Monday, June 25, 2012

BFF Open House #59 Wrap Up and Features and Expressions Vinyl Giveaway WINNER!

Happy Monday everyone! You can throw a virtual pie in my face when I point out that today is exactly SIX MONTHS until Christmas. Uh huh. At the rate time keeps flying by, just saying….

Thanks for another great party. As always inspiring ideas that are filling up my Pinterest boards! Love seeing new blog names each week and there’s just no shortage of creativity.

Katie from Creatively Living, shared her fantastic wall art project that will have you out in your yard looking at branches in a whole new way:


Got milk? You’re going to need some to go with these delicious peanut butter brownies from Valerie at The Year of Living Healthfully:


Valerie also asks the quintessential brownie question. Are you a corner person or a middle person?

Doreen from Altered Artworks shared a great idea to bring vacation memories home with you. I’m forever bringing souvenir napkins from restaurants, hotels etc. and she transformed some special ones from a recent trip  into coasters! Perfect.

Finally, Summer is the perfect time for a Carnival themed birthday party and it’s a popular theme because there were two linked up. One for a boy from Fotini at Glamorous Affordable Life:


and one for a girl from Jenn at One Thrifty Chick:


so it’s a perfect universal theme! Be sure to visit both to see all of the fun details.

And now for the winner of the wonderful box of goodies from Expressions Vinyl! Congrats to :

Expressions Vinyl

and thanks to Expressions for such a fun giveaway. 

Jeannie, I’ve emailed you,  and either Expressions or I will be in touch! OK that's it for today. Make it a creative week! 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Using PicMonkey to Make Printables and a Craft Themed Printable!

Busy Making Other Crafts

My PicMonkey addiction continues. Tonia over at The Gunny Sack, shared a tutorial on how to use their collage function to customize a background. Uh oh…more stuff you can do in PicMonkey!!! Thank you Tonia.

The Mumster (my mom) often quotes the saying “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” so it’s usually somewhere on my mind. I adapted it to crafting!

I made a black background and then just used different fonts for the text. PicMonkey added some new frame options this week called “Sketchedy” one of which I applied to this printable.

Life Is

Click to bring to full resolution. Right click to save as and then re-size in whatever photo editor you use.

Life Is Grey
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Thursday, June 21, 2012

BFF Open House Link Party #59!

Happy Friday Eve everyone. This week went by just as fast as all the prior weeks have this year. Hope it’s been good and creative to everyone.

As a reminder, I’m taking the Summer off from Blog Features and will start back up in September. If you haven't entered my fun giveaway from Expressions Vinyl, it runs through Sunday. Details here

 So, let’s see what everyone’s been up to this week! 


link party rules-001

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Bling. 21st Birthday Card.

21st Birthday Card

I don’t feel old enough to have a friend who has a 21 year old daughter! Darn you reality!

Special occasion called for a special card so I outblinged myself.

Pink Black White Card

I used a black and white damask paper from a  Recollections pack I picked up at Michaels, and a pink and white paper from the same pack.

The focal point of the card is a dimensional sticker from KandCo. It already had rhinestones so of course I added more.

Black White and Pink Birthday

Layered the two papers and went over the border with pink glitter ribbon. For the “21” I used clear stickers on a plain bezel charm and filled in with Dimensional Magic.

P6145170

Finished by adding crown shape self adhesive rhinestones on the corners.

21st Birthday Card

I’m still not old enough to have a BFF with a 21 year old. Nope!

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

BFF Open House Link Party #58 Wrap Up and Features

I’m a day late with the features from Friday’s link party. Was celebrating Expressions Vinyl’s birthday yesterday. Don’t forget, I have a giveaway from them going through this Sunday. Details here.


As always, so many wonderful ideas were linked up to last week’s BFF Open House. Here are just a few!
I’ll start off by making you drool over these cupcakes from Jocelyn at Inside BruCru Life. Starbucks should just hire her to come up with cupcakes to pair with their drinks.



Jocelyn’s got a whole collection of Starbucks inspired confections .

What crafty mom doesn’t have a collection of popsicle sticks hanging around without a clue what to do with them? Bethany at Pitter and Glink has got your covered:


Popsicle sticks!

No one would guess this was a made-over shirt versus one bought new in a trendy boutique. That’s because the ever brilliant Carolyn from Homework did it:


Time to shop in the closet!

Want to add a patriotic pillow to your décor without breaking the bank? Laura from Top This Top That shared this cute pillow made from….. a drop cloth:


If you don’t already have one in your stash you can pick up fabric drop cloths at the Hardware store for about $8 and they provide a LOT of fabric.

Thanks again for making each Friday so much fun. Make it another creative week!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Expressions Vinyl Birthday Giveaway!

Expressions Vinyl Birthday

Expressions Vinyl is celebrating their birthday this week and I was very excited when they contacted me to play with some of their newest products as part of the celebration. I was even MORE excited when they said that one of my readers would get a chance to receive a similar box of goodies of their own.

I couldn’t wait to see what was inside the box when it arrived and they didn’t disappoint with a ginormous selection of their newest vinyls which included some incredible glitters, metallics, reflectives, frosted and even glow in the dark! Some sheets were 12x12 but most were 12x24.

They are also now carrying acrylic tumblers and sent a couple of those to play with along with a tote bag. Here’s some of the fun I had!

Vinyl Tumbler

Mr. Chocolate loves cars, transportation, maps etc. I got the idea to make him a Route 66 tumbler he could use for iced drinks this Summer. I used the Expressions Vinyl in Mist Rainbow and Black and downloaded the sign from the Silhouette online store.

P6105116

Not to be left out, College Boy, who is a huge Superhero and Comic geek ( his preferred term!) got a Batman tumbler , images also downloaded from the SIlhouette online store:

Batman Tumbler

I just had decide what to make for me!

Also included in the box of goodies was a re-usable fabric tote bag. We’ve been hanging out at lots of used bookstores lately and in trying to be greener, I try to bring my own bags when I remember.

I got the idea to make a book themed book bag. Since my Cricut Expression has been feeling neglected, I used it to cut the images and used the Wall Décor and More cartridge:
Expressions Vinyl Tote

I’m lazy…didn’t even iron the tote.

For this I used more of the Mist Rainbow vinyl along with two colors of Glitter Ultra Cast: Blue and Mint.

Knowledge Tote

I also cut a key and the word “Knowledge”  ( I’m so corny…get it Books…learning…knowledge is key”.  Go ahead and groan. I did).

And, not content to leave simple enough alone, I freehand cut some layered flowers from drop cloth scraps and embellished them w/ buttons.

This vinyl is so easy to work with and cuts equally nicely on either the Silhouette Cameo or Cricut Expression. Expressions Vinyl is great because they have a settings guide on their website for digital cutters. Even if you don’t have a machine, you can easily draw an image or trace a template on the back and cut by hand.

OK now for the bestest part! 

Expressions is giving one of my readers a chance to win the same box of goodies they sent me ! 2 Tumblers, a tote and a selection of awesome vinyl.  They will have a lot of fun things going on this week so you want to be sure and check out their site and FB page!

The giveaway will run from today, June 18 through June 24 with the winner announced June 25. To enter: 
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good Luck!