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.

BFF Link Party #7 Wrap Up and Features

Hi all! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Father’s Day. I’m sure all the Dads were spoiled. Thanks to all who linked up to Blog Feature Friday’s Open House and enjoyed meeting last week’s BFF Frou-frugal! Here are a few highlights from the party and I’m so excited to see what you’re all up to each week!

From Tanya at Greetings From The Asylum we had a great Anthro knock off…she might give Bev from Flamingo Toes a run for her money!

Speaking of Bev, she has found another source to amaze us with her talent for not only knocking off a design at a fraction of the price but making hers look even better. Look at this necklace she knocked off from Loft!

Maggie over at Midwestern Sewing Girl shows why Sewing is included in her blog name ( Super Fantastic Thrift Store Find Makeovers is probably too long for a blog name!)

I am so in love with typography and fonts that if she lived near me, this just might go missing! You should see how this started out!

So many great projects…if you haven’t checked these and all the others out yet, GO!! NOW!
See y’all again on Friday! And if you were featured, feel free to grab a button from my sidebar!

BFF Link Party#7 and BFF: Frou-fru Gal!

Things have calmed down a bit now and I’m excited to get back to the “BFF” part of the BFF link party…Blog Feature Friday,  this week featuring Frou-fruGal. Suesan is the creative force behind this blog and she is (and you have to make this three distinct syllables) A-MA-ZING! She’s funny, real, and always provides a detailed breakdown of her projects including the always frugal cost of the always fabulous results! I can’t even imagine undertaking this project and trust me when I tell you you will look twice or thrice if you see the before pic and you STILL won't believe she transformed this.

Doesn’t that look like it came straight from Ballard Designs, West Elm, some very high end store? Oh yeah…she HAND PAINTED THE MAP!

I love these decorative balls Suesan made inspired by some she saw at Pier 1:

Her cost: $3.98 for all of them vs $2 each at Pier 1. Hello.

 And I love the name of this post: “It’s My World…I’ll Do What I Want”

You’ll have to go visit Suesan to see the before but I’m in love with the after. Now time to party. You know the deal…if you made it link it. Paper, home dec, roadside rescue, recipes, jewelry, upcycle, recycle, link it! Just no Etsy shops or advertising please. Party on!

Party Favor Idea

You might remember the votive candles I made for my son’s graduation party. I was always planning on them being part of something else to give to guests but wasn’t sure what. Then in the midst of all the graduation frenzy, my son went to a birthday dinner and came home with the inspiration! Mini-bottles of sparkling cider!

So simple and yet never thought of it. Won’t even go into how I should have looked first at the grocery store I go to three times a week and how I convinced myself I had to go to a specialty grocery store or five before looking in my own backyard. Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) was right. Anyway…
I decided to put one bottle of cider, one candle, and then made these:

Homemade peanut butter cups but this time with edible gold stars! I did these in gold foil cupcake liners. I put one peanut butter cup in a plain 3x3 box:

 

And sealed each box with decorative packaging tape. I had some monogramed tape from Michaels that I bought for $1. Perfect! I put the PB cup, candle and a bottle of cider in a cello bag with a little white and gold paper shred and tied each with a gold bow.

I thought this was a fun and pretty simple idea you could adapt for a lot of occasions. Anniversaries, birthdays, showers….

Linking Up At: 

BFF Link Party #6 Wrap Up and Features

Well I’ve been completely MIA for my own party. But I now have a HS graduate and next stop college! Thanks so much for partying on without me and I’ll get back on track visiting everyone again.  As always there were so many great ideas linked up and as always, it’s hard to highlight just a few but here goes!
You will not believe how this gorgeous wall shelf started out. Seriously. You need to go visit FruFru Gal to see the origins ( and read her hilarious description of its transformation)
                             
Vicki, over at Rusty Rooster Vintage shows us how to transform something shiny and new into a wonderfully vintage rusty patina that would look great on this shelf!

Greenbean’s Crafterole showed that there are infinite uses for washi tape which means I have another excuse to buy it whenever I see it.

I love these votives and how she wrapped the candles with the washi tape and of course I love love it since it’s black and white!
Finally, Fonda over at Southern Scraps shared this GORGEOUS tank top transformation. WOWZA!

It’s too pretty to wear! I hope you’ll go check out these and all of the great ideas that were linked up and hope to see you all again on Friday!