’s age group)

Directions for Righties: Pick up 2 pipe cleaners. Even up their ends (see photo above) and hold in your right hand. Using your left thumb press pipe cleaners against a pencil about 2 inches below the eraser at the ends and start wrapping tightly about 3 times around the top of the pencil with your right hand. Try to keep the pipe cleaners flat as you wrap upward toward the eraser, this will form your reindeer face area (see photos below).

Your thumb is very important to spiraling the pipe cleaners around pencils so hold it firmly while you wrap. Twist the 2 pipe cleaners together where you stop just behind the eraser, and separate them a little (like giant rabbit ears).

Take the spare pencil and repeat the spiral wrapping on each pipe cleaner antler. Holly took a short cut here by taking the spare pencil and placing it midway atop the reindeer pencil on the eraser end and wrapped both sides of the spare pencil. It looked like a big letter “T” her way. And I've found it to work great for me too. Gently slide the spare pencil out of the wrap you just created. Now your have 2 antlers and a plain face.

Through trial and error we have found that you should glue the face on last and slide the 5 colored beads down the antlers now, 3 on one side and 2 on the other. Glue on googly eyes and little red bead nose (I glued the nose vertically and the hole is seen from the side). On a few pencils at my house I tied a little bell on a thin red ribbon around the bottom of the reindeer’s neck, though this might not be a good idea for pencils to be used in school.

You have a cute reindeer pencil! Make some for your school chums and teachers as gifts.

This is an original Victoria Swanson/Lavender Design, and was published in 2008. It's my most famous creation (if any of us can have that kinda thing) and I'd love you to have fun making these in your home or re-selling for charity (like we've done at my church) it's quite cool to repost my Reindeer, just please remember to give credit and back link to either kids4crafts.com or victorialavender.net.

Thanks so much for this visit. There's fun things to make for the Holidays at kids4crafts. By the way...I need help with kids4crafts. New posts of great ideas are welcome for review. If they fit the criteria for the website, you could be a guest designer. Cool huh?

Peace, love and chicken (Homer Simpson)

The Crafty Pad #142 Vintage

2011-10-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! New challenge this week with The crafty Pad. This week the DT's are working with these lovely Sewing Elements digital stamps! As always you can locate these and other great stamps at the Crafty Pad Design Store.

The Crafty Pad Challenge # 142, "Vintage"

I had so much fun again in the making of this one. There are three dress forms and cute sentiment tickets in this collection. I've used the stamps as a background image and as an embellishment with pop tape for depth. Inside I've added an extra page inside for writing space and the dress forms have traveled inside too. The ladies are a "Vicki Stamp". I create stamps for myself and I pulled the ladies from a past vintage card I've done earlier. (Vintage Stove Cards) My color range for this card has been carefully selected to give the vintage feel too. Old fashioned gingham, some old lace and buttons (each with a rough tie) and real seam binding is used for the ribbon. Sewing pins and zig zag stitching round it all out.

I am really proud of this one. I sure hope you've enjoyed a peek at it too. I wish you all a great week and please join the fun with us at The Crafty Pad's challenge, Vintage.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Victoria Lavender

This card is also entered in these great challenge blogs:

The Crafty Pad Challenge, "One for the Boys" #141

2011-10-01T04:41:00.013-07:00

Hi again, I'm still on vacation in Havre de Grace, Maryland enjoying the Susquehanna River and head of The Chesapeake Bay. This week for our challenge with The Crafty Pad we are having fun doing cards with the boys in mind. We are using some great element stamps by Debbie and they are available at The Crafty Pad Designs (our store). Digital stamps are so versatile. You can print them and then color, print out pre-colored, print just the outline in any color, size to your need, flip the image if you want or even print on pre-printed papers. Boy Howdy, what fun!

I really enjoyed these stamps. I used the little gears to create my bottom paper and I ran it through a crimper for effect. After locating a cute chain I created a paper pocket watch. I've used a couple colors of stickles to help give the sparkle of glass. Even the chain has stickles. A puffed length of ribbon as a bow beneath the watch, and ribbon and punched paper lace to wrap it up like a package. My sentiment is a "Vicki Stamp". That's what I call anything I've created digitally and saved for later use. Spellbinder punches create a good looking label.

I am starting to create my style a bit more. I like sharp detail that catches the eye. Looking completed but still less complicated than Shabby. Clean, well nearly. I haven't placed anything on this card that didn't need to be there. No extra "puff" because a bit of space is showing. Yet, I still don't have a "label" for my type of cards. Got any style name ideas?

I hope you've enjoyed my card and are looking forward to joining the challenges with us at The Crafty Pad each week.

Thanks for the visit! Have a great week. Peace.

My card is also entered in these wonderful challenge blogs:
Celebrate the Occasion, Challenge #32
Deep Ocean Challenge, #9 Happy Birthday (closes Oct 9th)
Die Cuttin Diva's, Challenge #34 Shabby Chic or Vintage
Paper and Such Design Blog, Challenge Time "Recipe" pick 3 (paper lace, ribbon, digital paper-my favorite one) (close Oct 8th)
Inky Impressions Challenges, #26 Punches or Dies
Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge, #173 Sentiment as a Focal Point
Stamping Royalty, KISS (Keep it Simple Sweetie)
Shelly's Images Blog, "Recipe", (Silver, FREE, Digi) (close Oct 6th)

The Crafty Pad Challenge, #140 Stitching (real or faux)

2011-09-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hi, I hope everyone in having a great week! I just left today for a two week trip back home to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Mouth of the Susquehanna River and Head of the Chesapeake Bay. Our latest grandchild came yesterday. Four for that set and two of them are twins. That's a busy family. Before all this commotion took place I worked out my cards for the challenges in advance. Good thing, the last two days have been very hectic with these emergency kid needs:)

This week The Crafty Pad Challenge is set around Stitching, real or faux. Our artist, Debbie gave us some of her newest digital stamps. Sewing Machine and Elements. Wow, I can really get excited here with these as they allow my creativity to fly. Stay tuned we'll see another sewing element in a future challenge soon. Our sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments and you could win 3 digi images of choice!

This is one of the very few cards my husband has ever noticed. He said "I like this", which is his seal of approval.

DCWV Papers
Digital layer: orange, Debbie's Sentiment, little Elements, Diamond Stickles, Zig Zag Stitching, Flowers from Joanns, Snug Hug, self dyed leaves, googled image
Inside: Peach Elements stamps, hand cut and pop taped.

Check out this set of stamps at The Crafty Pad Designs! Soooooo versatile!

Thanks for the visit I hope you are also enjoying the The Crafty Pad. Smiles.

Vintage Style Halloween Door Hanger/Giant Tag

2011-09-13T10:44:00.009-07:00

Hi, I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of Fall! I really wanted to be in the Pals Paper Arts challenge this week. I haven't played with them for a few weeks and Halloween is my favorite!

This one is the close-up for Mr Linky

I was having fun photographing outdoors today.

This card came together quickly (for a change). My graphic was printed last year, I made the "vintage" garland (beneath the ribbon) last year too! I even had leftover spiders from past decorations. I wanted to make something for myself this time. So I'll be using it on my front door. My spider ribbon/bow was fun to make. I have a paper spider, sentiment and background papers from Recollections. The ribbon is from the crazy fabric store-S.A.S. and my punches were Martha Stewart and Fiskers and Marvy. My messy black ink is a petal from Colorbox. Did you check out my insane stitches? They're fake but still kinda scary. I wish you all cool nights and crispy leaves!

My card is also entered in these fabulous challenges:
CES Challenge Blog, Make it Magical or Spooky
The Pink Elephant, vintage
Try it on Tuesday, Dig out the old
Party Time Tuesdays, Ribbon and Fibers Oh My!

The Crafty Pad, I've just become a Design Team Member.

2011-09-10T19:17:00.007-07:00

Hello, I'm all excited! I just took a post as a 3 month/weekly designer with the team at The Crafty Pad. This is my first time in a DT spot. Now to conquer my weakness....stamps! Our blog is open to all participants but they do love seeing their stamps. Using their stamps will get you placed into a separate drawing to win digi's. Each week we have a Winner and Top 3 for badges. The Winner receives a 10pound voucher with the sponsor of that week. Yep, The Crafty Pad is located in the UK. I must be nearly 5000 miles away. I'll be loading my posts the night before....so you smarty pants know how to use that info right?

Stamps at the Crafty Pad are designed by Debbie and sold under "The Crafty Pad Designs". Check them out if you visit the challenge (just takes a moment).

This week our challenge is: #138 Goodbye Summer, using Autumn colors. My stamp is "Jeremy Popping Round". Out sponsor for this challenge is "Digital Downloads". They have all kinds of goodies for download purchase to enhance your card and scrapbook crafting.

To create my card I started by taking the digi apart on Corel 14. A fab graphics program I started using when I was still working as a graphic designer. After creating components from the original stamp, I added some digi backgrounds and printed out everything on cardstock. They were then cut out and pieced together. The face paper is zigzag sewn, grass layer is taped flat and the image is set on pop up tape. My new thing is shredding ribbon tags and they are set with buttons. A couple apple rhinestones to accent Fall and I have a cute autumn birthday card. I hope you all enjoy it. I wish you peace and happiness, CYA next week with the next Crafty Pad Challenge.

Card Body, DCWV rust/salmon
Digi papers (various from my VAST files)
Digi stamp by Debbie, The Crafty Pad Designs (Jeremy Popping Round)
Stickles, Diamond, Yellow, Orange
Colorbox Petals, autumn colors & black
Rhinestones
SAS sheer ribbon, gold
Buttons, Oriental Traders, avocado

This card is also entered in these fabulous challenges:
Clearly i Stamp, Patterned Papers
The Poodle Parlour, Animal Antics
Craft Us Crazy, Autumn Colors and Favorite Embellishments
Crafty Purple Frog Challenge, Birthdays
Crafting for all Seasons, Birthdays
Digistamps4joy, The Colors of Fall
Totally Paper Crafts, Cute with Buttons
Bearly Mine Challenges, Use 2 or more buttons

UPDATE: This card was a Poodle Pick at Poodle Parlour. Whee!

Red Halloween

2011-09-01T14:23:00.013-07:00

Howdy! I'm back to making cards again. I kinda took a break during the creation of Looking4Challenges. I saw some colors I haven't tried before in the challenge for The Play Date Cafe, Splash of Red with black and white neutrals. And at The Case Study we have been introduced to Guest Designer, Julie Lacey, and her clean style. Oh, clean is so hard for me!

My Red Halloween Card

I've done a very old technique with the Scarecrow, Wet Embossing. I first did one of these 8 years ago while scrapbooking. I've taken a brass stencil and Artist Medium (clear thick gel) and created a dimensional image. You squeegee the paste over the design openings of a taped down stencil. Carefully peel away and toss over the glitter. Shake well and enjoy the detail!

Materials:
Recollections Black Cardstock
Gel Medium (Mod Podge Paste works too)
Brass Stencil
Stampendous, Embossing Glitter "Red Dragon" (used as reg. Glitter/no gun)
Fox River, Ivory Cardstock
Sewing Machine
Clear Tape
SAS Red Ribbon
Black ink for distressing
Marvy Punches
A Vicki Stamp
White Chalk
Cuttlebug, Ribbons Emboss Card

I really appreciate your visit and comments, and if you have a moment check out Looking4Challenges....see if it works for you. Happy Day!

This card is also entered in these fine
challenges that you can locate at "Looking 4 Challenges".

Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog, Embossing
Delightful Challenges, Halloween
Aly's Sunday Challenge: Halloween
The Crafty Pad, Distressing and Tearing

Double Bubblegum Pink

2011-09-01T06:52:00.005-07:00

I love pink! So I used two kinds of pink! Greetings, I'm trying a few new challenges from my new challenge listing blog Looking4challenges.

Cooking It Up With Katie, recipe: Pink, Bling & a Sticker.
Flutter By Wednesday's, challenge: "Celebrate!" with a butterfly, fairy or angel.
Crafty Creations Challenges: 3 different dies
4 Crafty Chicks: "Celebration" their 1 year Anniversary and blog jump.

Today I've used:
Recollections,stick on pearls
DCWV, Garden Party, Matstack
Fox River, Beige Granite (Card Body)
SAS, Pink Satin Ribbon & Ecru lace
Old Sweater Button
EK, Border Scallop Punch Set
Spellbinders, Labels 18, sizes 2" and 2.5"
Joanns, Glitter Spray
Stickels, Diamond
A Vicki Stamp
Glossy Accents (I made a puffy sticker butterfly)
Pop tape, glue dots, scotch tape, and spray mount

Thank you for visiting me, have you seen Looking4Challenges yet?

This card is also entered with these fine challenges:
Cute Card Thursday, Use a Punch
Truly Scrumptious, Rocking Pink

Clean Style, Casing Miss Chupa

2011-08-22T17:04:00.003-07:00

My card for the The Case Study Challenge

Hello again friends. I've been away from making cards lately because I'm working so hard on "Looking for Challenges". A quick reference site to help me (and friends) to locate challenges. Take a peek, it's got cats galore! There's the PhD Cat (Dr. Shredder) hot button for anyone who wants to plant it as a picture gadget. Then you can find challenges fast too.

Miss Chupa's Card

We are having fun at The Case Study. It's still anniversary time there. This week we are casing the founder of Case Study, Iwona Palamountain, also known as Chupa. She seems like a great person as well as wonderful artist. Many of her cards have been published, and her style is so cool!

I choose a "clean" card. I really have a hard time with these. I keep feeling like it's not done. But it is and it's very pleasing to me. I hope you like it too.

Computer printed stamp & sentiment, DCWV paper, Cuttlebug embossing, colored pencils, standard watercolor fine point markers, Inkssentials "Glossy Accents", Orange button and twine.

Thanks you so much for the visit, I wish you all a happy evening.

"Looking 4 Challenges" (an online challenge list)

2011-08-17T08:49:00.003-07:00

Greeting friends and visitors! You may have noticed...I like challenges. There are SO MANY challenge blogs! Sometimes I wished I had a convenient place to spin through and find challenges that relate to what I'm creating. Thanks to some friends for helping me create the challenge list. You can share my list too! You may even leave in the comments (under the day the challenge starts) a comment with an address I don't have listed yet.

The site is named "Looking 4 Challenges".

If you visit the list please become a follower, so that I may judge how successful and helpful the blog is for other crafters as yourself. The blog will update as time passes. Soon I will be adding addresses for free blog backgrounds, free graphics, free stamps, free cutting files, post tutorials and You Tube tutorials. I'm hoping to make a full reference page for my use and all of you kind friends. If this page works well for you, please spread the word.

Thanks for taking a moment to check out my little press release :)

Halloween Tag

2011-08-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hi, I just found a little challenge dealing with tags. I really should make more of them, they're fun. "Try it on Tuesday" is the latest challenge blog I've found. The challenge is Tags/Trees. I'm starting to long for fall and doing a vintage Halloween tag is giving me the feeling of leaves and fall. (I LOVE FALL!, we don't have a real fall in the extreme southwest)

I used a public use image found while googling. Also: DCWV Citrus Orange Cardstock, Stickles, pastels, colored pencils, #2 pencil, fine point marker, a ribbon I beat up with black ink, embroidery thread, and the vintage style garland trim I made. I'm going to finish the set I've started, I hope you all have a lovely august day! Cheers!

Lavender Sachet Card, The Case Study, casing Claire Buswell

2011-08-14T12:08:00.010-07:00

Case Study #52, My Lavender Card. It's about time I made a lavender card.

Claire Buswell's sachet card. Pretty!

I poured over Clair Buswell's blog, "Claire's Creations". Wow! She has soooo many cards! All quite lovely and I enjoyed looking at the crafts she made along the way as well. I finally saw one close to my heart. A lavender sachet card. It was so pretty and feminine. I gave it a go.

I still had some medallions left over from my last card for Case Study so I thought long and hard. Her sachet is removable...I made mine as the card. My lavender sachet lies between the card body and the face paper. Showing through a hole on both sides. To accent the front opening I cut a slightly smaller hole in the medallion and used pop tape for depth. Little pearls rim the filigree edge.

I made my face paper. I scanned a light green paper that had a nice pattern, and I change the hue to violet and printed it. I scored the entire piece (the hole's were punched at the start of making the card). I filed down the all ridges and roughed up the paper. I used purple, raspberry and sky blue inks to finish my shabby look. There is a lavender print cutout in the interior of the card and peeks through the opening.

The corsage is made from self dyed snug hug seam ribbon and a tattered sheer ribbon. I frayed all edges too. Flowers are from the racks at Joanns and the pins are from the same floral racks. I pulled them out from the bunch they come in. Finishing up with a little oval computer tag wedged under the pearl button .

Claire's crafts and cards blogspot is fun to visit and get new ideas from. Even her site is nicely put together. Go take a peek yourself, and thanks for the visit to me too!

Our Daily Bread Designs is a new blog I visit. I just feel warm all over when I go there. Maybe it's the music, maybe the cards and the wonderful designers.....still, I like it. They have a current challenge for "Tags". Give them a visit sometime, maybe you'll get that warm feeling too.

This card is also entered in these fabby challenges:
Incy Wincy, something old and new
(my newly made paper and the left over medallion)
Blog-a-Doodle, Ribbon & Punch & Pearls
Fussy and Fancy, Use a Lot
The Pixie Cottage, Say it with Flowers
A spoon Full of Sugar, Happy Birthday
Anything Goes Challenge Blog, Happy Birthday

Case Study One Year Anniversary, Casing Andrea Ewen

2011-08-06T09:42:00.018-07:00

My card for this challenge -

Greeting! Case Study Challenge is one year old! The fun and talent has been outstanding!

After I followed along with their fabulous blog hop, I went to work on the challenge. Case your favorite CSC designer! They are all sooooooo GOOD! Sometime when you find yourself checking out Case Study, you really should look up the individual designers blog spots.....they are wonderful to see and learn from.

I cased Andrea Ewen of "Ewen Style. She makes cards I would love to receive! Romantic and soft, sometimes clean, sometimes shabby. Sometimes she jumps out of her flowers and makes bright cards. I love the stitching, the lace and flowers the most but her other creations are just as lovely and smart! I enjoy that she has her style "down" and can still break away to do something I wasn't expecting. I like that.

The card I selected is from a Verve Challenge. I learned to cut these medallions from Andrea, so it seems like the perfect choice to case and share with you.

My face paper is from "The Linen Closet, DCWV. Card body and medallion, Bright White Index. Lace from SAS, Ribbon is Snug Hug, stick-on pearls from Joann's. Stick pins made from assorted stuff from the my craft box.

Thanks so much for the visit! I wish you luck if you are playing along, those of you who aren't.....check out the DT's blogs. Have a great day!

This card is also entered with these fabby challenges:
Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog, Use Punches
Catch The Bug Challenge, Anything Goes
Our Daily Bread Design, Seamstress Items
Scrap Creations, Bows

UPDATE: I picked up blog candy from designer Julie Smith's blog during The Case Study Anniversary Blog Hop, AND, I won a badge for Top 3 at Scrap-Creations and their "Bows" challenge. I agree too, this is a great bow-one of my best with handmade stick pins. Our Daily Bread randomly selected me for $15.00 discount on future stamp purchases. Whee!

Thanks for the sweet comments folks! Have a great week, Vicki

Feeling kinda Pretty

2011-08-02T09:13:00.013-07:00

Fan and evening shoes, patterned paper galore!

Hi, hope you are all having a great summer! I've been away from card making a couple of weeks. But my house has become cleaner. The Shabby Tea Room, challenge 73, must have been reading my mind! The challenge is to use at least 3 different patterned papers. I had just made paper high heels and I quickly ,envisioned a shabby fan to go with the set. More fun still....The Ribbon Carousel Challenge theme is"Lets get Crazy". Whee! This will work out well.

My High Heel, designed by me.

This shoe pattern is from Stacy Cohen. Nice inner heel.

I'd like to thank Stacy Cohen for her inspiration and pattern for the second shoe. After studying lots of paper shoes online, I was ready to design from scratch my own paper high heel. These are so much fun! I'm currently working on the file to prepare it as a SCUT.

I love this fan. I had lots of fun embellishing it. And it's 2 sided. Side One, three or more papers challenge. Side Two, looks like another fan. Open the flower in the middle and see the little surprise.

The Shabby Tea Room, Challenge #73

Did you see my little mice? I made them last year, they like crafting too. Keep enjoying all there is out there! Peace.

This set is also entered with:
Creative Card Crew, shoes

THAT Blue Flower!

2011-07-11T13:49:00.016-07:00

Good Day! I'm jumping into the last few hours of Pals Paper Arts color challenge, Dark Blue, Medium Blue and Light blue. Monochromatic. And The Shabby Tea Room is musing with one of favorite designers...Andrea Ewen of "Ewen Style". Her muse card is lovely and the challenge is "Flower Power".

That Flower! That Flower! I may never make another again! My goodness that thing took me all morning to get right. Punches, cricut cuts, hot glue.......aahhhhhhhh!

My papers are from DCWV "The Tradewinds" and "Linen Closet". Spellbinders tag and rhinestone flowers and leaves, pin pearls (I made), blue and white half pearls (I love them), pop tape and machine sewing...no digital anything today. And a ribbon that is two colors of blue, but you can barely see it. I like those two pointed ribbons going upwards, I did that on my Haystack card recently.

Next I nearly destroyed my card...well after I took pictures and started pc editing...I found out my sentiment wouldn't photograph well. The font line was too thin and the computer was giving it an extra pixel look. I had to remove the label. I'm sure you've been here before. Ya know..pop tape doesn't want to come off easily. I destroyed the label. Had to start over anyway. This time in dark blue with a thicker "line" to my font. The font is named "Harrington".

Check out Ewen Style sometime. Andrea's work is incredible! Peace and Chicken.

Strawberry Seed Packet Card

2011-07-09T21:27:00.019-07:00

This one was a quick make for a change. The Ribbon Reel has the cutest cupcake to muse and Tuesday Morning Sketches and Inkspirations have cool layouts. Again, I've combined digital and hand made.

I made a seed packet on my computer from a cool image (see my first seed packet and it's directions)and it's a shaker too! I designed the card in Corel, then disassembled its layers and printed them out. Basically just creating the papers. I then assemble like a regular hand made item. I found some great pearled ribbon and paired up with a self dyed bow. Hints of pink in the pearls and the bow with the card base being pink itself. Fun, really cute and quick. Ahh back to the monsoon here is Tucson. Peace. Victoria

My card is also entered with: Flourishes, "Farm Fresh"

Mint "Glass" Butterfly

2011-07-09T11:28:00.011-07:00

Greetings! After some stops and starts I finally made this card. I love the sweet pastel colors of the Play Date Cafe Challenge and the layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches was just perfect.

I found out that my copy of SCAL 2 (Sure cuts aLot2) needs to be uninstalled from the old computer before being re-installed on to my new PC. I'll leave this to my husband, but this is what I want to get out to users.....CraftEdge (makers to SCAL I guess) have a new update version called SCAL3. And it is DEATH the cricut users. All new versions will not support cricut, AND they will not continue assist customers with Versions 1 & 2 after December 2011. Whoa! Whats going on here? If you know something please email me or comment below.

Back to the card. I hand cut the oval (OMG!) I loved the paper it came from DCWV The Linen Closet Stack. My little butterfly was a left over from when my SCAL was running. I lightly colored it with pastels and pencils before I followed the UTEE steps to make her glass like (see this post for technique on "Ruby Glass Butterfly"). I sanded, rubbed in pastels and stickeled all the edges on the top layer. The base layer was machine sewn. Again I've used my own dyed snug hug wrinkle ribbon. I made a medallion with a circle punch base, doubled sided tape and twisted ribbon. Then the buttons fit right in. The sentiment is all my hand. Little punched circles, minor artwork and covered with Glossy Accents". The top layer is then adhered to the base with lots of pop tape. I like the shadow effect around the mint butterfly. And after playing with for hours...it's done. It's cute. Really fair and pale compared to my other works. Let's call this one a different flavor. Peace and Chhicken! Victoria

Hand Drawn Haystack / Case Study 47

2011-07-07T14:17:00.011-07:00

Well, I back. My new computer is up and running and most of my programs are working. I have windows 7 now and a lot of my really old graphic files (like Hallmark, Create a Card, PrintMaster...) can not be read. So......we're keeping the old computer, adding an internet card and I'll grab files from the old disks this way. Best yet, my 6 year old grandson, Jachob, can play his Nick games while I sit next to him playing with my computer.

This week for Case Study we have a new muse, Dawn Woleslagle, she's a graphic artist and creates stamps. I should look into making stamps from my stuff....but how? Anybody know how to go about this while not owning a stamp maker? These thoughts were running through my head as I started figuring out my card. I'm a terrible stamper and I'm not gonna buy a $100 dollars in Coptic when I have watercolors and pencils. And then I thought about an image I made for thanksgiving cards for Operation Write Home. After finding just the right sentiment, I went to work in Corel 14. I designed the sentiment and the image. While casing the DT's cards I noticed the score embossing on them. My take is a little different, but I like it and that counts for a lot. I also used a sheer butterscotch ribbon and orange string ribbon with matching buttons. The little orange ribbon strips were added last, the look just came to me. This is one of the "cleanest" simple cards I've ever made. Less is More. It looks like I may be one of the first cards entered for Case Study 47. I was just so anxious to get back after being down. Take care and peace to all.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

My card is also entered with: Stamping Sisters in Christ

I'm Down, I'm Really Down, I'm Down, Down on the Ground...

2011-06-29T09:04:00.003-07:00

I've been working on an 8 year old and dying computer. She's been a good girl until this last year. Crashing, no power, not enough memory. I've been keeping my files on an external drive to make sure one morning the whole thing hasn't gone up.

My husband has heard my cry and purchased for me a new table top computer. A gaming computer! Screaming graphics card, bonga memory, FAST processing, extra fan, see-thru housing box....Whoo Hooo! I can run several graphic programs at the same time again! I can easily have Corel, AVS Image, Inkscape, Sure Cuts Alot Cricut, Publisher and YouTube open and running all at once.

Slight downfall is that we're going offline as we transfer our "life" off this computer to the new one. Wish me luck, please. He thinks he can do this all in one evening after work. If I'm back up by tomorrow, I'll be amazed. See ya'll later (I hope).

The Cat Came Back, CSC#45 revisited

2011-06-28T05:32:00.011-07:00

The cat came back. She couldn't stay away. She just had stay and play another day.

Hi welcome to phase II of my experience in masking for The Case Study Challenge #45. I'm doing digital and handmade again. I love mixed-media art. I began by creating a page in Corel, a 6 x 6 box, the wheat stamp and the placement of the cat digi stamp. By the way, I make my own image files. I rarely use rubber or pre-made digi stamps. I printed the sheet and a second cat for a mask. After placing down a moon and cat mask, I used watercolors (and some ink) to make a background. And when it dried it was wrinkled.
I scanned the colored page into Corel (my graphics program). Ahh, nice and flat again. With Corel I create the lower green area do some more masking. I created two long grass images, small and large in off white. I layered the grass over the kitty (I sacrifice the first cat now) then replace a kitty in the same place and covered it again with grass. It looks like the cat was in the grass, behind, and in front.

One more printout and cut to size. I also do some more inking to the edges. I use my colorbox flowerbox's for edging. The wedge shape is great. I twisted two colors of my self crinkled and dyed Snug Hug and applied with dot glue and whipped up a jumble bow with buttons. The dollies were so fun to make! I also used a little Stickles. There is no sentiment. I'll be able to use this card as an All Occasion sometime.

Whoa, paragraph 4...I'll wrap up.
Have a great day, stay outta of the sun (my porch-112 right now!)).
Peace and chicken, Vicki

The Case Study Challenge #45

UPDATE: I won top winner in The Case Study Challenge #45! I had so much fun creating the kitty cards. Case Study is a wonderful place and I feel honored with this win. Thanks to all! Peace and Fried Chicken, Vicki

Meow Kitty Masked Card, Case Study #45

2011-06-23T11:23:00.009-07:00

This is the first time I've ever masked anything. And it is FUN!

Greetings! Today I ripped out a card using this lovely card below as my inspiration. This is the Case Study Challenge #45!

A cute card using lots of inking techniques. And a first for me is masking. So I visited Miss Jill Foster's site (our Case Study Muse) and watched her video about inking and masking. I think I've got it. I'd like to do another card too for this challenge.

I've used digital papers and a digi kitty that I hand colored with pastels. I do not have ink dabbers yet, I'm always rigging things to do the same job. I used my colorbox inks for the edges and the moon mask, created a 3-d label (computer) and I even cased Jill's paper punching dots. I've had the image files soooooo long I can't remember who to credit. And I guess because this technique is new to me...I didn't do a cute outline shape to the card. But I do like clean shapes. I hope you try out this technique and that you enjoy it as much as I did. Peace and chicken.

SnowBall Flower / Pink Lemonade Colors

2011-06-17T08:55:00.022-07:00

The Shabby Tea Room has the sweetest color combo. Pink, lt. green and neutral. They call it "Pink Lemonade", mmmmm, I can still remember cold lemonade on a hot Maryland day...and I remember how sticky that weather would be too. It's been over 100 degrees here for two weeks. Thank goodness the humidity factor is nearly un-measurable in Tucson. But Arizona is ON FIRE! Up north it's the fire of the century. Down here in southern AZ we have three fires on the southern border, all about 40 miles from Mexico. The one in the middle (the Monument Fire) is hurting the town of Sierra Vista (Fort Huchucha). Even in Tucson there have been wild fires. One sadly burned the historic trolly's being worked on downtown as part of an enrichment project for the city's heritage. It's all very sad, we are saying prayers around here.

...................Click this Photo:)...................

My card is designed to follow along with Case Study #44 and their Muse's example card. But think I'll be doing two cards for Case Study this week. I loved the Shabby Tea Room colors and it gave me a chance to try out an idea I had for a snowball flower, like the ones I remember in my grandmothers garden. I made two little box lids, secured together, taped on a circle base and spot taped each flower, working up from the bottom. It's puffy and very cute. I made leaves with my Hug Snug ribbon that I wrinkled and dyed earlier. I had some fun ribbons and lace and added lots and lots of pearls. There's a computer made label and it's covered with cooked UTEE. I made my stick pins too. I love the double lace skirt. The bottom layer is a punched piece with pink pearls. It's a romantic look. I wanted a verse on the card to come in handy for correspondence with my church. It says "The Lord is my Light. And it is!

Entered with- The Shabby Tea Room & Case Study

UPDATE: This cute card was up against some REALLY pretty (and alot of)cards at the The Shabby Tea Room's Pink Lemonade Challenge. I managed to pick up one of the honorable mentions. Whee! Thank you Shabby girls, this is my second badge.

Wow!

2011-06-13T11:03:00.009-07:00

Just note, I'm kinda having a good moment. Of course almost anything is better than to what I woke up to this morning....left overs and bio mess after whats looks like was ALL 6 cats having a battle on my craft table. Supplies everywhere, fur balls and other nasties. They even broke the cable box. My husband is outta town...he'll love this.

But I digress, my cards (4 in a row) have been noticed with winnings. I'm bowled away. I've entered 18 cards into challenge runs and won 6 in the course of 3 months. So..wow! I've blown my streak I'm sure- by just finishing up my digital 1950's Stove Card Set. Which I find to be a riot, and they are a commercially viable product for sale in town if I can get my act together and re-license "Victoria Lavender" for business. It's been so nice to be recognized. Bless everybody (including cats);)

This were my first two wins.

Click "Winner Card" to see the posts for each card.

The Stove Card Set

2011-06-12T15:15:00.012-07:00

I had a lot of fun with a card I made yesterday. So here's a whole set! I made the card in Corel 14, see post Pink Stove Card for more details.

I'm just having fun! This set has been entered in Case Study as well as it's first born sister. Peace & Chicken.

Retro Pink Stove Card, PDCC85 & CS43

2011-06-11T12:11:00.016-07:00

Ha Ha Ha! I've lost it now! Yesterday I joined a challenge to celebrate "your style". Style? I'm like a Chameleon when it comes to a style.As a graphic artist, you make your bread and butter creating something in someone else's style. So recreating and observing styles is ongoing, even in my retirement. This card will be called as I refer to myself sometimes as a "mixed media".

(I've added on some pictures since I published the Pink Stove. I loved making the card so much I created a pastel 1950's Campy Stove Set. This I've done for myself. I hope you enjoy them too.Check them out at Stove Card Set.)

My card is created in Corel 14. I designed the retro stars and sentiment. My images are from a website selling the retro appliances. I had a lot of clean up to do on the images to make them just right. The only 3D touch is the sweet pink heart rhinestone. But I'm pleased with the card, and my obsession to make something different all the time is satisfied too.

I was inspired to make this card using the colors for Play Date Cafe. Blueberry, Cream and Dusty Rose. Once I saw the pink stove I was hooked, I had to make the card. I've also been mulling around in my head how to do the latest Case Study Card and I took the layout cues from them.

I need to do a silly card once and a while. If you'd like to see the other silly card in this website, look up Christopher Walken Card.

Thanks for dropping by, Peace.

PPA97-Fashion Inspiration-What's Your Signature Style

2011-06-10T13:06:00.004-07:00

This challenge ought to be a wild one and really hard for the Pals Paper Arts designers to decide on. I still can't say what my style is. "Shabby", but not. "Classic", but too busy. Sometimes they come out "Clean" and recently I had wins with a "Clean" and a "Contemporary" and a "Classic".

I will call this one "Kinda Shabby".

I hear a hairball event going on somewhere behind me...ughhh....gotta go!

Peace.

Pink and Chocolate for Christmas

2011-06-08T14:08:00.013-07:00

Cosmopolitan Neapolitan, yummy strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. I've been waiting for a pink and brown color challenge and I found one with Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger. Yeah. My goal for this card was to find four challenges to create from. I don't mean looking afterwards for challenges that will apply to a card, but starting the creation with four sites in mind. This worked out well. My great sketch is from Mojo Monday #194. Christmas is covered by Jingle Belles - "Let It Sew, Let It Sew, Let It Sew". And lastly the Shabby Tea Room #65 is Technique Week and the challenge is to emboss.

I can't believe how long it took to put this card together. I beat myself up without realizing it because I cut these strips with the curved end. Most everyone else (including the sketch) replaced with punched circles or whatnot. Duh, Vicki. I learn as I go. I ended up searching through ALL my papers to find the combo. I can't remember all the titles, but all my paper is DCWV. While visiting Ewen Style one day, I saw this really cool medallion. Andrea uses a corner punch to create it with. After I checked out her tutorial I looked at a few You Tube tutorials and worked out my way to punch it. Funny, there are lots of ways...find your favorite. I layered two pieces and topped with an actual stamped sentiment. Ok, if you're new to my cards, I try to do most of my labels from the computer:) Stick on pearls, clear glitter, cuttlebug embossing, lots of sewing, pink, brown and white, a sketch, felt ribbon. I think I managed to meet my goal, and I'm happy with the results. My husband just called from the gold mine in Cripple Creek (away on another trip) and I was able to share with him that my seed packet card won two tops honors! Whee! I like card challenges.

Thanks for visiting with me, Bless you all. Vicki

UPDATE: This card won an Honorable Mention with The Shabby Tea Room. Honestly I'm amazed. My last four cards in a row have winnings. I'll be getting a blinkie soon from them.

Summer Breeze, Lot's of Orange!

2011-06-08T12:41:00.014-07:00

Where I live (Tucson) it's been summer for a while. So it was so nice to see a couple of color challenges for summer. "Do You Stack Up, DYSU #22 Orange". is closing it's challenge in minutes. Making a card under 2 hours it still difficult for me. I'm still kinda new at this challenge stuff. (But, oh boy do I like them.)

My layout is from Card Pattern's #118, a really fun curved piece. And my colors were inspired by Inkspirations, challenge #72. I love these summer colors! I created the medallions from The Citrus Stack. The flowers were just calling out to be cut-out. My label is made in Corel 14. Some little punched leaves to bring it all together.

Recipe:
Cardstock - DCWV, Mango Frost, Citrus Print & Solid Stacks
Ribbon - Oriental Traders

Color Box Ink, Sewing Machine, Rhinestone, Stickles-orange and diamondhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

It's a great day...Enjoy it fully!

UPDATE: This card, which is close to my heart and quickly made, just won the as winner for Inkspiration Color Challenge #72! I'm so thankful and so very blessed.

Faux Ruby Glass Butterflies

2011-06-02T21:00:00.019-07:00

They sparkle like glass, but these butterflies are easy to make.

In an earlier post I explained how to create the "broken glass" effect. It's the same process. Instead of heavy layers to crack and break, it's lighter, 2 to 4 coats. I tape the butterfly to a craft stick and apply Versa Mark. I keep my UTEE in a plastic container with a spoon. The butterfly is small enough to dip directly into the container to re-coat. I'm careful, but I always imagine the amazing mess if I were to ever accidentally aim the hot gun at the powder box. When I get my "just right" finish (and that's something that practice will will help with) I carefully use an X-acto blade to release the embellishment from the craft stick. Do this right away before it cools. Do any needed trimming right away. Also this is your only moment to adjust the wings. This lighter finish cools much faster than the heavier "broken glass".

I started with the idea of the colors in this card from Play Date Cafe Challenge and the design sketch by Just Add Ink. I fell in love with the metallic ruby paper from DCWV. I loved it against white. My other colors, grey & green became accent colors (like a color splash). I was also able to completely create this card using my Cricut Expression.

Recipe:
DCWV The Mariposa Cardstock Stack (Ruby)
DCWV The Brights Cardstock Stack (White)

Cricut Expression, UTEE, Hot Gun, Rhinestones, Tacky Glue, Pearl Sprig, Spray Adhesive

I hope you like the butterflies and thanks for the visit!
"Peace and Chicken"

Card is entered in:
Play Date Cafe Challenge #84
Just Add Ink #70
My Mum's Craft Shop, #8 Things with Wings
Charisma Cardz Challenge #22 Something that Flies
By The Cute and Girly Challenge, June-In the Garden
Digi Stamps 4 Joy, #20 : "On the wings of a ..."

Update: I won Cup of the Week with Play Date Cafe! Yaah! Woohoo! Another Badge for my site. I really loved these butteries. I've sent out thank yous and I will also be receiving a cool set of stamps from "Mark's Finest Papers". I must admit I hadn't heard of these folks until the challenge...but I checked out their website and it's nice! They have #140lb cardstock! Gotta get me some of that! I won a stunning stamp set called "Planted With Love". I like their stamps too. I don't really go for sweet and cute (know...too cute)but these stamps are all great images with fun fonts. Thank you Play Date Cafe and Mark's Finest Papers.

Making a Mini Seed Packet from Your Printer/Scanner!

2011-06-01T17:03:00.018-07:00

Time for a weekly challenge card. I found two spots that got me started. Card Patterns and Tuesday Throwdowns. Great pattern to follow and making my own embellishments is always a favorite for me. Today I wanted to use a seed packet on the card but most of the time they are too large. So I demonstrate the process to how I got a mini seed packet. Also, three other challenges offer to me a lot of fun this week. The Shabby Tea Room is having a Recipe Challenge. "2-4-6", Two patterned papers, four buttons (I'm using 2 chipboard buttons & 2 plastic), 6 layers. One Stop Craft Challenge is "Ribbons and Bows", and Ribbon Carousel Challenge is "anything off a spool".

Let's make an Embellishment! (Click on image to enlarge)

First I took some nice seed packets and put them in the scanner. Using whatever layout program you like (I use Corel 14, Word should work) import and minimize the image to your liking. Leave a half inch border around the image to cut along. In the image I drew lines to show you (and me) where to cut. Cut out a piece of cardstock to fit the same size as the new seed packet. Now score along the image edges, fold toward the back and cut away the corners.

Test your backing piece (the cardstock) for a good fit. Take a few beads (or seeds!) and put into the open seed packet, drop in the cardstock back and start gluing the flaps down. I used tacky glue and didn't have to use that brick after all.

WaaLaa...mini seed packet! Looks good too. I sanded the edges and lightly inked it to show age before it was secured to my card. So a new card, a new embellishment and I had fun playing in my studio. It's all good.

Peace and love, Vicki

Wheeeeee! Update: I won Top 3 at Tuesday Throwndown! I'm a bit stunned. I was unhappy with the card, until yesterday. I pulled out the pearl strands and fell in love with the card again. But it won from the photo with the strands. I'm still quite happy. I won a side badge to go along with my first two wins with Case Study and Pals Paper Arts. Making cards is lots of fun. Winning here and there adds a bit a thrill.

Wheeeee Again, this card has also won with Cards Patterns! WhooHoo!

Broken Glass Cat, PSC70 & PDCC83

2011-05-27T14:02:00.015-07:00

POP-UP! A new card for Paper Sundays Challenge PSC70. My first card was pop-up bobble head Christopher Walken. This POP-UP is a best of luck card. I have lots of pop-up going on. I even used three different pop-up tapes and dots. Everything is raised from the background.

COLOR SPLASH! Play Date Cafe Challenge is saying goodbye to a founding member and is honoring her with her favorite challenge style...a color splash. Black and white with a splash of green. PDCC 83

My special touch today is the lovely kitty done in the broken glass technique. I sized and printed kitty from all-free-download.com. I taped a craftstick to the back so I don't burn my fingers and can quickly reload the UTEE powder. It really helps ALOT to have the UTEE in a tupperware container with a spoon handy. I start with versamark to hold the embossing powder and apply a hotgun until all is melted. Next you'll repeat the versamark, when the UTEE melts - quickly re-dip (or spoon over) more UTEE. Keep it up, wiggle your craftstick to keep the plastic flowing around and not pooling badly from the hotgun. You may end up covering with UTEE for 3 to 6 layers. The UTEE can't handle this heavy hotgunning and turns a bit yellow. If you are not careful it will burn and brown. Stop when you think it's thick enough. Cooling down is needed now. The embellishment is kinda rubbery for a little while. When it feels almost cool (but not cold) test crack the piece. You'll know when it it's ready to crack all over or not. If it becomes too cool...the glass will chip off of the project. It's like Goldilocks, it has to be "just right". I ran my finger over black pastel and rubbed the dust into the cracks to bring them out more.
I like my pussycat.

Recipe:
Background Paper - DCWV The Glitter Stack
Card Body & Elements - White Bristol Vellum
Spellbinders "lacey circles",
Marvy 3" Scallop Punch and 2.5" circle punch
Flowers - Oriental Traders; petals, glass pearls, pearl strand
Ribbon - Hug Snug, homemade green crinkle
Glitter - Clear, Martha Stewart
Labels - Labels by me
"Glass" - UTEE (who makes that?)
Tools Used - Table cutter, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, hotgun, printer, Flat foam tape, pop-up foam tape, 3-d dots, craftstick

This was fun. Try the broken glass technique sometime. Thanks for the visit!

Walken On Sunshine Bobblehead Card & PSC70

2011-05-23T16:53:00.006-07:00

"Walken On Sunshine", having fun with Christopher Walken. I found a challenge site that was challenging us to create a pop-up card. Another cute place, Paper Sundaes Challenge blog. Lovely cards and great examples. Mine is not lovely.....but it is a laugh riot! And it IS a pop-up card. I know I'm pushing it here, and it's a crazy card for my first visit to Paper Sundaes. I make lovely cards too, I also like to have a good laugh. I sent a few to friends and family on the East Coast.

I saw a flat card around Christmas having fun with a Walken image. I felt I could step it up a bit, so mine is a Bobble Head. This card, placed where there is an air flow is just so funny with Christopher's head shaking.

I created my file with Corel 13. I searched the internet for just the right photo with sun rays. I flipped it make him stand in the clouds. I searched a good photo of Mr. Walken's head and the jacket is from a catalog selling very fancy mens suits. The verse is printed on the background. The only thing I wanted raised was Christopher. First I cut out the head and secured a homemade spring with tape. And it is placed first on the card (after testing where the jacket will go down). The jacket is doubled taped flat to the bottom of the card and with pop tape I pinched his shoulders to add depth and give the spring room to bobble around. You can wiggle the spring a bit to get it into the best spot.

I won't be selling this card, I have no license for Mr Walken products. But I do have a PDF file of my card and I can share it.

Thanks for the visit! Keep Smiling!

Card Challenge, Jingle Belles 21 & Pals Paper Arts 94

2011-05-20T13:16:00.009-07:00

Christmas in May! I really needed to do a more toned down card this time, so I went to Pals Paper Arts for a sketch and found a Christmas challenge while visiting Three Trees. The Christmas site is Jingle Belles. I just loved their color suggestion! Cute site too!

Card Body - Cream Granite Cardstock, Fox River
Embossed Background - Cream Granite Bond, Fox River / Cuttlebug embossed
Ribbon - Lilac, Joanns Fabric's
Snowflakes & Rhinestones - Greenbacks Dollar Store
Ink - Lilac, Oriental Trading (house brand)
Pearl Sprigs - Oriental Trading

The snowflakes are inked and hot gun dried. They were also sprayed with adhesive and covered with Martha Stewart Clear/Fine Glitter.

Thanks for the visit..."Peace and Chicken"
(look it up under the Simpsons)

Card Challenge, Case Study 40

2011-05-19T16:31:00.008-07:00

Case Study # 40 a lovely cade made by Sarah Martina Parker

And this is my study card, ala Vicki!

"Case Study Challenge" is a delightful site. I love to look back at older challenges. I took a break from cards last week, now I'm fresh and ready for this new challenge. I will also enter into "The Play Date Cafe, challenge #82" as they have provided my color scheme this week.

Craft card body. Scrap paper as background. Ivory lace and blue ribbon from S.A.S. Fabrics. Flowers assembled from items purchased from "Oriental Traders" (Petals, beads, pearl picks, butterfly, pearl headpin, button, hemp) Two lacey circles from Spellbinders and a handmade medallion.

My label, as often is, was created with Corel and printed. I used versamark, UTEE and a hot gun on my labels. This gives me the old but shiny effect I'm after.

For a new twist I used curled hemp cord beaded with Play Date Challenge colors to "study" the flourish from the card Sarah Martina Parker made.

I surely had fun and I think I'll re-label the card because it would make a nice Father's Day card for my very sweet husband. "Peace and chicken!" (Homer Simpson)

Oh My Goodness!

2011-05-11T09:54:00.008-07:00

Oh my goodness! I won 2 challenge honors! I won in Pals Paper Arts Artist Picks and also Top Three with CASE Study Challenge! WOW! I'm bowled away!

I haven't yet made even ten cards for challenges, and now two wins. It must have been my birthday luck. Thanks so much Pals Paper Arts and CASE Study. These are the badges I won:)

Case Study Challenge 38

2011-05-10T17:24:00.013-07:00

Our study card was created by Sarah Martinez Parker

And this is my card inspired by the Case Study Challenge :)

Weeeee! another quickly made card for an up coming deadline. I've been admiring the cards done by "Ewen Style". She's really got some fantastic cards! I noticed the challenge for Case Study while visiting "Ewen Style". What a lovely card to study and gain idea's from. I've been wanting to create a fancy medallion since seeing the one's sold st Michael's under the brand "Bravissimo". They look so cool....but I'll make my own. Also I been wanting to use a print from Lilly Pulitzer. The one I found is called "Tiger Lily". So there's a lot of blue going on in my card, but it's all in honor of Lilly.

First, I printed the paper myself. The card is meant to be used as a refrigerator magnet. So it's extra stiff with two business card sized magnets on back. I sewed a pre-gathered ribbon into a medallion and accented with blue loops. The sentiment is also printed from my files and every thing is glued and popped-up. It took a while to dry. My flowers are from a crazy place called S.A.S. Fabrics. It's a discount fabric store, the place is just a riot!

I'm still surprised how quickly I got it together for this card. It's my birthday, and my husband is outta town. Still a lovely day.

I'm going to continue to visit Case Study Challenge, I hope you do too. Thanks for the visit!

Card Challenge, PPA92 & PDC80

2011-05-09T16:44:00.011-07:00

Today my card is a color challenge from Pals Paper Arts (PPA92). I had to hurry up too. It's due tomorrow, May 10th (my birthday.) And since the colors are very close to Play Date Cafe's colors, I'm also going enter my card with that happy site. Play Date Cafe is a HUGE challenge each week. PDC colors are White, Poppy and Harvest Gold. So Green is my neutral here, and white is my neutral for PPA.
I knew I wanted to make a card for our pastor, he has decided to move on with his life. So I think I've made a nice one. I'm expecting my husband to write a lovely message.

I cut for a six inch square card with lots of background layers from the colors selected by PPA. The colors were Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait and Poppy Parade! I tried to keep as close to colors as I could. The Peach color is looking more orange than it should...I'll just blame that on a digital something or other.

Three circles for the label. A 2.5" round punch, 3" scallop punch and Spellbinders largest "Lacy Circle". Rust and Brown Colorbox Chalk for a little shading and lots of pop up tape. All of the papers come from various DCWV paperstacks.

All of the embellishments come from Oriental Trading. I glued together layers of the white flowers and glued pearls to the centers. A Beaded stick pin (with a drop of glue) is threaded through the Butterfly spring. The pearl string is taped down, and the flowers are applied with pop up tape. The little Butterflies stick into the pop up tape.

I'm quite happy with this card and I thank you for the visit.

Mojo Monday Challenge 185

2011-04-06T16:40:00.003-07:00

Great card......but again, I didn't enter the challenge.

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #41

2011-04-06T16:38:00.004-07:00

First time I saw a challenge doing gift cards....and I dropped the ball and didn't enter. Oh well, I've been packing for a long visit to the east coast.

Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Challenge 108

2011-03-30T11:29:00.019-07:00

I had so much fun making this card! I loved the sketch and all the new cards being shown at Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Challenge!

As I look at so many designers cards and their blogs- I'm getting great ideas to use, and sometimes I locate a new challenge here and there. I found Pear Tree Designs and their Mothers Day challenge, such sweet ladies. And that blog lead me to few more. Fun fun!

I really wanted to make a romantic card like the ones being loaded up at "CPWSC". I just got my cuttlebug and new embossing plates yesterday. Again I'm using scrap paper from the box, the card body is fresh though.

So much happening on this card. The flowers are on a lace strip (purchased for flip flop deco) I cut a few loose and used sticky dots to adhere. Little punched leaves and beads on wire, my creation, to finish the flowers. The bird is left over from another card. It has two layers and is closely taped at the top, while the bottom has two layers of puffy tape for shadow. Lots of stickles on the bird and flowers. The lace topper is sewn to the back part of the card instead of the front flap. Grossgrain ribbon, some old buttons and some cricut cuts complete the card. I love it! It's my favorite of all my cards yet made.

I hope my mother will enjoy this card. Thank for visiting.

This card is entered in:
Card Patterns, sketch
Pear Tree Designs, Mother's Day
Cupcake Craft Challenge, Flowers for mum
One Stitch at a Time, Mother's Day
Creative Inspirations, Mother's Day
Oh La La Creations, Mother's Day
Crafty Sentiments Design, Mother's Day
Paper Play Challenges, For Mum
Tuesdays Throwdown, For the Mums
The Crafty Pad, For the Mums

Mojo Monday Challenge 184

2011-03-29T12:43:00.006-07:00

Wheeeee! another card challenge. These folks have great sketches to work with.

Check out Mojo Monday's Card Challenge and blog. Very classy cards from this website. I did get to use mostly scrap paper, I love that! I designed and cut the circle with Cricut. There is paper piecing and sewing under the circle but it's hard to see unless you are up close. Cream lace from my christmas pile and I found the string pearls I've had for 5 years. Clear glitter on the scallops and stickles too. I printed the tag as I do most often. I have never used lace and string pearls on a card before. I like it!

Thanks for the visit, remember the check out Mojo Monday too!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #40

2011-03-28T14:48:00.007-07:00

I like these challenges! I'm starting to pick up a little speed.

This week is close up banner parts. You should take a look at the designer samples at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.

I gathered up papers today from "Amber Autumn" Fall Stack Collection from DCWV. I made some double cut cricut pendants and inked with Color Box Petals. My favorite for edging.Marvy punches (always a great standby tool) create a quick 3D button and a little bit of "cheaters" ribbon (Taped on the inside on the card top before gluing to the card body). I have a huge collection of rinestones (from Greenbacks Dollar Stores)and I color them to match whatever I'm working on. Lastly, the sentiment was printed before being punched out.

Just trying to show the depth of the pendants and sentiment button. See my ruler collection?

Thanks for the visit, check out Waltzingmouse too!

Play Date Challenge #74

2011-03-25T11:35:00.009-07:00

Hi, this is a birthday card for Oma.

Lovely colors once again as I play along with the good folks of "Play Date Challenge Cafe". I realized I need to purchase some new papers. I actually had a difficult time locating the colors. Thanks again for my paper scrap box! Circles were cut with Cricut Expression (my new machine, now I have the 1st generation and the E. One is going to be set up with the deep cut blade). Flowers from Oriental Trading. My little label is computer printed. This card should have taken just an hour to create....but new Cricut Machines have to be broken in. The cutting settings seemed to differ between machines. I destroyed alotta paper. Oh well, it's a cute card for a cute lady!

Thanks for visiting me, now check out Play Date Challenge Cafe

Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Challenge 107

2011-03-21T09:28:00.008-07:00

New card, and a cool sketch blog to check out, http://cardpatterns.blogspot.com/

Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog, my goodness what a nice place. Sketch's are so great to work with.

Today's card is made with "Citrus Stack" and "Citrus Solid Stack" by DCWV. Edge punch's from Recollections and Fiskars. Ink by Color Box, Petal Points "Provence". The cute butterflies and Happy embellishment from "The Mariposa Stack" also from DCWV.

Thanks, Card Patterns and thanks for visiting too!
Victoria Lavender

Card Challenge, 1st Play Date Challenge Cafe #73

2011-03-19T18:13:00.012-07:00

I found a new blogspot (well, new to me). These crafty chicks do a weekly card challenge. A card challenge is a fun place to keep motivated and try out new tricks.

This card is 100% scrap paper. Ta Da!

Check out this spot! http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/2011/03/play-date-cafe-challenge-pdcc73.html

Thanks for the visit!

Card Challenge, Play Date Challenge Cafe #73

2011-03-19T17:04:00.012-07:00

Another card for the Play Date Challenge Cafe. I think I like this one better.
http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/2011/03/play-date-cafe-challenge-pdcc73.html

All Occasion Greeting Card, PDCC 73
Really neat colors to work with. The 3 colors came from DCWV Matchmakers, Cardstock Stack "Brights". I love these solid papers. Background from DCWV Pocket Full of Posies Stack. My cute cat stamp, black pigment ink.

Now for the fun. After stamping and punching out the kitties I re-stamped with embossing ink and twice covered and heated the circles with UTEE. I got a very smooth finish. Hint-use double sided tape and stick it to a flat craft stick so it will not blow away. My gems are colored with markers so that they match too.

Thanks for checking me out. Peace.

Snowman Christmas Cards

2010-11-23T10:57:00.015-07:00

Today I'm making cards by creating more embellishments than I buy. I do this a lot. Embellishments have got to be the most expensive of the little things we buy to create our homemade cards. Well, add a little more "homemade" to the mix by making your own.

I like to look at the pretty embellishments all packaged so lovely....but mostly I'm looking to see how I may re-create it at home. A good start is to buy 12 x12 printed cardstock with designs just screaming to be cut out. Such is the case with this pack of paper I bought at Michaels. It's called "Snowflake Christmas Paper Pad" by Ellen Krans, "Me & my big ideas".

I love medallion's! Pictures or words. I've used 2 sizes of circle punches for the Merry Christmas sentiment. Single or double layering is up to your style. But I'm crappy at stamping. So in order to get 5 good prints, I stamped front and back all over a single card stock page and punched out the best.

These snowmen are so cooool! I could see these guys as soon I walked into Michaels. There's 2 sheets in the collection and there's also are 5 snowmen on the paper pack cover. (15 cards) Lots of other images to cut out and make great embellishments. The papers are very bright, foiled, glittered and kinda retro. A "must check out" if you find yourself at a paper store.

I cut these on the print line with a small sharp scissor. Easy enough to do while watching TV. I cut the arms arms off and replaced with pipe cleaners, and used foam tape to pop and layer.

Speed ribbons. Tape the ribbon to the back of the card cover. Its fast, it works. You can still take a piece of ribbon to tie a bow or knot and it will slide to the perfect placement.

A fun card.
Make some embellishments!
Have fun, save money!

Halloween Cards

2010-10-06T13:32:00.004-07:00

I am having so much fun with my cricut cutter. The images are public use and from a vintage Halloween website. The lace cut circles were created on Corel and transformed into a cutter file. I saw some pretty lace like circle files for sale, and for a moment I thought "Mmmm I might just buy those." Then my inner crafter kicked in and created the art file myself. It does help having been a graphic artist during my working days. A little inking for an aged effect and I have something cute. The little pumpkin is from kids4crafts.blogspot. Check out my profile to find our pages for children crafts.

Recycled Christmas Cards

2010-07-01T15:33:00.015-07:00

Everyone has Christmas cards from years past. Lets take a new look at them. Kids are great at transforming an older card into a new one. Get out your scissors and punches, glues, glitter, snow, ribbons and string. This family craft is one of the best for "no cost" crafting fun.

The following images are from the work I did last Christmas. I've done cards and tags and the last three are refrigerator magnets, these can make nice gifts too. Enjoy!

These next few are my christmas card magnets.

I really love the magnets, comic cards work great!

Take care, I'll try not to be so late with our next craft.

Peace, Victoria Swanson

Black, White and Gold Pumpkins

2008-10-28T17:29:00.008-07:00

Black, White and Gold Pumpkins

Materials Needed:
Black, White and Gold Spray Paint ($$)
300 Pumpkins (Why not, the paint was costly)
Light Wire
Sharpie (for it’s tube shape)
Glitters
Glue
Craft Paint
Small Tip Brush

Version 2 (You could hand paint them :)
Pumpkins
Craft Paint

Wash and dry all of your pumpkins. Make sure they are really dry. Now we can create those cute little wire curlee cues. Take a loosely measured yard of wire and bend in half. I cut a tiny notch on a ridge of the stem to catch the loop end of the wire. This allowed me to wrap the wire tightly around the pumpkin stem about 3 or 4 times. Remember the wire is doubled up, so it looks like you wrapped it more. Separate the two pieces and take out the sharpie. Get comfortable, you might want to hold the pumpkin in your lap. Hold one wire at the base where it becomes free from the stem wrapping. Wrap the wire like a spring around the sharpie. Slide out the sharpie and do the same to the other wire. Stretch them a bit to get the look you like. They’ll be painted along with its pumpkin.

Set up a paint station outside. For me it was the ground. I used an old tree stand and ugly wide mouth vase to hold the pumpkins while spraying and drying. Start spraying the bottoms first, let dry well before giving them the flip. Black will cover nicely and white goes on great! But as for the gold pumpkins, you’ll need to base coat them first with white. Gold paint is too expensive to do several coats. You should find that you’ll only need one gold coat if you made a base coat.

Spray paints are quite an investment for just hobbying around. But using them smartly will enable you to work with many more projects down the road. While your spending - consider a clear coat spray as well. These four paints will complement your craft collection immensely.

After the pumpkins dry...they are simply beautiful! You could stop working on them now and decorate your porch or you may choose to glitter some too. So far this craft could be done with supervised school-aged kids, but now we come to the part that the littlest ones can enjoy too. Glittering! This cute and bright crazy color glitter pumpkin can be done by anyone. Or you could write and draw. I found this to be easier when I first painted my design in craft paint. Choose craft paint color that will work as a backing color to the glitter (this will help the glitter look brighter). And now you’ve got some beautiful pumpkins to display and delight your neighborhood.

Black Cat Pencil Toppers

2008-10-28T16:39:00.020-07:00

BLACK CAT PENCIL TOPPERS

Items Used:
Black Cat Pattern (click here for PDF)
Black Pipe Cleaners
Pencils
White Glue
Black Glitter (I used Marcasite)
Detail Scissors
Paint Brush
Sharpie Marker
Optional Spray Adhesive

I recently saw these cute cats at the Better Homes and Gardens website. I re-created a template that turns out to be easier than theirs, and you may use it. Check above for PDF. Print out on cardstock and you’ll be ready to go!

Cut out 2 cats for each pencil. After you make the cut out, take your marker to the white side (wrong side) and color around the edges and cut sides. This will fill in any slight differences in the two pieces. Take the marker and fill any white spots on the front of the cat too.

Take 1 cat body (working on the inside white area) and paint glue fully on the head and neck. Stop at the shoulders and run a fine bead of glue them, please check the picture guide. Take the second cat body and place and match together the white sides. You are trying to create a pocket in the main cat body for the tail and pencil.

Glitter time. If you intend to use spray adhesive, you’ll glue the eyes on after glittering. White glue folks may glue the eyes on first, use a paint brush and neatly surround the eyes with glue, and then do the overall black glitter. (check the bottom feet area of the cat-I almost glued them shut during glittering.)

Let dry. Play with you black pipe cleaner pussycat tail. Twist and spiral to your liking. Put glue on the end of the tail (about an half inch) and place into the cat body cavity. Follow with a lightly glued pencil. Let dry and enjoy!

Pumpkin Globe

2008-10-05T09:23:00.014-07:00

Pumpkin Globe Votive (new word for kids: Decoupage)

Items Needed:
A Glass Container (almost anything glass)
White Glue
Paint Brush
Orange Tissue Paper (and a little yellow if its handy)
Black Crepe Paper Roll
Votive Candle

While shopping the other day at my favorite dollar store (The Dollar Tree) I saw some new pieces in the glass aisle, an 7 inch globe. Big enough for a fighting fish. And this new craft idea flew into my head. I’d just left the wrapping paper area and I remembered the Halloween crepe and tissue papers. And suddenly a could “see” jars and bowls and votive glasses and drinking glasses covered in torn tissue with cute black crepe Halloween faces on them.

To start, gather your materials. I took a half page of orange tissue page and ripped it up in squares (kinda) from 1 inch to most about 2 inches big. I grabbed a little bit of yellow into the mix too. The glass container is a great place to store the torn tissue. I used the glue straight from the bottle and painted some patches on the jar (randomly spread spots). These first patches are meant for the yellow squares (if you are using any yellow). At this point I took the first photo of the project. I continued to decoupage with orange on 1 side of the bowl. I am aiming for one layer depth with overlapping for the best effects of dark and light filtering through. It’s fine to be sloppy with the glue, it dries clear and is very forgiving. My side was dry when Jachob began to work on his side. He examined my previous work and just took off with painting and patching. A folded towel beneath his work area keep the glass from moving about. (Don’t take your eyes off a young kid for a moment, glass and fingers and a tile floor do not mix) We tried to be neat where it counts, and that would be the top and bottom. I kept the bottom clear of any glue so that it would sit well and be stable for the candle, and a candle would emphasize a raggy edge around the lip.

The face is cut from black streamer. I took a long length (who measures a streamer?) and made sure I ‘d folded for six layers. I want the face to be dark when lit up. Then I freehand cut the triangles. And now we have two layers for each eye and nose. With the mouth, I took a random length and sight measured where the smile would lie and how large it should be to complement the face. (I did this thinking on the eyes too, but just now realized it) My smile turns out to be about 5 inches, so I’ll need a foot of crepe. Fold in half and again. Where the fold is—is the largest part of the smile with the open end as the points. Just like cutting snowflakes, cut a nice half of a quarter moon from the whole folded piece. Open it up to the two layers the smile has become, and check if you like the shape. Crepe paper is cheap! If it’s what you like, then fold once and on the fold at bottom of the smile cut a half tooth out. Still folded, on the top cut a whole tooth about an inch in from the fold. Open and you have a cute double layer Pumpkin smile. Better yet!....make the face anyway you want, have fun. There’s a picture showing how wet and sloppy the item looks while drying. Either almost dry or completely, a light coat of glue re-applied over the whole globe gives it nice finished appearance. I lit my little craft on my front porch and I’m very pleased with my new Halloween votive. And best of all Jake was happy.

Pencil Toppers

2008-10-05T08:32:00.006-07:00

Pencil Toppers
(a simple “see & make project”)

Pencils
White Glue
Pipe Cleaners
and stuffola from all over the house and yard.

This is a no-cost project, it’s a goal. My husband loves no cost projects. I’m sure you over the top crafters like me know what I am saying here…

I ransacked my junk. I found a charm from Christmas time and a crocheted snowflake. I plucked the feathers from a ladies toy fan, located some pony beads and googlie eyes and ribbon and found some new and old pencils. Everything I made was simply whipped up from my imagination. And that’s a goal I’d like your older child to try and accomplice. Abstract thinking is a great exercise for the brain. Here we create something cool from loose objects. My niece Holly created a quick pencil after I emailed this craft to my sister Kemi (she’s the one who does the web work) Please enjoy and also send us a photo of your child’s creation. It’s a great idea to keep kids busy on a sleepover night or party, and they make great gifts for friends and family.