Lavender Breeze’s Crafting Blog

…my friend Suzanne is celebrating a whopping 50,000 hits (deservedly so as she posts the most amazing array of projects and workshops) by giving away a Joanna Sheen crafting CD. She has listed a selection for the winner to chose from which is very generous. Go along to Suzanne’s Celebration CD Giveaway if you would like a chance to win, and many congratulations Suzanne, your success is thoroughly deserved.

Jo XX

Today I wanted to share with you a couple of cards that I made using sheets from Joanna Sheen’s Village Life Decoupage Pack, a really gorgeous set of vintage scenes, together with some of Joanna’s beautiful backing papers.

The first card was made using an A4 piece of bronze pearlescent card stock folded to create an A5 base card, and pieces of the same card to mat the decoupaged picture and sentiment onto. The backing paper was taken from Joanna’s Paisley Backing Paper Pad, trimmed down and corner punched before being attached to the base. Then the decoupaged topper was added using foam tape, and the sentiment attached to finish.

The second card was constructed using an A4 piece of gold pearlescent card to create an A5 base. This time I took a sheet from Joanna’s Warm Italian Marbled Backing Paper Pad, trimmed this down and attached to the base. Then I took some more backing paper, this time from Joanna’s Victorian Calligraphy Backing Paper Pad, and added this with foam tape, after mounting it onto some bronze pearlescent card. The decoupaged topper was compiled, backed onto some more bronze pearlescent card stock, and attached to the card with DST. Finally the sentiment, backed onto the same bronze card, was added using foam tape.

I hope that you like these two fairly straightforward cards, ideal to give to a male friend or relative.

Thank you for visiting here today. I hope that you are all well and enjoying your crafting. I have a load going round in my head at the moment but happily find that crafting helps to settle my brain and sooth my soul… what a fabulous hobby!

Take care and be safe,

Jo XX

…was the title for this ATC which unfortunately went missing in the post on its way to the lady who was organising the swap. I was so pleased with it at the time because it was the first time that I felt I had managed a decent Stampbord piece… typical lol. Nevermind, these things happen, but I thought that I would share it here. 

I took a piece from a Stampbord ATC blank pack and used a sponge applicator to colour it up using Creamy Brown, Dark Brown, and Chestnut Roan from my Chocolates and Blueberries Cat’s Eye Fluid Chalk Queue inkpads set. I stamped my chosen image from Joanna Sheen’s Wildlife Mushrooms stamp sheet with black Stazon and then coloured the mushroom top with a red Sakura Stardust pen, and watered coloured the leaves and base of the mushroom with a dark green Sakura Startdust pen, after which I used a scratch knife to whiten the mushroom spots and add detail to the cup underside and stalk. To finish I added some pressed leaves from some of my packs of Joanna Sheen’s Ready Pressed Flowers, concluding with some Self Adhesive Pearls and a butterfly from an Artwork Butterflies pack.

I hope that you enjoy this piece and thank you for popping by today.

Jo XX

…she says smirking. This was for another of OH’s friends who has recently purchased a (very posh and expensive) car, so I thought that this would be just the ticket. It is inspired by this card from Joanna Sheen’s website’s project gallery, which is a wonderful resource full to the brim with fantastic ideas.

The image was taken from Joanna Sheen’s American Frontier CD, printed onto gentle gloss photo paper. The base card was an A4 piece of white hammer card, printed with a background taken from the CD, then folded to create an A5 card. The largest image was trimmed, mounted onto black pearlescent card stock, and then applied to the card base with foam tape. I created the sentiment simply in Word, printed it onto cream card, and then mounted this onto more black pearlescent card. Again this was added to the base card using foam tape. To finish, the card was embellished with peel off photo corners to the image and little squares to the sentiment. As I often do, I mounted a smaller print of the image onto the centre back of the card also.

Thank you for visiting my space today.

Take care and be safe,

Jo XX

…is being offered in celebration of Edna’s blog becoming one this month. Many congratulations Edna, your work is truly inspirational, and thank you for offering such a generous gift to mark the occasion.

Here is Edna’s Anniversary Blog Candy.

Jo XX

…now anyone with a naughty mind, please pick your thoughts up off the floor immediately lol… I am talking about a card for a man. With great apologies to any men reading, a great many of you cause us women crafters alot of worry as it is often quite difficult to work out just what sort of card to make.

This card was made for an old friend of my husbands, and being as he is into his wine, I chose this beautiful image from Joanna Sheen’s Victorian Companion CD set. Although I have most of Joanna’s CDs, and love each one, Victorian Companion is the first ever crafting CD I bought, and therefore has a special place for me. I have used it extensively and would highly recommend it as a ’staple’ for any craft room. 

The A5 base card was made from an A4 piece of linen card, printed with one of the matching backing papers from the CD. The second backing paper was also printed onto linen card, and the column of grapes cut from it and mounted onto the front midline of the base card. A piece of plain vellum was cut down to create a partial wrap and punched to make decorative edges before being applied to the card with gold brads at the front seam and tape at the back seam. The image, also printed onto linen card, was mounted onto a square of edge punched vellum before being foam taped onto the front of the card. A miscellaneous sentiment (from an old QVC TSV) was stamped onto an oddment of the second backing paper patterned linen card, then gold fabric ribbon ties were added before it was also mounted onto the card with foam tape.

The reverse of the card was finished with a smaller image and a strip of the second backing paper patterned linen card to hide the DST securing the vellum wrap. An insert was made from a sheet of plain vellum, punched with a decorative lace corner punch, and adhered with the minimum of tape.

An envelope was made using a beautifully rich embossed blue paper from one of Crafter’s Companion’s luxury Enveloper sets, and a tag, for the bottle of wine which we gave as a present, was made simply by backing a small image onto some more linen card and then adding a gold fabric ribbon tie. I’m very pleased to say that both card and wine were gratefully received.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, and for sticking with me even though I post at such irregular intervals at the moment, I do so appreciate your support.

Jo XX