Sugar Creek Hollow - for St. Patrick evermore

This week at Sugar Creek Hollow, our theme is "Green... green and more green!". Yes, we're thinking monochromatic... and it's perfect timing with St. Patrick's Day just a few days away. That's one of my favorite holidays... and since I'm such a foodie, it's a great day for cooking up all kinds of things.. Irish soda bread, corned beef and cabbage and perhaps after all that time in the kitchen I'll treat myself to a nip of Baileys to end a perfect day.


St. Patrick's Day is a big deal here at our house and cards for family and friends are very much in order. This is one that is going to be sent to one of my dear Irish friends.

This was pretty easy to pull together. My image is a download from Cora's Clearly Vintage blog where there's lots of great (free!) vintage pics. Using kraft paper as my base, I used an embossing folder and then stamped the four leaf clovers using SU ink.  The ribbon and twine are part of the February Ribbon Club Kit from the Ribbon Carousel, and the metal tag is from my stash.. origin unknown.


I'm also entering this in these challenges today...


Alphabet Challenge – Celebrate St. Patrick's Day or Good Luck

ATCs & Cards With Attitude – Anything

Card Crafters Circle – Orange & Green/St. Patrick's Day

Card Makin' Mamas - Green

Clearly Inspired - Anything

Fabulous Friday – Kraft Paper

Hotshot Crafts – Ribbon

Phindy’s Place - Monochromatic Green

Raise The Bar – Go Green

Simply Create Too - I'm So Lucky

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out the challenge for Sugar Creek Hollow today. If you get a chance, create something vintage, primitive or shabby chic, keep it monochromatic green, and then link it up to join us in the challenge. One very lucky random winner will receive a digi of our choice and a winner's badge to display. The Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week and the creator will receive a badge and will be in the running for a Guest Designer spot. It's a fun challenge and I hope that you will join us this week and show us your inspiration.

I hope to see you there! Have a fantastic day and weekend, friends.

Sugar Creek Hollow - Trash to Treasure

This week's challenge st Sugar Creek Hollow is to rescue something that was headed to the trash bin and then use in your project to create a treasure that is vintage, shabby chic, or primitive in keeping with our challenge style.  Our designers have gone all out and made some fabulous projects to inspire you - just click on their names at our challenge blog.

This week, one random winner will receive a digi of our choice and a winner's badge to display.  The Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week and the creator will receive a badge and will be in the running for a Guest Designer spot.

Perhaps I'm not alone on this.. but I do love little boxes made out of just about any material...paper, wood, cardboard... you name it.  'Not sure how I developed this love, but it's really hard for me to part with some of the boxes that I happen upon or receive that held a cute little gift.. Maybe I was a package designer in a previous life?  Not sure.. I'll have to ask Shirley MacLaine next time I see her. LOL


Just a very simple box, but I do like the outcome. This little box has been in my 'gotta do something with this' pile for quite some time. It housed the cutest heart-shaped bar of rose-scented soap and the box still smells like heaven.


Here's the 'before' to give you an idea of what I worked with. The box is 2.25" x 2.0" and opens up to become an explosion box.

I selected a designer paper that was vintage looking and covered the panels leaving the gold trim on the box exposed as a contrast. Here's a look at the covered panels viewed from the bottom of the box.  

The pieces of wool and cashmere felt are the same that I used to create these roses... You might remember some of my more recent projects using the same green leaves that I used here. That green cashmere was the most gorgeous cashmere sweater.. one of my all time favs. It's also the one that my darling husband shrunk when doing laundry... when he got through with it, it would have fit a teddy bear. It does make the best leaves for all kinds of knitted and paper projects but I sure miss that beautiful sweater. 

Using pieces from the cashmere sweater, I just run it through a Sizzix die cut to make leaves.

The flowers were the easiest things to make.. really, I promise you!  I also created this second bouquet all within an hour or so. I've got plans for this orange bouquet that involves knitting and I'll share that with you in the near future once it's done.

If you would like to know how to make these felt roses, check out Pinterest and do a quick search. If you aren't a member of Pinterest yet, I think it's grown so much and so quickly that new peeps need an invitation.. I'd be happy to send you one if you let me know your email address when you comment. Once at the Pinterest site, you will be amazed at everything you can find with a few keystrokes. 

Fair warning:  Pinterest is extremely habit-forming, causes users to get big circles under their eyes, stay up much too late,  miss dental appointments, spend more on craft materials and could lead to grounds for divorce!!  HA.

Thanks so much for stopping by, friends.. have a fantastic weekend. I hope to see you at our challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow.

Catered Crop

We've got a new challenge going on at Catered Crop... and it's to create a card or paper project using newsprint/bookprint/script which has been a hot element in card-making for quite some time.  We always have an inspiration board to share with you...our Top Chef, Linda McClain always creates the best boards. And, this week we're sponsored by Texana  Designs - so check out their unique stamp collection.

I wanted to create a homespun/vintage look and I think this fits the bill. The image is not colored with pencils or markers, but is a digital download I found online at the Graphics Fairy... what wonderful things you can find there.

I did the crackle technique over the rooster image using several coats of UTEE. I chose to use a page from an elementary school version of Webster's Dictionary for the newsprint and everything was antiqued with distress inks. It was an enjoyable project to pull together.

Check out all of the great projects that the Catered Crop design team ladies have put together. What a talented bunch they are! I hope you will come an join us in this fun challenge.


Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Something spooled - Twine & Ribbon
Stamp-N-Doodle - Include an Animal
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Birds of a Feather
Crafty Bloggers Network - Distressing
Creative Stamp Friends - Old-Fashioned or antique
Critter Sketch -  3 embellishments
Heart Song Inspirations - Red, white and/or Ribbon  
Lollipop Crafts - Wing it
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Make it Monday with Kraft - Kraft cardstock - "Tie It Up"
Scrappers Delights - Anything goes
The Crazy Challenge - Vintage
The Ribbon Reel - Ribbons/twine, button
Truly Madly Crafty Challenges - Anything goes

Sugar Creek Hollow - Save a Tree

This is the first challenge of 2012 at Sugar Creek Hollow. This week, the design team's challenge is for us to save a few trees and what a great way to start off the new year. So, for this challenge we need to repurpose paper towels, toilet paper or coffee filters. Instead of buying more supplies for your project think outside the box...just grab one of the above items and transform it to incorporate into your vintage, shabby chic or primitive card or other paper-crafted project.

After giving this a bit of thought, I created this card.

I took a stack of coffee filters and ran them through my Big Shot using the Nesties round/scallop dies in three sizes. Then I wasn't crazy about the size I had created and trimmed the outer petals down drastically. The petals are tinted with a light touch of SU's Blush Blossom ink and the flower is held together with a small pink brad. The end result really reminded me of the Peony's that bloom every Spring in my garden and I wish I had a picture to share with you. The color is spot-on! The poster is repurposed from a Paris 2010 calendar given to me by my good friend, Sally. I just couldn't part with these pics when the year was up. The print on the chipboard scroll is from an old Webster's Elementary Dictionary... circa 1962.

For our prize this week, one random winner will receive a digi selected by Sugar Creek Hollow and a winner's badge for their blog. In addition, the Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week and the lucky creator will receive a badge and will be in the running for a Guest Designer spot.

Our new Design Team is in place and they've got some great inspiration for you this week. All details on their re-purposed projects are on their blogs... so I hope you will take a look and leave them a little love. I do hope that you will join us in this fun challenge this week.

Here's the rest of the talented ladies of the Sugar Creek Hollow Design Team

Tracy

Cec

Daniele

Linda

Patti

Renee

I'm also entering this in these challenges:

CardMakin' Mamas -  Something New - new technique

Fairy Tale - Something New - new technique

Fashionista Friday -  Use up Stash

Fun with Shapes& More - Die cut or punch and no Black Lines

Jellypark Challenges - Something Old & Something New

Simply CreateToo - More than 2 Layers

See you later this week.. and in the meantime, have a fantastic day!

Silent Night, Holy Night

Another card with untraditional Christmas colors as I practice more shabby chic and vintage designs. My new daughter-in-law just fell in love with this card, so it's already slated to give to her and my son for Christmas. (They aren't blog followers, so it's cool!). I wanted to share this with you before it heads out the door.

I love the combination of kraft and pale blue.. there's something so calming about the combination and who couldn't use a bit more 'calm' at this time of year. There's snow and glitter on the swirl chipboard, all is antiqued with Tim Holtz' Tea Dye distress ink, the ribbon is seam binding that I dyed with a copic pen using an air brush. The charm is one that I had in my ever-growing stash.

This card is perfect for this time of year and all of the Christmas challenges right now. So, I'm going into overload and entering this in these challenges: 

• 4 Crafty Chicks - Christmas Card
• AiFactory - Christmas
• Aud Sentiments Challenge - Any Winter Holiday Sentiment
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas Card with Removable Item
• Colour Create - Blue, Silver, White w/ embossing
• Crafty Purple Frog - It`s Cold Outside
• Crimbo Crackers - Christmas with embossing 
• Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes
• Do You Stack Up? - Inspiration Picture: Winter
• Meljens Designs - No rectangle cards
• Paper Crafting Journey - Christmas
• Paper Play - Christmas
• Shelly's Images - Anything Goes
• Southern Girls - Lets Celebrate
• ABC Christmas Challenge - Christmas
• Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything goes
• Crafting for all Seasons - Christmas
• Crafts and Me - Christmas
• Creative Belli - Winter/Christmas
• Digistamps 4 Joy - Christmas, no animals
• Divas by Design - Christmas
• Friendship's Garden - no stamped images - winter holiday
• I Brake For Challenges -Vintage
• Inky Impressions - Winter fun
• Little Darlings Challenges - Christmas
• Little Red Wagon - Christmas
• Penny's Paper-Crafty - Merry Christmas
• Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Christmas
• Scrapbook Sisters - Two colors
• Sisterhood of Crafters  - Christmas
• The Paper Variety - Anything goes
• The Three Muses - Tis the season
• Whimsy Inspiration - Charms

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm hoping all of my friends aren't in the throes of holiday madness and are enjoying some leisurely crafting time.