BFF Open House Link Party #73 Wrap Up and Features

How is it Monday again already? Thanks to everyone for making Friday’s party another fantastic one. As always, so many amazing ideas that it’s hard to highlight just a few but here we go:

Carolyn at homework shared this elegant cornhusk pumpkin. Gorgeous!  Definitely something to display now through Thanksgiving.

Speaking of which, who wouldn’t look like the hostess with the mostest wearing this incredible Anthropologie knockoff cuff by Bev at Flamingo Toes?

But before we get to Thanksgiving, we still have Halloween ! Megan from Polish The Stars shared this fun printable:

Which would go perfectly with this fun pumpkin from Fonda at Southern Scraps:

Houndstooth Duck Tape! How cool is that?

Finally, this week’s chocolate feature is so appropriately named I felt my blood sugar go up just looking at it:

Butter Toffee Fudge {a.k.a. Badonk-a-donk fudge} because if you eat too much of the former, you will definitely have the latter,  but  all things in moderation right? You can thank Lori Ann over at Lori Ann’s Food and Fam for this one!

Thanks to all who linked up and can’t wait to see what you’re up to this week. Make it a creative one!

BFF Open House Link Party #73

TGI(almost)F! It has been a crazy week and that’s not likely to end any time soon. So, with mixed emotions , I’m going to accept some realities and limitations and discontinue the “Blog Feature” part of the BFF Open House Link party.

Please note:

WE WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE THE FRIDAY PARTY!

And it will continue to go up Thus night. When I started my weekly link party I featured a new blog each week but with the party having grown and my blog having grown, I don’t have the bandwidth to keep up that part of it.

I absolutely still love discovering new and emerging blogs, and will continue to pay it forward in the blogosphere by sharing and promoting new blogs I discover, Just more likely on FB or Twitter and more randomly. I hope that won’t change anyone’s mind about visiting each week and linking up.

Again, I have NO plans to discontinue the party part! Thank you for understanding. With that, let’s see what everyone’s been up to this week. I’m seeing such amazing Halloween and Fall ideas. My work schedule hasn’t left me as much time or energy for crafting as I”d like and you all sharing your links here feeds that hole in my creative soul so thank you for choosing to link up each week.

Glitter Frame and PicMonkey Halloween Printables

I’ve mentioned before that I love PicMonkey. That was before Halloween decorating started. and they added a whole bunch of new effects. Yowza. They have got quite the collection. No matter your Halloween decorating style…from gothic, to ghoulish, to scary, creepy, funny, zombie you name it.

What fun is a printable without a great frame though? I started with an unpainted filigree frame I picked up at Michaels:

and painted it black. After which I had the Rolling Stones stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Once the paint was dry, I used a spray adhesive and alternated sprinkling black and clear glitter like a madwoman.

Then I just printed my printable,  adhered it to the back of the frame, and added a few rhinestones.
So here’s the printable I made completely in PicMonkey which I’m happy to share with you. Click on to bring to full resolution then right click to save as.

Of course with all of the fun effects, I couldn’t stop at just one printable:

And now for something truly frightening:

Mwaaaahhhh…It’s me in Witch Hat, crackle and zombie effect applied.

Sharing At: 

Mod Podge and Vinyl H-OWL-oween Sign

Sharing a post I did for the Expressions Vinyl blog last month. This was a very fast project. The longest part was the Mod Podge dry time. 

I wanted to add some more sophistication to my Halloween décor, and also love metallics. The Silver Leaf  Expressions vinyl fit both of these requirements.

I started with a plain wood owl and a piece of scrapbook paper. I traced the owl on the paper, cut it out, adhered it to the owl with Mod Podge and let it dry.

While it was drying, I loaded my Cricut Expression with a sheet of Silver Leaf Expressions Vinyl and cut out the numbers “31” using the Plantin Schoolbook cart.

Once my owl was dry, I added my numbers. I also added some bling by using an oversized rhinestone swirl I had in my stash. I told you this was easy!

Craft fail save! When I traced my owl on paper I managed to get the border strip that isn’t really part of the paper. Rather than re-cut it I covered over those spots on the owl’s feet with vinyl scraps. Just cut them freehand and done.

I love the texture of the Silver Leaf vinyl. It really catches the light.

I hope you enjoyed this easy project ! Happy Howloween.

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BFF Open House Link Party #72 Wrap Up and Features

Happy October ( I still can't believe it's October). Thanks everyone who linked up to Friday’s party. There were so many wonderful ideas shared ( as always) and here are just a few.

Doesn’t this look straight out of Pottery Barn? Marty from Marty’s Musings got the idea for this branch candle holder, and her husband helped bring it to life:

Karyn from Pint Sized Baker is constantly coming up with the cutest cake pops and this week was no exception. Check out these amazing Jack Skellington cake pops:

They go perfectly with this gorgeous Halloween countdown sign from Sarah at Alderberry Hill:

If you’re looking for a little more color for Halloween, you’ll love this bright and bewitching wreath from Alayna’s Creations:

Finally, this week’s chocolate temptation comes from The PinterTest Kitchen, Chocolate Cream Cheese Surprise cupcakes. Yum!

Thanks again to everyone who linked up and can’t wait to see what you get up to this week. Make it a creative one!

Altered Skeleton Bottle

I’m always excited when Mr. Chocolate decides to try a new adult beverage because he always chooses stuff that comes in the coolest bottles and eventually they’ll be mine all mine mwaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

I had fun last year making “Pick Your Poison” altered bottles, that I wanted to make another one.
I started with this empty bottle:

appropriately called Mischief.

I was going to use the paper you see underneath it then I decided to use this paper instead:

Fishnet! Yes, fishnet paper. I thought it screamed Halloween. Measured around my bottle, cut the paper and applied to the bottle with Matte finish Mod Podge, then tore some strips of black and white damask paper and slapped that on with the MP.

Once that was dry, I cut out a circle from the All Hallow’s Eve scrapbook paper shown here, applied it to the bottle with Antique Matte Mod Podge, then applied a rhinestone circle sticker.

I had a skeleton head left over from my coffin boxes and decided it would make a great bottle topper. First I wrapped the bottle neck with black and white baker’s twine, then kind of zig zag wraped black ribbon on top of that:

I also had some spider web paper left over from my coffin boxes so I made a pleated pinwheel to make a collar for Mr. Skully Head.

Carrying on my propensity to pun, I added a key from a package of Tim Holtz keys…a Skeleton Key .I crack me up.

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BFF Open House Link Party #72 : The I'm Late Edition!

I’m late I’m late for this very important date, and very much running around like the Mad Hatter. So without further ado ( adieu?) let’s party!

Don't forget to share the bloggy love and visit some of the other partiers.  Thanks for choosing to spend part of your week here with out of control me !