BFF Open House Link Party #177

Happy Friday eve all. Can you believe it's the last weekend of September? Me either. And to put you in a scary mood for Halloween, Christmas is three months from today. BOO!

Here are some highlights from last week's party. 

With prime gift giving and entertaining season upon us, Bonnie from The Pin Junkie has a great tray makeover that's perfect for your own entertaining or to give as a hostess gift. Gorgeous!

Boot season is also upon us. Love how Bianca from Being Bianca dressed up these rain boots that she found on sale. I need a pair of rainboots so can't wait to try this. 

With Halloween lurking around the corner, I love how Jamie at Some of This and That shows us how to transform photos into versions of our scarier selves. Spooky selfies anyone? 

I couldn't decide between these two cupcake ideas for this week's chocolate feature so here are both of them! 

Sarah, a contributor at This Silly Girl's Life shared peanut butter Oreo and cream cupcakes YUM!

And Cami from TitiCrafty shared these Oreo Surprise Cupcakes. You're welcome! 

Now on to this week's party!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Halloween: French Gothic Coffin Boxes

A couple of years ago I had so much fun altering these little coffin shaped boxes I found at Michaels. Darn if they don’t keep stocking them and darn if I don’t keep finding ways to play with them.

It helps ( or doesn’t help depending on whether you’re Mr. Chocolate) that I love digging through clearance aisles and 50-60% off bins which is where I found the embellishments that inspired this project.

The metal Fleur de Lis and Crown pieces were in the $1.50-$3 bins and were 60% off when I found them. On a previous hunting expedition, I’d found the Jolee’s Boutique embellishments on sale. 

We went to France several years ago and while there we toured the Catacombs which are not for the faint of heart but an amazing piece of history. The ornate metal embellishments brought back memories of that trip and the coffin boxes brought back memories of the Catacombs so voila. Gothic Coffin Boxes. Welcome to my brain.

I left a couple of the boxes unpainted and painted the others black. Using the boxes as a template, traced around them and cut out coordinating papers and Mod Podge’d them onto the boxes.

I love it when  a plan goes awry. I intended to use the polka dot paper on the BACKS of each coffin and oops…one made it on the front. Oh well. Lemons / lemonade.

You can’t really see it but I crumpled the skull and bones paper before applying so it would be a little wrinkly. And for once, I was patient and let the boxes dry overnight so the paper would be good and stiff when I sanded the edges.
TIP: Package of emery boards from the Dollar store work great for this

I glued the metal embellishments to the front and added the Jolee’s embellishments as shown. Edged the boxes with torn pieces of  coordinating washi tape.

Sharing At These Fun Places

BFF Open House Link Party #176

Happy Friday Eve everyone. Can you believe we're already past the mid point of SEPTEMBER? Neither can I. Halloween and Fall crafting are in full swing (even though I'm behind!) Here are some ideas to inspire you :) 

Always a fan of book page crafts, I love what the Crafty Lumberjacks use book pages for in this wreath alternative. 

Heather, from Woods of Bell Trees shared another great leaf themed project that would be fun to make for yourself or to give as a gift or both! Nesting leaf bowls made out of clay. 

Fall is back to school / off to school time and Brooke at Artistic Endeavors 101 shared the tin ceiling tile memo board she and her daughter made for her daughter's dorm room. 

Even if you're not a football fan you will be a fan of these Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter cupcakes from Tackling Life. 

Now let's see what everyone's been up to this week! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Thrifty Finds at Michaels: Easy to Make Birthday Card

I've always loved the "used to be a dollar" section at Michaels ( yep...still bitter that it's now the $1.50 - $3 section). So when I find things there that are 50-60% off, I'm ecstatic. 

If you've been a reader of this blog you also know that I just shake my head at the price of cards when it's so easy to make your own. 

On a recent trip, I stumbled upon some finds from Spring. Papers and pre-made tags 60% off which turned out to be $.60 per package. So for a whole $1.20, you can make at least 16 cards from these two things. 

The paper pack had 12 8x8 sheets of 6 different patterns. The gift tags came in a pack of 16 and coordinate with the papers. 

For the birthday card I made I used :

• Light metallic gold cardstock
• White cardstock
• Embossing folder and embossing machine ( I used my Cricut Cuttlebug)
• 2 papers from package
• 1 gift tag
• Self adhesive  pearls
• 3-D Cupcake , candles, metal sentiment stickers from stash

Cut gold cardstock to 7x10 for 5x7 card. Score down the middle

Cut patterned paper 4.75 x 6.75 , attach to card

Cut white cardstock 4x5 and run through embossing folder

Mat on solid paper as shown

Tear solid paper scrap, adhere to middle of white panel

Attach tag, 3-D stickers as shown

Embellish with self adhesive pearls 

Even if you don't have extra stickers in your stash ( a concept with which I am completely unfamiliar!) picking up a package of birthday themed stickers will still put you way ahead of what you'd spend on a single card. 

BFF Open House Link Party #175

Hi all. I debated whether to post the party tonight or wait til tomorrow given the 9/11 Anniversary. I'm going to skip features this week but wanted to still make the link up available. 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Halloween Gothic and Glam: Skulls and Bows Earrings, Necklace, Bracelet

With Halloween approaching  and the return of one of my guilty pleasure TV series  “Sons of Anarchy” , I was inspired to make some fun gothic jewelry. My real life couldn't be further from what happens on the show but I do have some things in common with the female characters style: B L I N G.  I love it when worlds collide.

Included in  my Blue Moon Bead design team supplies (all supplies are Blue Moon Beads ; design is my own)  were strands of black and clear crystal beads with rhinestone skulls.  Also included were silver filigree bow beads.

My photography skills don’t do the details justice but these are the perfect combination of gothic and girly , bold and bling.

For the earrings I strung a glass bead, skull bead and bow bead on a head pin and attached to pendant pieces. These are non-pierced earrings so I glued clip findings to the back of the pendants.

For the bracelet, I used stretchy cord,  two of the clear rhinestone skull beads , one of the bow beads and alternating black and clear crystal beads.

For the necklace ( choker length) I used two different chains, more of the pendants made the same way as the earrings and then clear and black beads on head pins attached directly to the links with jump rings.

Blue Moon Beads can be found at your local JoAnns.

BFF Open House LInk Party #174

Happy Friday eve all and happy SEPTEMBER if you can believe it. I'm still trying to digest the fact that College Boy started his senior year of college this week. I remember writing about when we first dropped him off. Yikes!

Hope you all had a nice Labor Day weekend and those of you kids off to school this week ( little or big, kindergarten or college) did so w/out too much anxiety. 

Fun ideas from last week's party: 

I know how excited a lot of people are about the early return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks. So this one's for you pumpkin fans...if you want to save but still want the PSL experience, visit Crafty Lumberjacks for their super fast recipe. 

Alayna's Creations shared a two in one holiday project that will get you through from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Double sided wood blocks! Genius. 

Speaking of two in one projects this week's chocolate feature is paired with another great fall idea. How cute are these football themed snack bags? Only made better with the Snickers Pretzel Snack mix that goes inside. Who needs game day?

Visit Upstate Ramblings for the details on both!

Now on to this week's party!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up