Fat Quarters Aren’t Just For Quilting!

I’m not a quilter, but I can’t keep myself out of the quilting fabric. I especially love “fat quarters”….they’re about 18”x18” pieces of the same fabrics you can buy by the yard. They’re also a perfect size to wrap a wine bottle.

Starting this week, the first wave of my son’s friends  leave for college. We were stopping by one goodbye party and I was trying to think of how to wrap a bottle of wine and didn’t quite have time to make a wine bag. Fat quarter to rescue! I just placed the bottle in the middle, gathered up the edges wrapped a rubber band around the neck and finished off with some ribbon!

The tag is one I had on hand for just such an occasion (it was really a card and I cut along the score line to have twice as many tags and embellished with some paper scraps, KandCo scrapbook borders etc.) I just threaded some of the same ribbon through the holes in it and tied to the bottle.

I also wanted to bring some cupcakes but with everyone so busy didn’t want to worry about getting a container back etc. Enter aluminum pans from Dollar Tree along with a plain white flour sack towel from the same. The hostess can use these for something else and not have to worry about returning.

The paper flags I simply made using my Printshop Deluxe Program and printed on a patterened scrapbook paper in the Freshman’s school colors.

And I’m still using up the edible gold glitter stars I bought for my son’s graduation which seems like an eternity ago and now they’re all leaving for college! YIKES! Maybe I should have bought two bottles of wine.

Linking Up To: 

BFF Link Party#14 and BFF A Fish Who Likes Flowers

TGIF! Whew. Can you believe it’s August already? And it’s not going by any slower than June or July did. This week, I’d like to introduce you to a fun blogger named Bethany and her blog A Fish Who Likes Flowers. As she puts it:

I'm a creative Pisces girl that loves to sew, knit, and create beautiful things.

And she does exactly that! Look at this cute pillow she made for a friend’s birthday ( and isn’t that sentiment the truth?!)

You might remember some of her other pillows which were recently featured as part of one of my previous party wrap ups:

Bethany did these for a wedding gift but you have to see the other things she did for this wedding!
I love these table markers made from thrift store finds and chalkboard paint:

And these cute moustache and eyeglass accessories on a stick she did when the bride, her niece, saw a similar idea in a wedding magazine:

Guests could take one ( from the equally cute mason jar) and take pictures with silly faces. I love this idea. And since it's still Summer, check out this beachy wreath she linked up last week: 

Much much more to check out over at Bethany’s so I hope you will go visit!

Now, I’m not going to go into a long party intro…you know the drill! Link to your blog post and not your main page and no advertising or selling please. Party on!

Black and White Anniversary

Friends of my in-laws will soon be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I think that’s such an awesome accomplishment!

They’ve been so sweet to my husband and me since we got married and I wanted to do a little something for them even though they said no gifts. The wife has always been known for her passion for black and white. So while the traditional 50th Anniversary color is gold, I had to honor her color preference. Plus hello… I love black and white so no brainer!
I had another wood plinth from when I made my Paris Plaque.

I painted it black and then Mod Podged a tone on tone grey damask print paper from Deja Views Sweet Romance collection on the back and a torn piece on front:

Cut out “50” on black vinyl using my Cricut Expression ( Wall Décor and More cart)  and put on top of the torn side after my MP was dry. Went over the painted sides with white and silver RubnBuff and finished with black and white paper flowers, gold rhinestones ( there’s my traditional color!) and a vintage black and white button I’d picked up thrifting.

For the card, I used a black and white flourish print paper from Me and My Big Ideas and layered chipboard accents from Colorbok’s Nocturne collection with a KandCo Elegance adhesive scrapbook border. Finished off with Recollections rhinestone swirls.

Linking Up At:

Memory Candle

One of my BFF’s recently lost her brother unexpectedly. Flowers are great but they’re temporary. I wanted something that would last. Candles have always brought me solace, probably fostered by my Catholic upbringing and candles being everywhere.

I’ve shared a few altered candle projects before so that was an idea that seemed perfect. I chose to call this a "Memory" vs "Memorial" candle because I want my friend to reflect on good memories of her brother.

I started with a plain glass candle from Dollar Tree and some wonderful handmade paper I picked up because I loved it, but didn’t have a specific purpose in mind when I bought it:

I tore a strip of the paper and Mod Podged it onto the candle, and then tore a strip of paper painters tape and MP’d it on top. Added a KandCo adhesive scrap book border in a coordinating color.

I poked around in my embellishment stash and chose a 1.5” memory frame and glass slide from Ranger, and cut out a square from KandCo’s Life’s Journeys Stamp Collage paper that says “Always”. Glued the paper to the glass with Glossy Accents.  I also selected a heart and key charm. Always to remember that he will be in her heart and was a key figure in her life. Finished with coordinating beads and wrapped the top with twine.

Linking Up At:

BFF Link Party#13 Wrap Up and Features

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. We really enjoyed exploring our local arts fair.  Once again, great creativity linked up to last week’s BFF link party and here are just a few of the fantastic ideas. Hope you’ll go and visit these ladies if you haven’t already.

We’ve seen lots of burlap ideas and I continue to love them but his corduroy wreath from Art Is Beauty just caught my eye. I love the texture  the corduroy gives the rosettes!

Need to keep those recipes visible and handy while cooking? Christine at ChristineandCo has a pretty and practical way to do just that!

Perfect for beating the heat or just because , Screaming Sardine has a copycat recipe for my absolute favorite Dairy Queen Blizzard flavor: Oreo Cookie!

And for chocolate of another variety, we end where we began back at Art is Beauty with this incredible drop leaf table using a graphic from The Graphics Fairy:

Hope to see you all back again this Friday for another BFF Open House Link Party here at The Answer Is Chocolate!

Bellevue Arts Fair

First of all, I love this mosaic maker from Big Huge Labs! This weekend is our city’s annual Arts fair. This is it’s 65th year and I’ve gone to this most of my life and it’s grown into one of the largest Arts fairs in the country. Some of the artists count on this fair for half or more of their yearly sales.

The main fair is run by the Bellevue Art Museum and is a juried competition that takes place earlier in the year. For those who either don’t want to go through that process or aren’t selected, two other fairs have sprung up but we view them as one big fair. The thing I love is that it promotes art, creativity, and engages the community. I love that streets are closed to traffic and you have to walk. It allows you to really take in everything around you.

There’s a kids fair which our son loved when he was younger where kids can get down and dirty ( literally!) in all kinds of projects and lately they’ve closed off one street so the kids can emulate this professional chalk artist:

Every kind of art imaginable is on display from huge metal and glass installation pieces to woodwork, jewelry, cards , altered art you name it. This year, they wrapped all the lamp posts throughout the venue in colorful hand knitted sleeves. Not sure why but just something quirky and fun.

The main part of the fair takes over the parking garage of the mall.

with row after row of vendors where cars would normally be. So much talent and inspiration on display! If you’re ever in the Seattle area the last weekend in July, (it’s the same weekend every year) then this is a must see!

There were performance artists roaming throughout the fair…not really sure what the message was but sometimes that’s the point of art.

BFF Open House Link Party #13 At The Answer Is Chocolate

I cannot believe that it's almost the end of July! How did that happen? I think the same way I ended up without a a blog feature to have as part of Blog Feature Friday...the time just flew by!

But we'll party anyway and hopefully next week won't be so crazy for me at work (oh please oh please!) So let's see what everyone's been up to this week. I've seen some great back to school ideas as well as some really great Summer ideas ( it is still Summer!) but I'm also seeing lots of Halloween , Fall, and dare I say it...CHRISTMAS ideas out there! You know the drill, everything's welcome as long as it was made by you. Paper, jewelry, paint, glitter, chocolate ( someday, I want to see someone link up some edible chocolate glitter!) if you made it, link it. Just no advertising or Etsy stores please and please link to your post and not your main blog page. 

And let's share the love! Who doesn't love to see a comment from an old friend or a new one? OK Party on!