This Week's BFF...On Thursday

I'm doing this week's "BFF" (Blog Feature Friday) on Thursday since tomorrow I'll be having my Monthly Open House link party ( and you're coming right?).  On to this week's BFF which is :

Allison is the blogger who gives us a glimpse inside her world which she describes as: 

Our Military Adventures, My Crafty Endeavors, & Our Everyday Life

and started the blog as a way to update family and friends on the adventures she shares with her active duty hubby Travis ( Thank You Travis!) as they live the reality of military life moving from place to place. Allison keeps herself  busy caring for her "fur babies" and doing fun craft projects like: 

Twine and coffee filter wreath

or:

Framed Yarn Art

And how cute is this for Thanksgiving? : 

In addition to hosting a weekly link party: 

which is going on right now so you should go link something up, she also has a weekly feature called Tasty Tuesday. She had me at: 

OREO Fudge and Ice Cream Cake

So go visit Allison. This week's BFF at The Answer Is Chocolate!

Winter Wonderland Tags ...

and playing with Picnik. I usually just upload my photos without doing much to them except maybe cropping them. But I was waiting for something and decided to play around on Picnik before posting one and it was so much fun. If you missed their Halloween themes and effects, they have some for Thanksgiving and I'm sure will have some for Christmas in addition to the standard holiday effects they have all the time.

I've been busy making colorful tags and cards for an upcoming show and must have been going through neutral withdrawal so decided to make some neutral tags. Just used scraps, a punch, and cut the tags on my Expression. Combine that with some gold rhinestones, copper eyelets, and Picnik and:

Natural Snowflake Tags

I played with the "snow" effect in Picnik and used the "museum matte" frame option. It's hard to tell from a picture, but I punched several snowflakes out and layered them (sometimes alternating colors, sometimes not) using small foam dots. It gives a nice dimension to the tags.

Poor plain old un-Picnik'd snowless tags.

Linking Up At:

 

Framed Christmas Art:

 

I didn't take a lot of pictures of this while I was making it because it was one of those things that just kinda happened. So I'll describe what I did below:

You need:

• Frame w/ four space mat. Mine is an 8x10  w/ openings 2.5 by 3.5...mine was $2 on clearance
• Acrylic Paint and white glue
• Graphics program
• Clipart ( I used sheet music from The Graphics Fairy and then options w/ in my graphics progam)

For frame:
Paint frame w/ color of choice. Mine was Delta's "Salem Green". Don't worry about it being perfect because we're going for aged here. When first color is dry, cover with white glue. Plain white glue....mine was from Staples back to school sale...cheap stuff. When glue is almost dry cover with a different color paint. I used ivory. I'm impatient so I used my blow dryer. The one I keep in my craft room. Not the one I use to dry my hair. Although, it's been known to happen. Crackle crackle will ensue.  I went over this with another green mixed w/ glazing medium.

For "NOEL" letters:
Download sheet music from The Graphics Fairy
Import into graphics program; size as needed; copy for however many letters you need
Choose font and layer letters on top of graphic
Add clipart ( mine is from my graphics program) layer

I printed mine on lightweight cardstock , cut out each letter collage, and framed.

Linking Up At:

 

November Open House Invite!

Greetings all! I know it can be a little kooky to keep up with a monthly link party vs a weekly one. But that's all this chocoholic can handle! So just a reminder that this Friday, November 19th, is my monthly "Open House" link party!! I hope you'll drop by with whatever you'd like to link up. Crafts, decor, jewelry ( seasonal or not), recipes ( doesn't have to be chocolate ) Hope to see you!!

Joyeux Noel Christmas Candles

I had so much fun with my Parisian and Thanksgiving altered candles that of course I had to do some for Christmas! Especially after ordering a case of them from Dollar Tree's website which they shipped to my local store. Why they don't have them IN the store beats me! I'm going to do a step by step tutorial for a guest post later this month but here is one batch :

They remind me of Christmas ribbon candies. I did the sentiment on my computer and used a ribbon frame from The Graphics Fairy. Used coordinating scrapbook papers from "Me&My Big Ideas". Beads from my stash and some fun velveteen and pom pom ribbon I got at Michaels.

 

Linking Up At:

Blog Feature Friday: Rusty Rooster Vintage

Welcome to the 2nd "Meet My BFF" Blog Feature Friday! This week I'd like to introduce you to Vicki from Rusty Rooster Vintage.
Vicki is a lover of all things vintage and her blog shows it. She's got wonderful ideas and tutorials on everything from transformed vintage finds like what to do with a rusty old mason jar holder:

Or go and  see what she did with this already cute birdcage:

Getting in the holiday spirit, you have to go see Vicki's tutorial for how she made these stinkin' cute Pottery Barn Copycat Ornaments:

Vicki offers up some other creative ways to do these ornaments. I just love this black and white one:

And she's sweet enough to share the download of the image she came up with for the first one for my very favorite price of FREE ! Of course I think it's only right that if you use it , you follow her.  She's also been busy with some incredible ornaments made from mason jar lids and all kinds of other wonderful treasures and did I mention that she's only been blogging since September? I also had to laugh when visiting Linda at Itsy Bitsy Pieces who won a giveaway of Vicki's when I discovered that we both have the exact same blog business cards! I hope you'll go visit Vicki and make a new bloggy friend. I know I have :)

Christmas Subway Tiles

I'm still getting the hang of this Subway Art thing but I had fun with the one I did for Thanksgiving and decided to do some for Christmas.

For the Thanksgiving "tiles" I used wood plaques but for these I used actual tiles. The kind you can get inexpensively at any hardware / building supply store. I got these for $.47 ea at Home Depot:

6x6 Ceramic Tile

I created the word art on my computer , this time highlighting one "word" ( OK I know it's a number!) in red. Printed off several sizes to play around with. I really want a laser printer because sealing this inkjet stuff before I Mod Podge it is hit or miss on the smearing. Anyone with any smear proof tips, speak up!

I printed these on Christmas themed scrapbook paper so I'd have a design within a design and used a coordinating piece of paper as the background for the tile:

The red smearing isn't too bad is it?

Some of the tiles I covered completely and others I let some of the tile show. On this one I sanded around the edges.  I embellished all of them with various buttons and rhinestones.

And this pic is because I'm still playing around with the color accent feature of my camera :)

 

Linking Up At: