BFF Link Party #9 and BFF Pittypat Paperie !

Happy loooonnnnnnnnnnng weekend! Happy Friday! Happy Birthday America! This week’s BFF is Diane from Pittypat Paperie where you will find all kinds of lovely inspiration and one of the sweetest bloggers in blogland.

Diane and I definitely share a love of paper as the name of her blog might imply. She does wonders with it.
Love these gorgeous paper bows she made. Who wouldn’t want to get a present decorated with one of these?

She is always putting her creative talents to use for her family and friends, especially her grandchildren. This is just a quick glimpse at the fun Parisian party she put together for her granddaughter:

There’s a ton more to see about this party here and here. And this adorable idea she did for her grandchildren…a money box!

Diane also shares printables she uses in her projects. I used a graduation themed one in many of my son’s graduation party decorations.

I hope you’ll go and visit Diane and explore. Now on with this week’s party! What are you cooking up for the Fourth? Whether you’re cooking for realsies or just whipping up something creative, link it up! You know the drill…if you made it link it…paper, jewelry, recipes, upcycle, recycle, sewing, décor, you name it. Just no advertising or Etsy stores please.

Patriotic Paper Pinwheels

I’m alliterative  among other things! These pinwheels aren’t a new idea but I’ve actually never made any! You can free fold  the paper accordion style or you can score it like I did using my Martha Stewart score and fold board. I love this thing! I use it for all my cards and anything I have to fold or score.

I thought it would be fun to use two papers together, So I cut 12x12 papers to 6x12, then scored and folded them at the one inch mark and joined the two different halves together.

Once you’ve completed your accordion folding fold your folded piece in half and staple in the middle. STAPLE. You need to STAPLE. After you STAPLE stick the the two sides of each half together with your adhesive of choice ( I used my ATG gun) and then you’ll stick the two halves together:

You could be done here. But that’s no fun now is it? So…I used some scrap paper and cut circles using a decorative edge scissor to make a layered flower center middle thingy and used leftover stickers from my medallion banner project to finish the centers. I just scatted these along my mantel for a little extra dose of Fourth of July flavor:

Candlesticks aren’t just for candles!

Or they can stand up by themselves!

Linking Up At: 

A Couple of Cards

Sharing a couple of cards I made tonight. A belated graduation card and so I don’t make that mistake again, a birthday card that I can send early!

For the grad card, I wanted to do some different colors than those I’d been using for my son’s friends cards. Stuck with school colors for those and am so over that! This time just went with paper I liked which happened to be from DCWV’s Lemon Flower Stack. Hard to tell from the pics, but a lot of the papers in this pack are glittered. Oooh la la!


I stamped the focal image using this ink which I’m in love with:

It’s chalky but pigmenty and provides great coverage.

I used the floral background from the paper stack along with a scrap strip of another print from a previous project from the same pack. Say THAT three times fast!  Embellished with The Twinery’s twine in honeydew and some KandCo self adhesive scrapbook borders.

For the birthday card:

I remembered to photo my supplies which included more Twinery twine…honeydew and pink sorbet, some Ann Butler designed Kand Co paper and Tim Coffey designed KandCo dimensional floral stickers. I ran a scrap of white paper through my Cuttlebug using damask embossing plates and then layered everything as shown onto a white 5x7 card.

Linking Up At:
 

Vintagey 4th Medallion Banner

I tend to like old, vintage, Americana looking décor for the Fourth. Last year was the first time I put up any decorations for the Fourth and this year I made a new “old” banner. I decided to make several medallions to use as my banner. Cut out different shapes with my Cricut Expression:

I found this great ribbon at Michaels for 40% off plus they had an additional 15% off your entire purchase coupon on Sunday. Yeah!

I also found these dimensional stickers from KandCo’s Americana Collection.
Cut the ribbon and notched the ends. Adhered to the red circle and then layered the other cutouts according to size. After I took the pic I added a 2.5” circle punched red layer. Mounted a sticker in the center:

I used red tulle ( too bright for me but I bought it for some reason and never used it) and some clothespins I’d made for one of my son’s grad banners to hang it:

I probably would have used a cream tulle to make it more muted but….

Linking Up At: 

BFF Link Party #8 Wrap Up and Features!

Another great party with more fantastic projects! Thanks to everyone who linked up and so glad to see so many return posters along with some new ones. Here are just a few of the projects that caught my eye but as always, everyone is so creative!

Dreaming in Color shared a gorgeous bench transformation using a graphic from The Graphics Fairy ( I call Karen The Graphics Queen!)

Nothing I make with burlap ever comes out as great as this wreath from Michelle at The Scrap Shoppe! Perfect for the 4th but an idea easily adaptable for other occasions or all year round: 

For more 4th ideas, go visit The Pike Family and see these super cute "firecrackers" as well as an adorable wreath: 

If you're in need of a tasty treat on a hot day ( I live in the Northwest so I won't wait for one of those to try these!) look no further than Smilemonsters: 

Homemade Mocha Latte Frozen Treats

Look out Starbucks! Hope to see you all again on Friday!

Framed July 4th Collection

I have a four slot frame I keep on my mantle and switch out the artwork for different seasons and holidays. I just took down graduation and put up Foruth of July and thought I’d share. I made three of the printables and used one I found over at Me Myself and U2.

Someday I’ll learn to take a picture of something framed without catching the glare but so far, no luck!
The first printable can be found here. The others I made and am sharing here:

Linking Up At: 

BFF Link Party #8 And This Week’s BFF: Altered Artworks!

TGIF! Like Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that! Welcome to another Blog Feature Friday,  this week featuring Doreen from Altered Artworks.

Doreen and I have been craftily commiserating recent graduations in our respective lives. I’m worn out from one. She had TWO! A HS and and a College graduation. Double Congrats. When she’s not busy turning out graduates, or being a Wife, Mom, Real Estate Professional, and Tennis Player, she’s a Crafter and Altered Art Instructor. Phew!

Look at this fun Summer themed frame! Brightens my Northwest dreary day just looking at it:

We also share a love of the coffee! Doreen did this awesome coffee inspired project:

which has given me inspiration for a project to make with some  baby spoons The Mumster ( my mom) just brought me! 

Readers of my blog know I like taking the ordinary and turning it into something practical but pretty. Doreen did that with these pieces that started out as your basic tin can!

You’ll find more inspiration over at Altered Artworks I promise!

Who’s ready for the 4th of July? Not me! So I can’t wait to see some inspiring ideas that I know you’ve been working on and will hopefully link up this week. Not working on  4th stuff? No problem! Whatever you’ve created, re-purposed, made over link it up! Paper, recipes, jewelry, link it up! Please link to your specific page and not your main blog and no advertising or Etsy stores please ? Party on!

Patriotic Pins on Pinterest

Whenever I’m in a creative slump or looking for inspiration, one of the first places I go ( besides my blog reader!) is Pinterest. I love Pinterest!  I’ve posted about it before but I thought I’d share some Patriotic Pins since I’m on the lookout for some ideas for the upcoming 4th of July. This is a screenshot of my Fourth of July board:

I love how you can organize things on boards so you can remember all the great ideas you find. I’ve tried just remembering on my own and that ship has sailed!

I found this great 4th Printable at a cute new blog called memyselfandu2 when I was just out googling and pinned it to my board:

She has a bunch more.

Searching within Pinterest itself,  my friend Jocelyn over at InsideBruCrew Life has these yummies which I found even before I saw them on her blog!

Martha ( OK really do I need to say it’s Stewart?) is bound to pop up in a search for anything!

So whether you’re googling ( I use it as a verb…hubs reminde me searching is the proper term)  something specific, or whether you are reading your blog reader and want to remember something or whether you’re just in Pinterest already, it’s a fantastic way to organize ideas and be able to find them again! Happy pinning!

Printable: I’ve Lost It!

While I still haven’t posted many new projects, it’s not for lack of being busy. I’m on scrapbooking overload, now almost finished with the last one of the graduation ceremony. Who does this?! Oh…us!
In the midst of everything, I had an idea for a printable that might be representative only of my  twisted little mind! Still,  I thought I’d share just in case others can relate.
Click to bring to full size, then right click to save to your computer and then re-size as preferred.