Happy Earth Day: The Tale of the Upcycled Scarf Ring Tree of Life Bangle Bracelet

I’m starting a new meme. “Craftsplaining”. Like when you get an idea in your head to use something for a completely unrelated purpose ( eg I have "craftsplained" my way through Home Depot, Lowes, Dollar Tree, Target…) I've had conversations like : ”oh how old is your baby” because I’m buying baby wipes. “20 but these aren’t for him. I use them to clean up after my Mod Podge projects”

Or when someone says “what made you think of that”. OK sometimes there’s not even a “craftsplanation” for that. Like this project. I received a scarf for Christmas and it came with his big acrylic ring that you could use to tie it different ways. HA! It’s a bangle bracelet DUH!

For this project you will need:

• Plastic or acrylic bangle type device
• Mod Podge
• Paper Scrap
• Metal leaf adhesive
• Metal leafing
• Charm(s)

Since this was an Earth Day project, everything I used came from my stash.

Trace around your bangle on your scrapbook paper scraps. I hadn’t decided yet which paper I was going to use so I cut two paper “bangles”. I also hummed the Olympics theme song.

Rough up your bangle. I just used an emery board. Apply Mod Podge (I used Matte finish, my go to) apply paper, smooth, apply coat on top of paper. Go make dinner or surf our favorite blogs.

Now, once your MP side is dry you’ll want to apply your metal leaf. If you’re not familiar with metal leafing, supplies are available at fine art stores or I know Michaels carries them. Metal leaf is not the same as FOIL. Foil has a dull side and a bright side. If you use foil ( which you could for this project) makes sure to keep the shiny side up. Also, the label is not green and Mona Lisa doesn’t usually look seasick on it. I spilled a green alcohol re-inker on my bottle.

Unlike foil, when you apply metal leafing entire portions of it stick to the adhesive. Lay your foil over your sticky surface ( adhesive takes about 20-30 min to set up before you apply your leafing) and then I just use a stiff stencil brush to pounce on the leafing. Go all over your surface.

As you go around your surface, the portions with nothing to stick to will tear away. If you are a neat freak can’t stand any uncontrolled mess, this is NOT for you. The leafing is very light weight and pieces will fly away. HINT: I lay down a piece of wax paper to help control things and then I can just toss it. You should also save your scrap pieces for other projects.

Once I had my leafing on, I attached a “Tree of Life” pendant from Blue Moon Beads to my bangle using a large jump ring. I thought this was perfect for Earth Day.  I like big clunky jewelry but of course you could use something smaller. You’ll just need a big enough jump ring to hold your bangle. I also used up some little charms from my stash. Yay stashbusting!

I would love to hear some of the "craftsplanations" you've had to give. Share in the comments!

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Scrappy Tags...Who Wants to Win Them?

Creating things is therapeutic for me like it is for many creative people. After a week filled with less than happy news, I finally felt like making a little something. You may recall I had several birthdays this month and made a few cards. That always means scraps left over.  I decided to make some tags.  I’ve shared posts before about these being one of the best ways I know to use up scraps.

I also decided I wanted to give them away. Why? Just because. Consider this a “give-a-tute” or a “Tute-a-way” . Regardless, it makes me happy. Sometimes you just need to make things right? 

This is a fast , easy, and stashbusty project. You will need:

• Blank Tags. Pre-made or you can cut your own.
• Coordinating Scraps
• Adhesive
• Embellishments ( I used rhinestones, washi tape, scrapbook stickers, and more scraps)
• Twine or ribbon

Cover your tags with your preferred adhesive. Cover with scraps. I had pieces big enough to cover my tags completely and some pieces not quite big enough. No problem, combine the smaller pieces and trim accordingly.

 

Mix and match other pieces of your coordinating scraps in whatever combo makes you happy. Use the hole on the back side of your covered tag as a guide, punch through your covered side, add an eyelet.

Then just have fun embellishing. I punched some flowers from even more scraps and layered them. I used portions of stickers and strips of washi tape just wherever.

Finished off by threading coordinating baker’s twine through the eyelets.

So who wants them? Deets below. I'll announce the winner at Friday's BFF Open House.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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BFF Open House Link Party #101

I debated about whether to have a party this week because it certainly has not been a celebratory one. My heart continues to go out to Boston and West Texas. I'm always amazed at how quickly the creative community responds to a tragedy. Whether it was Socks for Sandy, Snowflakes for Sandy Hook, the responses to previous natural disasters, there is a way to channel our creative energies. 

Emily from House and Hone is already on the job and has announced a doll drive for the children in Texas. Please click on over to her place for the details. 

As always there were some wonderful ideas shared last week. Here are just a few: 

Karyn, at Pint Sized Baker claims she's not a cake pop goddess but who is she trying to kid? She's amazing and College Boy would go crazy for these being a self confessed comic geek! 

I love easy and I love Dollar Store finds. Christina and Rebecca from Dear Beautiful You combined the two and made these cute dessert stands. You really need to check out the party they used them for too! 

I'm not much of a gardener or a plant person but having something alive and growing always makes it feel like Spring. Jamie from The Creative Imperative has some great terrarium ideas that I think even I could handle. 

Carolyn from homework combined a Dollar Store find, a crackle paint technique and jewelry pieces from her stash to make this gorgeous Spring succulent pot. 

Finally, this week's chocolate feature is from Debbie at Made From Pinterest. I've only ever used these wafer cookies as a cheesecake base but here's an easy and yummy idea Chocolate Wafer Stack Cakes.

Now, on with the party. If you're new to linking up, please be sure and leave a comment. Following isn't required, but I do love meeting new bloggers and like to follow back. Thanks for spending some of your time on my little chocolate covered corner of the internet. 

Spring Spring Spring... Printable

Haven't been up to much creatively in the past couple of days. 

But it's been a bit Spring like here today, so I whipped up a quick printable in PicMonkey that I thought I'd share. 

If you use, I'd love to see how. 

Hugs creative peeps. 

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Elephant Amulet Multi-Strand Necklace

As member of the Blue Moon Bead design team, I  got to play with a new collection of Amulet pieces currently available at Michaels stores. These amulets are large pendants, representing a variety of cultures.  For this project, I chose a silver and black elephant.

These are bold pieces. I had recently picked up some steal deal pieces on one of my Michaels trips and they were a perfect match for my amulet.

The black multi-strand chain  and the earring pieces were on sale for $.99 each!  We’ll get to the earrings in a minute. The first thing I did was change out the clasp on the necklace. I love lobster. I don’t love lobster clasps so I took off the one that was on the chain and replaced it with a silver toggle clasp (also by Blue Moon Beads). Since I was going to use my silver and black amulet, I didn’t care that it didn’t match the chain.

There was some extra chain from the original clasp which I then used to attach my amulet. I attached jump rings to either end, slid the amulet on, and then used more silver jump rings to attach this portion to the multi- strand portion of the necklace.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have pierced ears and have to make a lot of my own clip earrings. I often find pierced earrings on sale that I buy intending to take them apart and re-arrange them. That was the case with these:

I took off the ear wire and the flower charm, made the bottom the top, glued on clip earring backs, and attached the black drop pieces I picked up for $.99!

They matched my black and silver amulet necklace perfectly. In case you can’t tell, I’m a big earring kinda girl!

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I Took the Strong Moms Empowerment Pledge and a Printable

This is an uncompensated post through my affiliation with One2OneNetwork. Opinions expressed here, as usual,  are my own.

I know... this is not a craft or chocolate post. But in addition to being addicted to crafts and chocolate, I'm addicted to being a mom. Maybe not something that my 20 year old son would want to hear but he already knows it's an affliction for which there is no cure and I think he's pretty OK with it. No College Boy, I am not trying to convince you to be Facebook friends. I Twitter stalk you instead mwah!

So why am I writing this? Because even though my son is technically an adult, I'll be a mom forever. And one thing I know after having been a mom for 20 years is that moms need to empower and support other moms. Mr. Chocolate has been an extraordinary parenting partner, but sometimes "It's a mom thing".

I had my son during what I think was the height of "the Mommy wars" , a term I always loathed. I was never at war with another mother. The moms I've been fortunate enough to know throughout my trip down "mommy-hood lane" took a practical approach to motherhood. How do we all make this work for all of us? What's right for my family? Some of us stayed home. Some of us didn't. Some of us had plans change and rugs pulled out from under us.  None of us were better or worse than each other. We did what was right for us and left the judging to Judge Judy and the other wearers of black robes.

It seemed that this false narrative (and I believe manufactured) competition had dissipated but there was a recent online re-hashing of it when one mom judged another mom for being on her phone while at the park with kids yada yada yada and round things went again.  I'm not going to get into that here.

I think why I've been so happy blogging is because I've met even more moms who don't have a rigid "there is a right and wrong way to be a mom". I mean other than not letting your kids play with sharp knives and matches or forgetting them on top of the car kind of wrong. 

I've met moms who blog as an escape, as a full time business, as a side job, ( and some dads too!) and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive and clearly all of these mompreneurs have their kids best interests at the forefront of their minds.  If the so called "mommy wars" are still going on, I am grateful I don't see that in my online interactions.

Life isn't perfect for any of us, but it's so much easier when we're there for each other instead of at each other don't you think? So that's why I am writing this post and why I took the "Strong Moms Empowerment Pledge" . I want to thank every mom who's been there for me throughout my time as a mom. From The Mumster (aka my mom) real life besties with whom I survived the teen years, to those of you whom I may never meet face to face. Moms rock and we need to support each other!

If you want to take the Strong Moms Empowerment pledge and / or show your support for moms you can go here: Strong Moms Empower.

Oh and for all you moms , I made a printable too:

Click to bring to full resolution; right click to save as.

BFF Open House Link Party #100 !

Welcome back and welcome to first time linker uppers to the BFF Open House Link party here at The Answer Is Chocolate. So glad to have you! Can you believe this is my 100th link party?! Me either. Thanks to everyone for making this weekly get together so much fun. 

We will get right to our features from last week's party and then see what everyone's been up to this week. 

I love book page projects and flowers and Diane from An Extraordinary Day has combined them into one project featuring an actual tree branch. 

Despite the fact that technology dominates our communication these days, "snail mail" is still very much a reality. Doreen from Altered Artworks, turned a thrift store find into a fabulous mail station. 

Fonda from Southern Scraps transformed some ordinary bottles of soap into extraordinary gifts. Perfect with Mother's Day coming up or just to spruce up your own bath or powder room. 

I debated about including this amazing "Cars" cake by Michele at The Scrap Shoppe only because a certain big kid in my life whose initials are Mr. Chocolate is a HUGE "Cars" fan and might expect me to replicate this. If that happens, I'm calling you Michele! You have got to check out the whole party !

So now let's see what everyone's been up to this week. Following's not a requirement to join the fun but I do love finding new blogs and follow back so if you are a new follower, please be sure to leave a comment.