BFF Open House #61

Welcome to this week’s BFF Open House here at The Answer Is Chocolate. Hope you all had a safe and happy July Fourth.

I’m going to have a crazy couple of weekends coming up so the party will go on but just letting you know in case I don’t get around to visit and do features like I usually try to. All the more reason for you all to go visit each other right?

See that button on my side bar? I hope you’ll check out Workshop Wednesdays, a fun Christmas in July series I’m participating in with several other bloggers. It’s never too early to get a start on the holidays.

OK I think that’s it for the announcements! Let’s see what everyone’s been up to this week:

Party On!

Christmas In July Workshop Wednesday Blog Hop: Paris In A Box

Welcome to a fun blog hop called Workshop Wednesday and a special welcome to any new visitors who came over from visiting Kara at Mine For The Making!

Michele over at The Scrap Shoppe had the genius idea to get several of us together to get a jump start on holiday ideas. I know what you're thinking:  it's July. There's plenty of time. That's what I tell myself every year and then I get a big old Emeril "BAM" wake up call. 

I always joke with a friend about running away to Paris. I can’t actually give that to her, so I came up with the next best thing. Paris in a box. Or at least the essence ( to continue my Emeril references)  of Paris in a box.

For this project you will need:

• Plain wooden box you can get at Michaels, JoAnns, etc. (which if you post a project using, you remember to take a picture of before you start!)
• Scrapbook paper of choice; I used K and Company black and ivory coordinated papers
• Mod Podge
• Acrylic craft paint
• Embellishments

Start by painting the edges of your box ( the parts that won’t be covered w/paper). Cut paper to fit the top and bottom and inside lids of your box.

Apply Mod Podge to surface, lay your paper down, smooth, let dry. Once dry, you can lightly sand off any excess paper on the edges and then seal with another coat of Mod Podge. If you’ve never podged, visit the Queen, Amy Anderson for getting started tips here.

I then went around my box with this fun “Crafting Tape” from Recollections at Michaels. LOVE this stuff which is their version of  washi tape!

Time to embellish! I cut an Eiffel Tower image from black vinyl using my appropriately named Silhouette Cameo "CoCo". As in Chanel ( ok and chocolate) .  Then went stash shopping for embellishments…self adhesive rhinestones, die cuts, buttons, and one of a couple of little frames I picked up along the way:

I popped out the plastic “glass” and popped off the back and then painted the frame with cream acrylic craft paint and dabbed on a little silver Rub n Buff.  Mod podged an oval diecut onto the lid and glued my frame and butons on :

Added black rhinestones here and there and Voila! I’m filling the box with some handmade tags tied with black and white baker’s twine for mon amie. 

I’m terrible at doing cost estimates because I have a lot of stuff on hand and always have a Michaels or JoAnn’s coupon around. If you had to buy the main materials, your total cost would still be around $10. a.) some of this stuff is always on sale  b.) there’s always a coupon and c.) much less than a plane ticket!

Hope you enjoyed this and it’s given you an idea for a plan ahead gift for a friend. Think of the fun you could have with places you and a friend have wanted to run away to. Hawaii? Italy? London? All of the above? Yes please!

Remember, this is a blog hop where you can find some more head start holiday inspiration so next stop is to visit Michele at The Scrap Shoppe! We'll be hopping every Wednesday in July.

Sharing At: 

Wishing You All A

It's Christmas! In July...Workshop Wednesdays

No you did not lose time on your calendar. It’s still July but time flies when you have all these great intentions of being organized for the holidays and then suddenly you realize you DID lose time on your calendar.

Michele, from The Scrap Shoppe had a great idea to get ahead of this. She and I , along with Kara from Mine for the Making, Bev from Flamingo Toes, and Tracey from My CreativiT decided that since Santa isn’t using his sleigh right now, we’d borrow it for a Christmas in July Blog Hop !

Would you like to get a jumpstart on your gifts for this year or get some great decorating ideas? Then join us for Workshop Wednesdays starting tomorrow!

We will be sharing ideas such as how to get organized for the holidays, how to make personalized ornaments, and some great gift ideas.

Turn on some Christmas music and dust off your Santa hat as you join us as we dash through blog world by visiting these participating blogs in Workshop Wednesdays. Spread the word and dust off your elf shoes!

Cool Yule !

BFF Open House Link Party #60 Wrap Up and Features: Festive Fourth Edition!

Thanks everyone for another great BFF Open House. As always, there was no shortage of creativity and fabulous ideas. Since we are celebrating Fourth of July this week in the US, I’m featuring some of the great Fourth inspired ideas that were shared.

Malia, from Yesterday on Tuesday shared a fantastic collection of printables you can use to whip up some décor for the 4th:

Wreaths are a wonderful way to decorate and I have two really cute ones to share. The first from The Freckled Optimist:

I just love those letters! And the second is from Mel, The Crafty Scientist that is part of her interchangeable wreath series and can be updated for other holidays:

Transform a plain dimensional star with Mod Podge and scrapbook paper. Visit A Creative Princess to see how:



If you want to wear your festive Fourth colors, pop over to see Ellen at Creative Passage for this crocheted wire and bead bracelet!

Of course you know I have to feature something chocolate, so I think these Drumstick cupcakes from White Lights on Wednesday are an ingenious interpretation of the iconic ice cream treat, perfect for a 4th of July barbecue:

As always, thanks for choosing to share your creativity here each week!

London Olympics Mod Podge and Vinyl Canvas

So I know it’s almost the Fourth of July which seems like a weird time to be doing a project with a London theme given the whole  declaring independence from England thing. I’m nothing if not ironic!

But, this Summer also marks the London hosted Olympics and we are very excited to watch. Will Michael Phelps make history ? Will the world’s fastest athletes break records on the track? Will the US Women’s gymnastics team medal again?

We were at World Market recently and they had a bunch of British themed art pieces in honor of the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee ( I still want to know what she keeps in that purse).

Since going to London for the Games isn’t in the picture, I decided to bring a little bit of the Olympics here

16x20 canvas from Goodwill on a 50% off red tag day. $1.99. Score!

Painted with tan acrylic paint. I knew  I was going for an aged look so this was not about precision or perfection. 

Is there nothing you can’t use PicMonkey for? I found an image of a British flag at The Graphics Fairy, uploaded it to PicMonkey and “monkeyed” around with it until I was satisfied. I wanted it big, so I cropped/printed it in two halves. I re-sized each half to the same dimensions and printed each half out. Crown image is also  courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

Downloaded images of Big Ben, the Olympic rings, torch, and London Phone Booth from the Silhouette online store, and cut out in red, black and gold vinyl.  I also edged my flag  in washi tape:

Used Antique Matte Mod Podge to cover my focal piece. Mr. C opined that it still needed to be aged up some more ( not that I hadn't already thought that but see what happens when you have your husband watch Craft Wars with you?)  so I splotched ( professional crafting term) some antique gold paint on the vinyl pieces, then went over the whole thing with a dark grey glaze. Brush on. Wipe off.

Still can’t leave PicMonkey alone so used the Sketchedy frame option to age up the picture of my aged up Olympic canvas.

The games may be in London, but Maison du Chocolat will be rooting for team USA!

BFF Open House Link Party #60!

Notice anything different around here? I changed my background at the beginning of the year so I figured a change for Summer was in order. I had fun with the header in PicMonkey.

And of course I have to make my regular where the heck is time going comment. I mean it’s about to be JULY! Yikes.

Let’s see what everyone’s been up to this week.

Party On!