Sweet Treats

Hello blog friends,

With Christmas and 2014 around the corner this is the last challenge for the year 2013 at Sugar Creek Hollow. The theme for this challenge is to make cards or any other paper-crafted projects using items you have recycled or repurposed. You can make anything you wish but it must be in the vintage – or shabby chic style. We also have Laney Delaney as our guest designer for this challenge. You can see more of her  beautiful work at her blog Laney’s Place.

I decided to make gift boxes and fill them with chocolates. A Sizzix Birdhouse 3-D XL die was used to cut the shapes from empty  breakfast cereal boxes. I love to recycle these cardboard boxes as they are very sturdy. The roofs were cut from an old white corrugated gift box. The kraft side was then painted with Tim Holtz distress paint and leave to dry to form fine cracks on the surface. After completely dry, I distressed the boxes with Tim Holtz distress ink “Vintage Photo” for a weathered effect. After assembling the birdhouses the fun part was to decorate and embellish each one differently but to keep the red, white, green and silver theme. The boxes were filled with some yummy chocolate-coated coconut treats. The family and friends will definitely love what is inside and I hope they will love the outside as well! The 3 easy steps in photos:

I would love to enter my project in the following challenges:

• Crafting for all Seasons Challenge #67 ( ends 01/06) – Anything Christmas but a Card
• Divas By Design Challenge (ends 01/08) – Anything Goes
• Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge  R#154 (ends 12/20) – Christmas Chaos
• Crafty Catz Challenge #211 (ends 12/20) – Anything Goes
• The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge (ends 12/22) – Christmas Sparkle
• Cuttlebug Mania Challenge (ends 12/16) – Anything Goes Christmas (Dies used: Sizzix Birdhouse, 3-D Scoreboards XL die (658451), Marianne Design Creatables (LR0106), Spellbinders Shapeabilities “Antique Frame and Accents”
• Card and Scrap Utfordring #66 (ends 12/28) – Jul..Lag hva du Vil
• Feeling Crafty Challenge #23 (ends 12/31) – Christmas
• The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge #18 (ends 12/28) – Christmas

Close ups of the individual gift boxes. I used die cut corners, seam binding, pearls, paper roses and a little wreath charm to decorate this little box.

This one is decorated with lace on the edge of the roof, a hanging pearl and crystal and a little sentiment banner. To me it looks like a little church.

A silver heart with a red rhinestone heart inside give this one a country feel. I added silver wire at the bottom for extra bling and texture with the pompom lace.

The boxes open at the bottom and are filled with chocolate coated coconut treats.

Project details:

• Recycled cereal boxes
• Recycled corrugated gift box
• Sizzix Birdhouse, 3-D Scoreboards XL die (658451)
• Tim Holtz distress paint “Picket Fence”
• Tim Holtz distress ink “Vintage photo”
• Marianne Design Creatables (LR0106)
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities “Antique Frame and Accents”
• Sentiment stamp unknown
• Lace
• Pearls
• Silver wire
• Gemstones
• Paper roses
• Charms
• Hug Snug seam binding “Lipstick Red”
• Skwiglues “Crystal”

Thanks for visiting today, I appreciate your visits and comments so much. Hope to see your recycled or repurposed project at Sugar Creek Hollow – there is plenty of time to enter as this challenge closes on January 3, 2014. Have a wonderful day and happy crafting.

Regards from South Africa,

Amelia