Love Hearts

The new challenge for the next two weeks at Sugar Creek Hollow is called YOUR FLAG COLORS.  We want you to make a vintage or shabby chic card or other paper-crafted project using only the colours of the flag of the country you live in.  Since I live in Canada my card is red and white while the ladies from the US and the UK that are on the Design Team have used red, white and blue on their projects since those are the colors of their flags. So now that you know how this works we want to see the colors of your flag.

We have a Guest Designer with us too this time.  Please make Sanja Grdinic feel welcome.  Oh and by the way, she is from Croatia and her flag is also red, white and blue.

I printed a bunch of different red and white papers from various digital files I had and used the Moroccan one for the background.  I also pulled out a few scraps from my stash.  Then I made a rolled paper heart from the various papers.  I also made a heart from corrugated paper.  The rolled paper heart is finished with some ric rac around the edge, a lace border along with a crinkled ribbon seam binding and a paper rose.  The other heart was inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink and then coated with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle.  It too was finished with a crinkled seam binding bow and a paper rose.

The big flower was made by altering various sizes of paper flowers using Fired Brick Distress Ink and some Pearl Glimmer Mist and then finishing it with a paper rose in the centre.  The main band is red burlap with a narrower band of white crepe paper.  The little hearts were punched and then stamped with a little alphabet set and some red ink.

The supplies for this card are:

Card Stock:  Staples
Papers:  Corrugated Cardboard (The Funkie Junkie), Crafty Card Making, Mel B. Stampz & My Stash
Tools & Embellishments:  Alphabet Stamp (Hampton Arts), Paper Flowers (Prima & Recollections), Ranger's Fired Brick Distress Ink (The Funkie Junkie), Mini Heart Stamp (Marvy Uchida), Crepe Paper & Red Burlap (The Funkie Junkie), Ric Rac & Lace (My Stash), Red Paper Roses (Excelsior Wholesale), Seam Binding (Hug Snug), Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels)

Come Into My Garden

The new challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow is called MIXED MEDIA so we want you to use other things besides paper in your vintage or shabby chic project.

I don't think my project is either vintage or shabby chic and it certainly looked better in my head (don't you just hate when that happens) but it was fun to do.  I have a dear friend who is going to have knee replacement surgery in a couple weeks and I wanted to make something cheerful for her so I decided to make this canvas vignette. 

Here are the details but it is going to be a long post so if you are interested, I suggest you grab a coffee - or better still a glass of wine.

I started with an 8" x 8" canvas that I picked up at Dollarama and gave it a coat of Liquitex Gesso.  Then I took some Golden Light Molding Paste and spread it thinly over a honeycomb stencil that a friend cut for me with her Cameo and then peeled the stencil back.  I also dabbed some of the paste in a couple of spots - just because I could.

Once the paste was dry I painted it with Folk Art French Blue and then I covered most of that up (daaah) with different colours of Golden Fluid Acrylics (Yellow Ochre, Green Gold, Naples Yellow Hue & Burnt Sienna).  I thinned out some Golden Red Oxide and spritzed it over the stencil hoping it would land in the grooves and I suppose if you look really, really close you can see some.

The gate is made with corrugated cardboard that I coated with Mod Podge and then inked with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink (Ranger).  The hinges are just black card stock and the handle is a shelf peg from my husband's tool box.  The fence was cut from Recollections Kraft card stock using my Cameo and was then inked with some Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distress Inks (Ranger).  The grass was part of the same file as the fence and I inked it with some Forest Moss Distress Ink (Ranger).

The plant pots were both made from foil tape used by heating & air conditioning techs.  The big one was embossed with a Tim Holtz Honeycomb Texture Fade while the hanging pot was just textured using an embossing stylus.  Both pots were coloured with a combination of Terra Cotta and Butterscotch Adirondack Alcohol Inks (Ranger).

The flowers were all made from paint samples that I grabbed from Home Depot and cut with a variety of EK Paper Shapers flower punches.  I used Making Memories brads for the centres in the flowers in the big pot, Dollarama gems for the little yellow flowers and Recollection pearl stickers in the flowers in the hanging pot.  The leaves are cut from some ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

I made the sentiment in Photoshop and cut it using a Spellbinders Labels Ten die.  The Welcome sign was computer generated.  Both were inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger) and hung with some copper wire from Artistic Wire and a black brad from Making Memories.  The hangers were cut from Recollections black card stock using my Cameo and a corner file from Bird's Cards.

The sun was made with a Marvy Uchida punch and inked with some Rusty Hinge & Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger).  The butterfly was a silver charm from my stash and I dabbed it with some Terra Cotta Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Ranger) along with some bright green and bright blue that don't have names on the bottles (gee thanks Ranger).  The bee, lady bug and dragon fly are all buttons from Dress It Up.

Whew - are you still with me?  If you are bring your wine and join me in the garden - I like red by the way :)

Step Into Christmas

If you have read my blog lately you will know that I just returned on Tuesday night from a week in Maryland with the lovely Ann English.  I met Ann when we were both on the Phindy's Place DT  as well as through Sassy Cheryl's PCP group.  Before we left her house to head for the airport on Tuesday, I checked the challenge at Sassy Cheryl's and lo and behold Ann was the one who set the challenge this week (she keeps a secret well).  She wants us to create STEP CARDS so in between loads of laundry and ironing yesterday, I created this Christmas card.

I have never tried a side step card before so thought that might be fun to tackle.  It isn't difficult at all as long as you pay attention to where you are cutting, which I didn't the first time - dah.  The card base was made from Recollections card stock and the paper is from an old Provo Craft paper pad.  I raided my scrap bucket for the card stock to make the trees, which were hand cut, embossed with a Snowflake & Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug and then dotted with a few pearl stickers from Recollections.

The sentiment is computer generated and the Sassy Cheryl's image was a freebie once upon a time.  The snowflake was cut using the Create A Flake Two die from Spellbinders.  The ribbon started out as Chalk White Hug Snug Seam Binding but I transformed it by dying it with Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage & Broken China Distress Ink from Ranger.  The edges of the image & sentiment were inked with the Bundled Sage Distress Ink.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Sassy Cheryl's - Step Card
ABC Challenge - O is for Open
A and T Emerald Faeries - Dies/Punches
Country View Challenges - Die Cuts
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use your favourite embellishments (Pearls)
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Anything Goes (must be Christmas)

Father's Day Collage

The new challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow is a timely one - FATHER'S DAY.  Don't forget, we are a vintage and shabby chic challenge blog so we want to see a card or other paper-crafted project in one of those styles.

Ragnhild is joining us this week as Guest Designer, so please check out her card and the inspiration she provides along with the wonderful inspiration from our Design Team.

I decided to make a collage style card for my husband since my Father passed away 30 years ago. The background paper is from My Mind's Eye and I stamped the keys from a set by TPC Studio.  The horse is from The Graphic's Fairy and the clock is a digital element from Cuddlebeez (no longer online).  The car is a stamp from Indigo Blu and the sentiment was computer generated.

I cut the gate hinge with my Cameo using Tim Holtz Grunge Paper and then inked it with some Terra Cotta and Rust Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Ranger).  The butterfly was a gift from a friend and the metal washer is from my husband's tool box.  The lock, paper clip and the pin are from Tim Holtz.  The gear is from Bead Landings and the button was in my stash.  The bottle cap came from Labatt's after my husband drank the beer for me (I am a red wine or scotch gal) - LOL.  I made the insert using the same font as I did for the word Father and then added an open frame digital element from C. Renee.  All the distressing has been done with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger)

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

C.R.A.F.T. - Father's Day/Male
Delightful Challenges - For Dad
Paper Crafting Journey - Masculine Cards
Happy Campers - Use Metal
Shelly's Images - Show Us What You've Got
Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
The Stamping Chef - Metal
Celebrate The Occasion - Fluttering By (must use butterfly)
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Auto/Car
Creative Craft Challenges 2 - For the Fellas
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes