BFF Open House Link Party #127

Hard to believe that we're halfway through October already and Halloween is in two weeks. After that I think time will only speed up through the rest of the holiday season. Now that's scarier than anything Halloween related!

Here are a few features from last week's party. 

Halloween's not just for kiddos. More and more I see grown up and sophisticated Halloween decor. Check out these far from silly ideas from This Silly Girl's Life. Gorgeous! 

Fall dinners will be warm and inviting with these cozy ideas from An Extraordinary Day. I'm really loving these sweater pumpkins and felt utensil holders. 

This would make a great hostess gift or just something yummy to have on hand for yourself. Pumpkin Spice Latte brown sugar scrub from Domestic Bliss. You don't even have to be a coffee drinker to love this!

This week's chocolate feature is this wonderful ribbony chocolate bread ( chocolate and bread... dangerous combo) from Twigg Studios. 

It's also time to announce the winner of my little Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway. Thanks to all who entered. 

The Winner (via Rafflecopter) Is: 

Betsy! 

Congrats, you have been emailed.

Halloween Crafting With Martha Stewart Decoupage: Glitter Finish Stars and Pumpkin

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Plaid, Martha Stewart Crafts, and The Blueprint Social. Project ideas and opinions are my own.

I have three words for you: Martha Stewart Decoupage.  It is no secret that I love to decoupage things. The dog runs away when she sees me with decoupage medium in my hand. Martha and Plaid have taken decoupage to a whole ‘nother level with a new line of decoupage formulas that can be used on surfaces such as glass, fabric, paper, metal and wood to create a lustrous finish and are dishwasher safe, machine washable, non-yellowing, dry hard with no tack, and can be used indoors or out.

I was so excited when the wonderful folks from Plaid sent me some of these new goodies to play with, but I was beside myself with the kind of  joy that usually only chocolate brings when I saw that included in my box was GLITTER FINISH DECOUPAGE. 

While the glitter finish caught my eye immediately there are some other mind blowing finishes including glow in the dark, matte and gloss. But back to the GLITTER! I had some wood stars in my stash I’d been wanting to play with and an idea was born.

I chose Black Nickel Metallic paint from the paints that came in my box and painted the stars. I went over some sections of the stars with Onyx glitter paint and left others with just the Black Nickel metallic.

Using some of the decoupage papers that were also included, I cut out pieces to cover some sections of the stars. The papers are a great weight and texture to absorb the decoupage mediums. Since the glitter finish has the glitter mixed in, you just coat your surface, the back of your paper , adhere, and then coat the top of your paper. It works just like other decoupage mediums. Except of course for the fabulous part where it dries all glittery and you’re not covered in glitter! Also with the glitter being part of the medium you get a consistent all over glitter finish without bare spots.

You can do one coat or more depending on what effect you want. I was happy with just one coat. I punched circles from scraps of the paper and using the glitter decoupage glued them into flattened bottlecaps and went over the top with more decoupage medium.

I was having too much fun to stop. Since the products say they are multi-surface, I decided to see what I could do with a foam pumpkin from the dollar store. Guess what? The paints cover EVERYTHING.

No prep, no primer. Just painted the pumpkin with the Black Nickel, let dry and added one more coat. Then I cut some leaf shaped pieces from more of the decoupage paper and added to the pumpkin using the glitter finish decoupage medium.

You can see that even before the decoupage is dry, the glitter starts to appear!  I didn’t use glitter paint on the pumpkin but just slathered the whole thing with the glitter decoupage.

Dries to a clear glittery finish.

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I am so in love with this. I can’t wait to play with it some more and put it on everything! The full line is available at Michaels.  In the meantime, be sure to check out these links for more inspiration:

• Plaid’s Facebook Page
• Follow Plaid for Inspiration on Pinterest

Halloween Cards: Quick, Easy, and Stashbusted

While I love nothing more than shopping for new goodies each season, sometimes you really need to use what you have. For this year’s Halloween cards I decided to do that and pulled out miscellaneous things from my stash.

The cards themselves ( Canvas Corp) were from a pre-made pack. Black and white polka-dot cardstock. Perfect for Halloween! I used a label sticker from a pack I’d picked up along the way somewhere.  For the card shown above, I added a chipboard banner shaped sticker on top of which I put a scrap of a Halloween rub-on. Added a sticker from another leftover package and finished with a leftover orange rhinestone, and scrap of glittered ribbon.

I did the same with the other cards I made, coordinating whatever went together from what I had on hand.

Batty-Licious Halloween Earrings

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter to win my giveaway from Oriental Trading Company. Go here to enter.

I posted last week about some of the items I received from the. Included were some soldered Halloween themed charms. Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Post by Oriental Trading Company. Project Idea and opinions are my own. 

They have an image on one side and text on the other. I thought they’d make fun earrings to wear throughout October. The earrings are  big and bold but not as heavy as they look.

I grabbed some findings and beads from my stash and played around, stringing a fire polished black crystal bead, some metal spacer beads, and the soldered charms on beading wire. Attached to a square pendant piece and adhered a clip earring back with jewelry glue.

People may think I’m batty, but I’m loving my batty-licious earrings!

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Bewitchingly Vintage Witch Hats and A Giveway From Oriental Trading Company!

I continue to be drawn to more muted and vintage Halloween décor. I mentioned earlier that I was planning on switching up my mantle this year from Poe inspired to Shakespeare. It was the Three Witches from Macbeth that inspired this project.

It was perfect timing when the folks from Oriental Trading Company gave me the opportunity to review and play with some of their Halloween crafting goodies. This post is sponsored by Oriental Trading Company. Project idea and opinions are mine.

If you're not familiar with Oriental Trading Company or haven't been there in a while, in addition to a great selection of party supplies and project kids that are great for kids, they have really really expanded their crafting supply section. I was able to go through the ordering process which was straightforward and easy, and my shipment arrived quickly.

The hats themselves are not actually hats. They started out as these:

Plain paper mache cones. I covered them using torn and twisted kraft colored butcher paper and Mod Podge  and glued them to a cardboard circle base.

Since I knew I wanted them to be old looking, I wasn’t precise and just kind of went over the form until it looked like a witch’s hat. When dry, painted with black paint. Now for the fun stuff!

I chose some of the Halloween papers from Oriental Trading Company along with epoxy poison labels. I used the papers to make layered flowers that I scrunched and crumbled. After all, the witches from Macbeth would not be seen in pristine new hats.

Using some of the die cuts and stickers I also received, I made accessories for my hats, keeping with a poison potion theme.

Waste not want not, so I used from of the scraps of paper to embellish the hats going around one of the cones, and one of the brims.

I had so much fun with these and cannot wait to play with some more of the goodies that were sent to me so check back!

The best part is,  one of you will get to play with some goodies of your own because the awesome folks at Oriental Trading Company are offering one of my readers the chance to win a $25 gift card to their site! It's easy to enter (using Rafflecopter) and winner will be announced next Tues ( 10/8). Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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BFF Open House Link Party #124 and Features

Hope the first official week of Fall was a good one for you. Here we are on the cusp of October which is hard to believe. The crafterverse is in full creative mode so here are a few features from last week's party that inspired me. 

You all know I have a slight paper addiction. I'm looking forward to using some of mine up making a big bouquet of these paper flowers from Artsy VaVa

Can't even tell you how much I love these confetti pumpkins from Kim at Made In A Day. Oh. Em. Gee. 

If you need an easy way to bring some fall into your home, check out this idea from Fonda at Southern Scraps. Wouldn't this look great next to some confetti pumpkins?

This week's chocolate feature speaks for itself. Chocolate truffles from the aptly named blog Dieter's Downfall. Resistance is futile. 

OK let's see what you all have been up to this week !

A Shakespeare Halloween: Toil and Trouble Printable

I'm planning on swapping out my Edgar Allen Poe themed mantle for another guy this year. Bill. Will. The Bard. You know "that Shakespeare dude".  It occurred to me that Shakespeare has a lot of quotes and themes that are perfect for Halloween. Some are obvious like Macbeth, which was the inspiration for this printable. A quote from the Three Witches. 

I created this one in PicMonkey. You should be able to click on to bring to full resolution, then right click to save as. If you use, I'd love to see how! 

BFF Open House # 123 Happy Fall Features!

Can you believe it's time for Summer to come to an end this weekend? Doesn't it seem like it just started? Truthfully, I am really ready for Fall. I love the crispness of the air, the changing of the leaves, sweaters, boots...

You all are gearing up for Fall if last week's party is any indication. Lots of wonderful Fall and Halloween ideas. Let's see a few:

Antonella from Quilling, Art and Expression shared this delightfully spooky spider card. I just love the dimension on the spider and of course the black and white! I can't wait to get started on some Halloween cards. 

You have to check out these DIY Felt Halloween Pillows from Christine at I Dig Pinterest. Love how simple yet bold they are. 

Wouldn't Christine's pillows work perfectly with this Fall wreath shared by Laura at The Shed? You will have to go visit to find out the secret for making these flowers. Can't wait to try. 

And after you're done making these great projects or before you sit down to pin them on Pinterest, be sure to whip up a batch of these Caramel Milky Way brownies from Danielle at Busy Mom's Helper.  When I think Fall, I think caramel. Of course chocolate is year round. YUM!

Now on to this week's party. What tricks and treats do you have up your sleeve this week?