Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween! BFF Open House Wrap Up and Features!

Happy BOO Day everyone! I hope you have a fun filled day with treats and no tricks. Low key for us with our empty pumpkin patch,  but Chocolate Chip had fun over “Halloweekend” at college.

Another great party with fantastic ideas. I was drawn to several food ideas ( and they’re not even chocolate!) . I think it’s because these can all easily bridge over to Thanksgiving. So here we go!

Take this amazing looking Apple Tart from Jenny at Days of Chalk and Chocolate:

Wouldn’t this be a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table?

Brandy, over at her blog Gluesticks, shared these scrumptious looking homemade pretzel bites. I can see these as a pre-Thanksgiving meal nibble, or packaged up to share with neighbors etc. :

Got pumpkin seeds? Suzy from Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom has a different twist on them. I’ve only had them done in a savory way with salt,  but she’s CANDIED them!

Makes perfect sense! Bag these up as a take home favor for guests!

And these I’m totally making for my son when he comes home for Thanksgiving. He’s a huge fan of AMCs “The Walking Dead” as is Lesley from the blog Freaking Craft:

The Walking Ginger Dead! 

Thanks again everyone new and returning for linking up and hope to see you all again on Friday. Have a creative week!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

BOO Box of Cookie Pops

I work from home and I love it. For some people it’s too solitary but it’s perfect for me. Mr. Chocolate works in a traditional office setting, and even though I don’t miss going to that environment every day, I do miss the kind of holiday celebrations that offices usually have. So I kinda have the best of both worlds because I get to make stuff for him to take to his office ( even though he pretends he’s the holiday Scrooge meister) . For Halloween , I made him a “BOO” box of Oreo pops.
Boo Box
The basic ingredients:
Halloween Oreo Pops
  • Halloween Oreos
  • Wilton Candy Melts
  • Wilton Decorative Icing
  • Wilton Candy Skulls
  • Lollipop Sticks
Candy Melts

Melted the candy melts using a double boiler. Inserted a stick in each cookie. For some reason the consistency was thicker than usual so rather than dip the cookies, I ended up glopping and smearing ( that’s a technical cooking term) the melted candy on the cookies. Glop a plop on with a spoon and smear with the back of the spoon. Wasn’t going for precision here. Placed these on wax paper to set . When they were set but not totally dry, put one of the skulls in the center.
Halloween Oreo Pops (2)
Michaels didn’t have enough of the skulls so I got some black icing and made Jack Skellington-ish faces on the rest. Once they were all dry, I wrapped each in a cello bag and tied with Halloween themed ribbon.
Grabbed a shoe box and covered with DCWV’s Ghosts and Goblins paper and KandCo Halloween adhesive scrapbook borders and used some of this weird packing material I’d saved to re-use because it was so funky and recyclable.
Boo Box Cookie Pops (2)
This is the packing stuff that I thought was perfect for this box:
Boo Box SIde
Boo Box Cookie Pops (3)
BOO !
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Thursday, October 27, 2011

BOO! BFF Link Party #26 and BFF Alderberry Hill

Happy Halloween Weekend and TGIF all! Stocked up on candy? Costumes decided and done? Ready for the parade of trick or treaters? Let me really scare you. It’s now officially less than two months til CHRISTMAS! Told you I’d scare you.

Let’s see what everyone’s been up to this week and meet this week’s BFF, Sarah from Alderberry Hill. If you need any last minute Halloween inspiration, Sarah’s your gal. She has been whipping up some of the cutest Halloween ideas around. Here are a few:

Look at this amazing centerpiece:
Or this positively smashing cupcake liner wreath:
Or this fantabulous Witch hat:
And this candy dish!
Sarah’s talents go well beyond Halloween but I thought I’d do a themed post. She’s also an amazing scrapbooker, DIYer, cardmaker, mom, you name it! And she’s a sweetheart. I hope you’ll go and visit!
Now time to party. You know the rules. If it was made by you, link it up. Paper crafts, jewelry, décor, upcycle, roadside rescue, recipe ( especially chocolate!) you name it. Just link to your specific blog post and not your main blog page and don’t forget to go trick or treat at at least one other person’s blog. OK Party On!


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Fall Décor: Canvas Corp Chalkboard Paper and Canvas

I had the chance to play with some more of the pieces from the wonderful giveaway I won from Canvas Corp. Included in my goodies were these:
Canvas Corp Canvas and Chalkboard Paper
A 10x10 canvas and a 12x12 sheet of chalkboard paper. I’m itching to get some Thanksgiving décor up. Not that I don’t love Halloween but I think sometimes as artsy craftsy decoratsy peeps, we get ahead of the season and by the time the actual holiday rolls around we’re on to the next.
I wasn’t really sure where I was going with this. Sometimes I know. Sometimes I don’t.  But I decided that I wanted these two to go together. Here’s where I ended up:
Canvas Corp Altered Canvas
I used extra strong double sided tape to stick the chalkboard paper to the canvas. Then I got the idea to frame the edges with leaves so I cut a bunch of oak leaves on my Cricut from metallic silver cardstock.
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If you can’t take a straight picture, tilt it in Windows Live Writer!
Looked around for something to add and my eyes fell upon my jute twine. Made some spirals and ran the twine around the edges. I’m going for a sparkly Thanksgiving and am in love with tinsel glitter so I covered more leaves with “Champagne” tinsel glitter by Recollections  (Michaels).  Finished up with some rolled paper roses made from a chocolate brown metallic paper and went around those lightly with chocolate brown glitter glue.
Canvas Corp Altered Canvas Closeup
Wrote the year in the middle with a chalkboard marker so I can update it again in the years to come.
Canvas Corp Chalkboard Paper
Canvas Corp Altered Canvas Rosette
Not a great pic, but you can see the glitter glue sparkling on the edges of the flower.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Giving Thanks for Dollar Tree Contact Paper Charger

Confused yet? Let me explain. But first let me thank Viv over at The V Spot who unknowingly answered a question I had which was whether you could cut Contact paper with a Cricut. She did it fabulously here.

OK so back to my explanation. Maybe it’s easier if I show you:
PA243255
I started with a charger from Michaels that I bought when they were 2 for $3. Used one in my Halloween décor but now I’m moving on to Thanksgiving. I also bought these acrylic leaves at Mike’s ( we’re really good friends Michaels and I …we’re in the nickname stage now) in their 2 for $3 section ( ya know…used to be a dollar…sigh, I’m not quite over that Mike) . Moving on.
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Then, when I was at Dollar Tree after Viv’s genius confirmation that you can in fact cut Contact paper with a Cricut, I picked up a roll for well, a dollar. This wood grain pattern:
PA243248
So what’s made out of wood? Trees silly! And since leaves also come from trees ( it’s late when I’m writing this so keep that in mind when you roll your eyes!) it made perfect sense to cut a tree from this stuff and then glue on some acrylic leaves. I mean nothing says nature like faux wood grain and acrylic am I right? But I went with it anyway!
PA243247
Pay no attention to the reflection ….hate that. Cut my tree from Wall Décor and More and my letters using the Jasmine cart. Then glued my leaves on and done and done.
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PA243258
Thanks Viv. And you too Mike. And Dollar Tree.
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Monday, October 24, 2011

Freschetta Proud to Support Pink Giveaway Winner

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway I had going from Freschetta Pizza and their campaign
Proud to Support Pink.

There can never be too many people participating the fight against breast cancer.  The winner of the giveaway is :
Unbeatable Sorbet!
Congrats and I've sent you an email with the information I need to provide Freschetta. 
Never Give Up! 

BFF Open House #25 Wrap Up and Features

Thanks to everyone who linked up at Friday’s BFF Open House! Once again, it was a fantastic collection of creativity with so many inspiring ideas! Here are just a few:
What can you do with a bag of skulls and a feather boa? Bethany at A Fish Who Likes Flowers showed us with this chic Halloween wreath she did for a friend:
And the perfect treat to go along with this delicious wreath are these tasty and tasteful ghost pops that Jenn from Rook No.17 shared:
This absolutely gorgeous ombre wreath from The Crafty Scientist is just stunning.
And finally, a fresh take on book page pumpkins from Michele at The Scrap Shoppe. I can see this up all the way through Thanksgiving.
I am in love with that frame! Thanks again all and look forward to seeing you again on Friday! Have a creative week.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Thank You Canvas Corp! Edgar Allen Poe Collage

The highlight of my week was getting an email from Jenn at Canvas Corp letting me know that I won their recent Facebook Halloween giveaway! Squeal!! I. LOVE. THEIR. STUFF! And it was even shipped out immediately and I received it on Thus! Wanna see?
Canvas Corp Halloween
An assortment of papers, a chunky canvas, a burlap canvas, notecards, clothespins, canvas and burlap banner pieces. I had to play with it immediately! My Halloween mantle already had an Edgar Allen Poe / black and neutral theme and one of the papers was Poe’s “The Raven” written on kraft paper so I got an idea to add one more piece.
Canvas Corp Poe Collage
I found a royalty free line drawing of Edgar Allen Poe online, downloaded, and printed on a plain piece of kraft colored cardstock. Cut and tore pieces of “The Raven” and black and white diamond Canvas Corp papers ( it was meant to be since I already used the same paper on my “Witches Ball” piece) and put on either side of the picture. Cut banner pieces from black and gold metallic scraps and put those along the top.
Canvas Corp Raven
Canvas Corp Poe
I cut a “P” from black vinyl using my “Wall Décor and More” Cricut cart, and also a black bird silhouette to represent a raven. The frame is a plain wood frame from Dollar Tree that I painted. To finish, I made rolled roses and freehand cut leaves from paper scraps and hot glued those to glass and frame.
Poe Mantle
I already had a piece representing “The Raven” from last year so this went perfectly with the rest of my Poe themed décor. Thank you SO much Jenn and Canvas Corp! Can’t wait to play with more from my wonderful package!
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