BFF Link Party #11 and BFF Not Just Paper and Glue

Happy Friday all! It’s been a week filled with Jello and pudding ( chocolate of course) here at casa de Chocolate since Chocolate Chip had his wisdom teeth out. Confession…it’s been a chance to baby my baby which doesn’t happen much when they’re 18 and 6’4! Ssssshhhh.

This week’s featured blog is Not Just Paper and Glue run by a busy blogger named Tammy. In addition to being a wife and mom and running  NJPandG and two other blogs she also contributes to the PK Glitz blog. In her own words:

Not Just Paper and Glue is a place where you'll find everything from scrapbooking to cheesemaking, handmade cards to homemade soap, wild flowers to tame sunsets and cool crafts to fresh hot bread - because life is not just about paper and glue; it's a whole lot more!

On top of all of that she teamed up with Michelle at The Scrap Shoppe to create:

So if you’re a crafty Pinner and you haven’t joined up, you might want to check it out.

When she’s not doing all of the above she’s making gorgeous stuff! Like this corsage:

and these flowers to embellish her supply holders:

Or this lovely fabric flower!

Tammy is also wonderful enough to show the “how to” via many videos on her Tutorials page. I hope you’ll go visit and meet a new very creative bloggy friend!

Now, what’s everyone been up to this week? What wonderful creations do you have to share? Can’t wait to see! Anything goes as long as it was made by you! No advertising or Etsy stores please and please link to your project page and not your main blog. Spread the love! Everyone loves to see a comment from someone new. Party on!

Free Craft Supplies? HELLO!

I discovered Wholeport and the Creativity Expo when visiting my friend Jenn at Rook No. 17. Among many things they offer,  they have a large selection of craft supplies and they’re offering you the chance to sample some for my favorite four letter word FREE! NOTE: This offer ends tomorrow July 14! Sorry for the late notice but better late free than no free!

That’s right! FREE. Here are the details:

Contest RULES:

1. Wholeport wants YOU to go on a create-a-thon! Like them on our facebook page or follow us them on twitter in order to receive a package of one of these nine different crafting supplies completely free of charge! You can find descriptions of the nine supplies by clicking on the images above and by visiting this album on their facebook page.
2. Wholeport wants you to incorporate these supplies into the most beautiful, unique, fun, CRAZY crafts you can think of! When you think you’ve made the perfect creation, take a picture of it and then post it on their facebook wall to be entered into a competition for a $50 cash coupon for www.wholeport.com.
3. Wholeport will then upload your pictures into their Creativity Expo Contestants facebook album. The winner will be determined by the picture with the most likes on facebook! So make sure you tell as many of your friends to “like” your creation as you can!

I ordered a package of paper (chocolate wasn’t an option!) which is #9 and can’t wait to get it and start playing.

So you want to PARTICIPATE?

1. Like them on facebook or follow them on twitter and then send the, an email at create@wholeport.comsaying that you have done so. Make sure you mention in your email which of the nine crafting supplies you would like to receive and include your mailing address.
2. Create your masterpiece
3. Admire it for a moment.
4. Then take a picture of it and post it on their facebook wall along with a description of which supply package you used and what you intend your creation to be. They will upload your picture and description into the Creativity Expo Contestants facebook album. Each person to upload a photo of his or her creation will also receive a $2 coupon to www.wholeport.com!
5. The top 10 creations with the most likes on facebook will each win a $50 cash coupon forwww.wholeport.com. So tell your friends, your family, your acquaintances, Everyone! The more people that see your lovely work, the merrier!

 

S is for Sweet

I recently changed positions at work and a colleague whom I’ve come to consider a friend over the years but who lives in a different state was thoughtful enough to send me some delicious cookies. Of course this sweet gesture was a reason to make a sweet Thank You card. Can’t nag at my son to be on top of his Thank You cards if I’m not modeling the way right?! Plus I can’t exactly use the excuse of not getting to the store to buy one since I make cards.

S is also her initial so for the card’s focal point I used the Wall Décor and More cartridge to do a monogram on my Cricut Expression.

I ran a piece of cream cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Textile folder, and mounted that on a green then turquoise panel. Card embellishments are from where else…K and Co. Susan Winget’s SW Botanical Grand Adhesions to be exact, along with a scrapbook border from the Abrianna collection. I used some of the small dimensional stickers to embellish the monogram.

Applied the clear “Sweet” sticker to a cream scrap, mounted to a blue scrap and tucked in the corner of the monogram. Off to have a cookie!

Grape, Gold, and Chocolate Necklace

This is the gift that I made to go along with the birthday card I shared a couple of days ago.

I went shopping in my stash which Mr. Chocolate would tell you means I don’t need to go to Michaels or JoAnn’s for the rest of the year. HA
Main components: Bead Landing gold chain ( Michaels), an antiqued gold toggle clasp that I picked up @ JoAnn’s, and the pendant is from Blue Moon’s Global Nomad collection.

The beads are faceted crystal I picked up on a couple of different trips. Hubs is used to me scoping out bead, paper, art stores wherever we go on vacation!
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I started so I made some different combos using head pins or bead caps and strung some spacer beads ( all of the findings are from Blue Moon) on larger jump rings.

I ended up spacing some of the beads throughout the chain and using others with the pendant. I liked the combo of the chocolately brown pendant with the deep grape of the beads. The other beads are an iridescent light brown that pick up the gold from the chain , the brown from the pendant and the purple from the other beads.
It’s for a cousin who’s really more like an Auntie to me. I hope she likes it!

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BFF Open House #10 Wrap Up Features and Giveaway Winner!

Another great party with wonderful projects linked up and some new blogs I get to explore! As always, it’s hard to pick just a few projects to feature (so if you haven’t you should go visit ALL of the links!) but here goes. Seems my eyes were drawn to “Black and White and Bright” this week. Let’s start with a bright one:

A gorgeous quilled paper butterfly by Suzy from Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom. Quilling is one of the paperarts I’ve yet to try and Suzy makes it look so easy! Isn’t that gorgeous?!

You really are going to have to go visit The Pear Tree Cottage to see the before of this incredible after fireplace transformation. Just amazing:

After that, pop on over to A Glimpse Inside for a truly warm and colorful welcome.

Finally, it’s not often I can get my son interested in projects from blogland but his first question when I showed him this Sci Fi Subway Art from Christine and Co was: “So is this one of those things you can win”? Total stamp of approval by a self-certified Sci-Fi nut!

Now for the winner of my celebrating good fortune giveaway notecards…Random.org chose comment #3 which was left by Jenn @ Rook No. 17!! Congrats Jen!

Life is Sweet Birthday Card

What’s sweeter than a birthday cake?! I fell in love ( of course)  with these dimensional stickers in KandCo’s birthday collection. And I needed to make a birthday card. Win-win!

I already had the Abrianna scrapbook borders of theirs on hand. I went to my paper stash and chose a paper from DCWV’s “Indian Summer Collection”.

Tore the top of the the striped panel and mounted on a piece of blue cardstock, tore a strip of the blue to go across the middle and used one of the scrapbook borders on the bottom. Wrapped with a coordinating piece of grosgrain ribbon and finished with paper flowers, buttons, and self adhesive rhinestones.

Even though I thought  the cake sticker was already cute, I added some adhesive pearl “frosting” dots! Now I want a cupcake.

Mumster’s Mosaic Box

The BFF Open House link party is still up and running if you want to link up and don’t forget to comment if you want to be eligible for the giveaway.

The Mumster (aka my Mom if you’re a newer visitor)  like other members of my family, is an enabler in the best kind of way. Hubs brings me broken and discarded items to see what I can do with them and even though Mom lives several states away, she saves things to bring me when she comes to visit. She had a ceramic piece that broke. Normal people throw these things out. I never pretended to come from normal people! Naturally she said “ You can do something with this right?” I can just imagine that conversation with TSA.

“Ma’am, do you always fly with broken ceramic pieces and if so why?”
“Well my daughter’s a crafter and she likes to make things out of broken and discarded pieces and she has a blog called The Answer Is Chocolate that you should go visit”
“Security!”

Perfect ingredient for a mosaic project. Oops. I haven’t really ever done a mosaic project! OK no time like the present. I found a couple of these at club GW:

Plain wood caddy.  I bought two. They only had two. They were a whole $1.99 but it was 50% off blue sticker day! I painted this one with a lilac acrylic. I also Mod Podged on some coordinating paper. Just did. Don’t ask me why.  Then I got out the pieces along with some glass mosaic tiles I had on hand in the event that I ever got this particular craft urge. I was a Girl Scout. Always be prepared!

For someone who hadn’t done mosaics, I even had a tile nipper for just in case. Mr. Chocolate bought it for me last year at the fair. The guy totally thought he was buying it for himself. HA!

Broke the broken pieces into more pieces and nipped some of the glass tiles and glued to one side of the box:

I found some pre-mixed grout at Michaels, more expensive I’m sure than the stuff you can mix yourself, but that’s what 40% coupons are for. Frosted my box ( because it’s like cake frosting) and let it set up then wiped off per instructions. I put a really thick coat on because the pieces were thick and some were rounded and I wanted to get things as even as possible. You will also be wiping a lot longer!

After I got the grout off I wasn’t happy so typical of me, I started adding stuff. I did a dry brush of white to age it up. I cut some white vinyl with my Cricut to give it some detail. I ripped up some muslin strips that I tied on one side of the handle and added some charms. And then I added some paper flowers I’d bought on my visit to the LA Garment district in April. OK there. Less is not more. MORE is more!

I think Mom can use it to hold napkins or silverware or stationery or pens or…..Now I just have to ship it to her. Surprise Mumster!

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