Anything But Cute August Challenge # 16-Shabby Garden Mood Board

Hello friends and visitors! It's time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute, and this time it's the talented and lovely Lisa who is hosting. She has chosen a Shabby Garden Mood Board, and I will give you more details on that in just a moment. But first, here is my wedding card I made for my one of my nieces-Edel and her awesome groom to be, Daniel.

Lisa has this to say about her Shabby Garden theme:  For this challenge, we are asking you to take a stroll through a romantic shabby garden. Create any mixed media project strongly inspired by the mood board. Think flowers and plants in cracked pots, peeling paint bird feeders, distressed timeworn furniture, crumbling statues, soft pastels and feminine accessories. Don't forget to tell us how the mood board inspired your project and have fun!

As you can see I was inspired by Lisa's beautiful mood board--specifically the soft colors, peeling paint, window panes,  hearts, filigree and the sense of romance. I would love to live in a place that looks like this!

Here are a few close ups of my card; I will give you the how-to's at the end of my post. The pink dimensional flowers are hand made using Tammy Tutterow's Shabby Posies and Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals. I colored them with Ranger Antiquities ink in Claret. The foliage is Tim Holtz' Spring Greenery and Tattered Lace's Ornate Leaves colored with Distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. The chippie heart is from Michael's and is painted with gesso. Pearl strand, flower stamens, white silk flowers and lace are from my stash. The butterfly and deep pink roses peeking out are die cuts by K and Company and I've tucked in a Memory Box Quinn Flourish under the flowers.

The chippie birds from my stash were simply painted with Distress Picket Fence Crackle paint. I'm at the end of my jar, and this stuff is so thick I didn't think it would crackle, but looks better than when it was fresh. I "tied the knot" with embroidery thread and Stiffen Stuff fabric stiffener. That's my favorite part about this card!

I love the background paper--I found it in my stash from a LONG time ago--"love, honor, cherish". I couldn't decide to ink it with Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap or Bundled Sage, so I blended on all three colors. I also found a **working** sewing machine in the back of my sewing cabinet, and put that to use around the edges. Special thank you's and hugs to my dear teamie Anne, who helped ease my fears over this. She's written a fabulous tutorial on adding sewing to your artwork here. I dyed some of  the cheesecloth with the Claret ink.

Sizzix Curly Gate makes the window topper and Tim Holtz Window and Window Box die makes the window. I cut two of each and layered them together for extra body. I painted them following a similar method as the barn wood panels behind them. Instructions follow.

Instructions for barn wood panels: 

 1. Paint card with Distress paint, Ground Expresso. Don't worry about how even it looks--the more uneven the better.
2.  Rub Distress Micro Glaze with your finger over random areas on the card, keeping strokes vertical for wood grain.

3.  Brush on a coat of DecoArt White Wash acrylic paint and wipe off with a clean cloth.

4.  Brush on DecoArt Weathered Wood and allow to dry. (Sorry, no pics for this and the following steps.)
5.  Brush on a second coat of White Wash, dry and sand back.
6.  Cut into strips and edge with Ground Expresso Distress ink.
7.  Adhere strips to a base card cut to desired size.

Here is a photo of the completed panel.

 I just had to show you a shot of the window frame and topper by themselves, since they got covered up with flowers and birds. Love the chippy peeled paint look.

Instructions for window frame and topper:  

1.  Paint die cut with Ground Expresso paint and heat dry.

2.  Rub in Micro Glaze over random areas.

3.  Apply thin coat of gesso and dry partially.

4.  While gesso is still partially wet, press with a clean paper towel and quickly remove to peel off some of the gesso. Heat dry.

5.  Apply Crackle paint randomly and allow to dry.

6.  Apply coat of Ultra Matte to protect the crackle. 

Here's a little tip to get more out of your craft stash. If you are like me, you can't turn down a clearance sale.I fell for some deeply discounted K and Company die cuts years ago. I never use them, for whatever reason. In this case, the blue just didn't fit into my color scheme. Below you will see the one I chose from the pack  as shown on the package. I simply painted  over the blue with white acrylic paint (or it might have been gesso) and colored with my water pen and Seedless Preserves Distress marker and Wilted Violet Distress ink.Not perfect but it will mostly be covered anyway.

                    

Here's one last look at my card. I hope you will pop over to Anything But Cute to see all the amazing Shabby Garden projects my talented teamies made. I hope you will be inspired by Lisa's mood board and enter our Shabby Garden challenge. You've got an entire month to play along!

I'm sharing my card with the following inspiring challenges:

Scrapy Land Challenge #47-Anything Goes I used a Spellbinders, Memory Box, Tattered Lace, and four Sizzix dies.

-Word Art Wednesday Challenges #242-243- Anything Goes

Deep Oceans Challenge # 134 "Foto Inspiration" I drew my inspiration from the bride, the bird,the bouquet and the wooden table.

-Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Celebrate! happy Birthday SSS! I'm celebrating my niece's and her fiancee's wedding!

-Country View august Challenge-Hot Summer Days Summer seems to hold so many weddings--I have 2 in my family this summer! Flowers also remind me of summer.

-Nordsalten Hobbydlub #143 Love is in the Air

Southern Ridge Trading Company-Anything Goes

Things to Alter August Challenge Anything Goes

-Paper Sweeties Inspiration #46 August 2016 I was inspired by the pink flowers and colors pink and sage. This also reminds me of the dessert table at a wedding reception.

-Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Fabulous Florals

-Simon Says Stamp July Work It Wednesday

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your amazing comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily 

Update: Yippee!