BFF Open House Link Party #107

Happy almost Friday all! Hope you've all had a good week. Welcome to another link up of your creative creations. First some features ( I've been a little lax lately). 

From The Crafty Lumberjacks, a great upcyle and organization project in one. Paper and washi tape? Yes please! 

The always genius Mich in LA shared a quick and easy way to create a chain tassel. Perfect addition to any pendant. 

Love this beachy blue tinted netted vase from Stephanie at Simply Dream and Create .

I have two chocolatey features for you this week. The first is a Peanut Butter Coffee Cake with chocolate chips from A Peek Into My Paradise. Doesn't this look scrumptious? You can make this for breakfast and then make these amazing swirled cheesecake brownies from Desperate Houselife for dessert later. 

Now on to this week's party! If you're a first time linker upper, please leave a comment ( not that you can't leave a comment if you're a regular linker upper!). Following isn't required but appreciated and I love to find new blogs.

Painted, Washi'd and Stamped Beachy Dollar Frame

Mr. Chocolate’s dad was recently in a production of “South Pacific” so I made him a frame he could use for a cast photo or other memorabilia from the show. He also lives at the ocean so even if he doesn’t use it for that , it works.


I keep a supply of those wood frames you can get at Michaels for $1 because they come in so handy.
For this project you will need:

• $1 Wood Frame
• Paint
• White Glue
• Stamps
• Pigment Ink
• Paint Pen
• Washi Tape

Paint your frame with base color. I used an aqua. Once that’s dry, go over it with a good coat of white school glue. I have sworn by this crackle technique and have not bought crackle medium since I started using it. I also use the cheapest white glue I can find…back to school sales are great!

When your glue is almost dry, cover with your top coat ( I used white). You can speed things up with a blow dryer or heat gun which will also enhance your crackle.

Beachy looking right? Not quite. First I added some strips of antique printed and gold polka dot washi tape. 

I am the born sucker JoAnn’s and Michaels had in mind with their impulse buys by the register. I love digging through the little bins for $1 stamps and had picked up a package of sea shell stamps on one trip.

3 pieces so that’s only .33 per stamp ( justification). I put all three on an acrylic block and stamped randomly over the frame using a good black pigment ink.  Set that with my heat gun and then colored in parts of the shells using a gold paint pen.

To finish, I coated the whole thing with an antique Mod Podge that aged it up just a bit.

These frames come with a cardboard inset and I like to cover them with paper so they look nice when presented as a gift. You can also trim a photo and use the covered insert as a background.
Quick, cheap, easy!

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Altered Box Crafting At The Mumster's

I can always count on a visit to The Mumster involving some crafting which is A-OK by me. I check with her before coming to see what she has in mind before I go. She’s enjoyed my altered cigar boxes and wanted to have a couple to give as gifts to some special friends. She planned ahead and scored the boxes at Total Wine.

Since she knew the themes, I cut out a bunch of vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo before leaving home.

For these boxes you will need:

• Cigar Boxes to cover
• Scrapbook Paper
• Mod Podge ( My go to is Matte)
• Craft Paint
• Embellishments

Measure your papers to fit your box. You can either cover the whole box with one paper or mix and match. The Mumster recently went to Vegas to see The Rolling Stones and wanted one of the boxes as a gift for the friend who invited her. For this box I used neutral papers , red vinyl accents and the focal was a red rhinestone lip sticker I picked up at Michaels in their 2 for $3 section.

The other box is for friends of hers who threw her a surprise Birthday dinner and who love to take pictures so this one was photo themed.

I found this great camera themed paper and brought with me camera themed washi tape ( Recollections, Michaels) , vinyl photo phrases, and of course, rhinestones!

For the Rolling Stones box I used black and cream harlequin paper, and music notes paper.

So now Mom has 2 Christmas presents out of the way; I got my craft fix; and we’re back to the Wine store for more boxes!

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BFF Open House Link Party #106

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.answerischoco.com/" title="The Answer Is Chocolate"><img src="http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff511/AnswerIsChoco/TAICFloralGreyBFF_zpsda8da5db.jpg" alt="The Answer Is Chocolate" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Happy Friday Eve all. Time to party. I've been on the go the last couple of weeks so I'll get back to features soon. In the meantime we'll get right to the party!

Jewelry Making With Plaid and Martha Stewart. I'm In Love!

This post is sponsored by Plaid , Martha Stewart Crafts, and The Blueprint Social. Projects and opinions are my own.

When I heard that Plaid was launching a Martha Stewart Jewelry line, I was excited. When I had the opportunity to get to play with products from this new line, there was no living with me. I camped out at the front door waiting for Mr. FedEx man. Martha and jewelry? This could only be phenomenal.  The only thing missing was chocolate.

Let’s start with the amazing variety and choices in this new line. Whether you’re a new jewelry maker or an experienced one, there’s something for you. Findings, chains, beads, charms, rhinestones, bails, bezels, tools. Two of the most exciting new products are the jewelry glazes and enamel paints.

You can make your own very elegant enamel charms in a variety of colors.  There are also  epoxy clays and silicone molds to make even more components. I had to start somewhere (this was the hardest part!) so I decided to play with the jewelry glaze.

I covered two of the silver charms with  Ivory jewelry glaze. To apply it, squeeze a little glaze onto the silicone mat then stipple it onto the charm. This little silicone mat is genius! Works with the jewelry glaze and the enamel paints and cleans up easily.

I wanted a vintage look so I wiped a bit of the Ivory glaze off with a clean dry rag but if you want a more contemporary opaque look, just don't wipe away the glaze. After about an hour’s drying time , I went over the Ivory with a coat of the Light Gold glaze.

While my glaze was drying, I played with a couple different sizes of the rhinestones and settings, using the Martha Stewart jewelry glue to secure the rhinestones.There are two different kinds of settings; pronged and glue in. I used the 3MM and 6MM hematite colored rhinestones and settings .  I've mentioned before that I'm really sensitive to strong fumes and smells. The jewelry glue didn't bother me at all.

I used two types of silver chain that came in my supplies, connecting the rhinestone components with jump rings to sections of one of the chain and using the other chain in its entirety. I made a pendant out of one of the glazed charms and rhinestones and used the other glazed charm (with chain I had on hand) to make a matching bracelet.

The rhinestones come in a variety of colors and sizes and coordinate with other beads in the line. 

There are endless possibilities with these products, limited only by your imagination. You can check out the full line of products (available exclusively at Michaels) and get some other ideas here: 

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredByPlaid
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlaidCrafts
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/plaidcrafts

And be on the lookout because other creative bloggers will be sharing their Martha Stewart Jewelry creations too.

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The Best Blog Recipes

Just The Ticket Card

Happy Monday all. I'm over at the CutCarstock Blog today sharing how I made this fun ticket themed card and matching envelope. Hope you'll drop by!

BFF Open House Link Party #105

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.answerischoco.com/" title="The Answer Is Chocolate"><img src="http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff511/AnswerIsChoco/TAICFloralGreyBFF_zpsda8da5db.jpg" alt="The Answer Is Chocolate" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

It's already the middle of MAY! Mother's Day has come and gone. End of school and graduation season is upon us, not to mention Father's Day, wedding season, SUMMER! Let's jump right into the deep end of the pool and see what everyone's been up to. Can't wait to share some new Martha Stewart goodies from Plaid with you next week!  It's a party. Grab something chocolatey and have fun!

Turquoise and Toffee Multi Strand Necklace and Bracelet

I wear a LOT of black. I laughed when during one of the “Dark Knight” movies, Morgan Freeman’s character turned to Bruce Wayne and said “ Yes Mr. Wayne, it comes in black”. College Boy looked at me like “uh huh”. Consequently, I also wear a lot of black and silver jewelry. I guess that also means I'm Batman.

I decided to challenge myself both creatively and stylistically and reached into my stash of Blue Moon Beads from my Design Team supplies and my eye fell on some turquoise beads along with a bead mix of turquoise and toffee. Inspiration!

I used a ribbon necklace and antique silver chain as my base and then strung different beads on stringing wire, closing each end with crimp beads.

I just eyeballed where I wanted the strung bead sections and attached them to the chain using jump rings. No real plan involved.

When that was done, I was staring at a big pile of turqoise seed beads and have been wanting to make a multi-strand bracelet so I did.

I cut five pieces of stringing wire the same length and put a crimp bead on one end of each strand.

Then I gathered all of the crimped ends and ran a piece of beading wire through each loop, twisting the ends of the wire together to hold them.  Strung a mix of seed beads and other beads onto each strand, closed with another crimp bead , gathered the ends with a piece of wire and then ran the wire through copper bead cones and made a wrapped loop.  I joined both “cone ends” with jump rings.

Your cone bead will cover those ugly ends.

Now I'm craving some dark chocolate covered toffee!

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Chase The Star 

WHIPPERBERRY

Mod Podged Mini Dress Form Photo Prop

Being a jewelry maker, I’m always looking for different ways to photograph my creations. I got this idea when I stumbled upon mini paper mache dress forms in the 2 for $3 section at Michaels.

For this project you will need:

• Mini Paper Mache Dress Form
• Mod Podge ( I used matte)
• Wood Spool
• Printed Tissue ( I used a damask print, 5 12x12 sheets to a pack by Recollections also at Michaels)
• Coordinating Trim and Paper Flowers

Cover your spool and dress form with Mod Podge; apply paper. When I’m working with tissue paper I like to “pre-scrunch” it since it’s likely to get wrinkly anyway. I find this keeps the wrinkles uniform. You can be exact and line up the patterns, or you can be me.

I trimmed the top of my spool with some leftover pom pom trim, hot glued two coordinating paper flowers to the top of the spool, glued the dress form on and DONE!

Now I have another little photo prop to use in my posts.

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