Beautiful Borders at SCH

It's time for another sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow.  Our challenge this week is to create a vintage or shabby chic style card using fancy borders.  So get out your die cuts, punches and other goodies that help you produce beautiful edges on your projects.

We will be choosing a random winner who will receive a digi of our choice and a winner's badge to display on her blog. In addition, the Design Team will choose one project as Card of the Week and the creator will receive a badge to display on her blog and will be in the running for a Guest Designer spot.

My card features the borders created with the Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles dies.  I used two of the different sizes.  I also used the Deckled Rectangles die just behind the main stamped panel. The stamped image is from the set Studio Sketches at Stampin Up.  A bit of ribbon laced through the border and a few vintage decorative brads and a punched flower are the finishing touches to this card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Cheers To You!

Cheers to you my faithful followers and bloggers! It's Wednesday and you all know what that means... another Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge and the return of our monthly sponsor Digi Stamp Boutique.

Here's the fun sketch this week - another favorite pulled from the past. It's a quick and easy one to put together but with enough detail to really showcase your image.

Digi Stamp Boutique is this week's sponsor and the owner, Sally Ann Hancock is providing the Grand Prize winner of the challenge with 6 digi images of your choice from the Digi Stamp Boutique store. Thanks Sally Ann - we love your images and your monthly sponsorship of Sweet Sketch Wednesday!

I just couldn't resist this fun image of Alf with his beer. I thought this was a perfect card for a friend that just recently got promoted.  He was colored with Copics and I used the fun, bright papers from My Mind's Eye "Fly a Kite" collection.  The orange braid border was created with an EK Success border punch. The Party Time stamp used as the sketch embellishment is from Stampin Up.

Now be sure to stop by the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog and see the rest of the design team creations this week. I do hope you'll find some time to play along in our challenge this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow

Welcome to another Sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow! I know it's August and has been so hot in so many areas but now it's time to cool things down and think Christmas this week. 

Our challenge is to create a Vintage Christmas card. We want you to put away your cute images and find a vintage Christmas image in your craft room or online. For this challenge you also need to get out your most vintage papers and embellishments and have fun distressing - just generally making your card look old and vintage!

You can see on my vintage Christmas card I did a lot of distressing with inks and by scruffing up the edges of my card stock.  I used a really old Christmas stamp from Stampin Up! (Old Fashioned Christmas) and added a touch of color with Prismacolor pencils - just enough color to make it look faded from age. The doily die cut is Spellbinders Parisian Motifs - I love this die.  A little vintage lace and the card is complete.

Now take a look at the Sugar Creek Hollow design team vintage creations - you'll be inspired.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just a Year Wiser

Today I'm showcasing one of the wonderful images from Doodle Pantry. This owl was released at Doodle Pantry last month and it's a perfect image for masculine cards.   I'm trying to stock up on my guy cards because of several birthdays coming up and this image was first on my list.  You can find the image HERE at the Doodle Pantry Store.

It's such a striking image.  I colored it in Copics (W1, W3, W5, YG91, YG95, YR23, E33, E35, E37), sponged the panel with Kiwi ink and used the Spellbinders Labels #18 diecut.  The papers are from Stampin' Up. The inside sentiment reads "You're not a year older, just a year wiser" which I thought was fitting with the owl.

The Doodle Pantry "Stock the Pantry" challenge is going on.  All you have to do is create a card or paper project using a Doodle Pantry image.  There's plenty of great freebies at the Doodle Pantry Store to try out - we'd love to have you join the challenge this month.  There will be three winners chosen and each will get a free Doodle Pantry image of their choice.  Hope to see your creation in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sugar Creek Hollow Challenges

Welcome! It's another sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow!  This week we have a color challenge for you...

The colors are Purple, Black and Kraft - create a vintage, shabby chic or primitive style card or paper project using these colors.  I do hope you'll join us this week at Sugar Creek Hollow.

On my card for this challenge I used stamps from three Stampin Up sets:  Notably Ornate, Artistic Etchings and Clearly for You.  It's been a while where I didn't use Copic markers or any designer papers at all in making a card. This was all about turning plain cardstock into something and about rubber and it felt good!

Now visit the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge blog and see the inspiration the design team is offering this week!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

I'm a Lollipop Girl!

Today is one for celebration!  I am officially a Lollipop Girl for By LORi Designs and so excited about this opportunity. I had applied for the team as they were expanding to add a challenge team late last year. There is an amazing group of talent that LORi Boyd has brought on to design for her and I'm honored to be among them.

Here's this week's color palette for the By LORi Designs Challenge.  This is a great set of colors - I have always been partial to lavenders and greens together but I like the added twist with the pink and brown here. The official color palette is Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery and Early Expresso.

This is a new special edition image at By LORi Designs - it incorporates three individual images into one digi called "Friends Forever". This special edition digi was created by Arielle Gordon using By LORi Design and Hannah Boyd images and you can find it HERE at the By LORi Designs shop.

This time I colored the image using both Copic and Stampin Up markers. Some Pink Pirouette and Early Expresso sponging was done on the image panel.  I hand cut around the balloons so they would overlap my circle Nestie before die cutting so they would hang outside the die cut. This gives it some interest and dimension. The papers used here are digital papers from Sheri K Designs and had three of the four challenge colors in them. It was finished off with a Razzleberry and Celery ribbon bow topped with a pink button. The card is for my daughter's good friend who has a special milestone birthday celebration coming up this weekend.

Now why don't you join us in the challenge this week? Create a card using the challenge colors and a By LORi Designs digi - there are darling images available for as low as $1 in the By LORi Designs shop. Each week the team will vote on a top Lollipop card and that winner will receive a free digi from the BLD shop and have an opportunity to be the guest designer for the next challenge. How cool is that?!

And now for some incredible inspiration, visit the By LORi Designs challenge blog HERE to see the brand new design team and what they've created using BLD images and the challenge colors this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chili Chihuahua - Meljen Challenge 41

I have a spicy hot card tonight for the Meljens Designs challenge! This hot number is called Chili Chihuahua and it's my entry into Challenge 41 - Square or Round shape cards. I couldn't resist the challenge to make a round card - I mean how often do you really create round cards? And this one was a fun one with this adorable image.  You can find the current challenge here and quite a bit of inspiration too from Meljen's talented design team.

I colored Mr. Chili here with Copics, added some sparkle with a glitter gel pen, layered it with lots of layers thanks to Spellbinders Nestie dies and used Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety papers and SU cardstock in Poppy, Artichoke and Summer Sun.  A quick one but fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Doodle Pantry Challenge - DPDC5

What a fun day off I've had today. I had some extra time to just play in my craft room and decided to make up this darling image from Doodle Pantry and play in their challenge - DPDC5. This image is called "Branch Birds 2" and it just cracks me up with the sentiment "Dare to be Different"!  The challenge simply calls for using a Doodle Pantry image and that's fine by me - I love the cute and whimsical images that Laurie Wilson creates.

I used Prismacolor pencils with gamsol blending solution to color these adorable birds. I think the pencils provide a soft look here but still rich with color. I've used Basic Grey papers - Sugar Rush Pulled Taffy and Romani Collico and Stampin Up's Peach Parfait cardstock. The border punch is EK Success - just picked it up this morning at Joanne's while my son was at baseball practice next door (got to love that!).

That's it for today. Back to work tomorrow so I'm signing off early tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Sugar Creek Hollow Sensational Saturday

Saturday greetings to everyone!  I myself am thrilled it's Saturday because I need the break from the hectic pace at work and most importantly because that means it's time to focus on Sugar Creek Hollow today. We'd love for you to join us in our color challenge this week. The winner will win a Sugar Creek Hollow digi stamp like the one I'm featuring here. 

This week we are challenged to use these colors in a "shabby" card. 

I thought right away of this darling snowlady digi called " Bad Hair Day". I think she's perfect for a shabby card and I just love her.  You can find her in the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe.

Doesn't she look pretty paper pieced in pink?! Not so shabby now.  I used SU "Bella Birds" papers because they were perfect for the color challenge and shabby looking.  A bit of distressing on the papers, some "shabby" stitching and little bit of diamond stickles to make her sparkle and we have a card that would delight anyone. 

Be sure to visit the blogs of our Design Team - you'll be inspired and awed by their creativity.  Links to their sites are on my left sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Charming" PDCC51 & Exciting News!

A quick post tonight with an exciting announcement and a card I'm entering in the Play Date Cafe color challenge this week (PDCC51).  This card also uses a wonderful sketch by Arlana Patten for Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  I'll start with details on the card...

Colors this week at the Play Date Cafe are beige, blue and a touch of light mint.  I like these colors together and what an interesting inspiration photo selected this week from Sarah Anderson! 

I've used Stampin' Up's "Charming" stamp set for this card and SU colors Marina Mist, Crumb Cake and Vanilla.  The DP is "Blueberry Crisp" from Stampin' Up as well.

 My touch of mint comes into play on the butterflies - they're even glittered in a mint color!

 Now for the fabulous news today:  Arlana at Sweet Sketch Wednesday asked me to join her design team - and of course I am!  Took me all of 30 seconds to make that decision!  I am honored by the invitation - lots of talent and creativity on that design team.  I love the weekly sketches at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and am really looking forward to this experience starting the first Wednesday in November.  So stay tuned - even more goodness coming here to my blog!

Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe:

Stamps - Stampin' Up "Charming"

Paper - Stampin' Up "Blueberry Crisp DP, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake and Vanilla cardstock

Ink - Crumb Cake, Marina Mist

Accessories - Spellbinders Starburst Nestabilities dies; SU Marina Mist taffeta ribbon; PTI button

Butterfly Angel - SCH Color Challenge!

Welcome to another sensational Saturday with Sugar Creek Hollow! This week we're challenging you to use a beautiful color combination - it's Baja Breeze, Expresso and Kraft (or tan color paper).  Won't you join us this week in creating a card with these colors?  You could win a free digi stamp at the Sugar Creek Hollow Shoppe by entering a card in this color challenge - how fun is that?!  Follow the link above to the Sugar Creek Hollow blog to enter your card using these colors in the challenge.

For my SCH image this week I chose this wonderful digi called "Butterfly Angel".  I love her glittery wings and the unique trail of snowflakes she leaves behind.  I've also used the SCH sentiment "Peace on Earth" as finishing touch to this Christmas card.

I wish you could see this in real life - all the sparkly snowflakes and shimmer of the wings really set this off.  I used a new MS snowflake edge and corner punch on this and repurposed the snowflakes as embellishments with a bit of glitter on them. 

You can purchase this beautiful Butterfly Angel here at the SCH Shoppe or better yet, win it by playing along in this challenge!  And along the way, why don't you visit the rest of the design team's blogs in my sidebar and leave a little love along the way!

Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe:
Stamps - Sugar Creek Hollow "Butterfly Angel" and "Peace on Earth"; SU French Script BG
Paper - SU Expresso, Baja Breeze, Kraft, Whisper White
Ink - Expresso
Embellishments - MS snowflake edge and corner punch, glitter, Spellbinders deckled edge oval dies

Up For a Challenge! MMSC74 & PDCC50

Alas, it's Sunday night and I'm dreading the work thing tomorrow! So in usual fashion, I've buried myself in my craft room trying to escape from thoughts of the work week and created this card for two challenges. 

I seldom do one card for two challenges but it just worked out that way with this one.  The colors are for the Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC50 - White, Green and Melon.  The wonderful sketch that I followed is compliments of Priscilla at Midnight Madness MMSC74.

When I saw the MMSC74 sketch, I thought of this stamp creation. Can you believe this is created from one single stamp?!  Well it is!  It's a stamp from Holly Berry House that I saw demonstrated at a craft show this summer.  I had intended to do just this with it - a single statement/focal point for Christmas cards.  Thanks to Julie Ranae at the Play Date Cafe, I'm getting an early start on my cards!  The green and white ornate panels are a digital stamp from Sugar Creek Hollow - a new one from the Christmas image release.

This picture shows the layers achieved with this single stamp.  To create this effect, you stamp the image on different colors of cardstock and cut out each layer following a variety of cutting lines.  Truly the sky is the limit on how many unique medallions you can create with the one stamp.  Here I chose three varying shades of green and three varying intensities of melon.  In all, there are eight layers to created this medallion.  Not difficult, just a lot of cutting. In the end, it looks very dramatic and has a grand presence on a card. 

Tell me what you think by leaving a comment below.  Thanks for stopping by!

P.S.  Those who visit my blog regularly will notice I've changed my look for Fall.  I haven't given up on my cherries theme - just retiring it until next spring.  All the papers and embellishments used to create this blog look were purchasing through Shabby Miss Jen designs.  A link to the SMJ website is on my left sidebar.

Recipe:

Stamps - Sugar Creek Hollow "Christmas Plaque"; Holly Berry House "1343L"

Paper - Papertrey Ink White, Melon Berry, Avocado; SU Poppy, Regal Rose, Olive, Celery

Accessories - Glitter stickers, red pearl brads from Recollections; Spellbinders "In Spades" die (ribbon embellishments), Cuttlebug embossing folder