BFF Open House Link Party #65

Eeeek! Happy Friday Eve everyone…popped into Michaels last Sunday and it was a collision of Halloween and Christmas. OVERLOAD! College Boy is getting ready to head back to school so I will be a hot mess next week. Laying in an appropriate supply of chocolate!

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

Party On!

Core Cards Creative Frenzy DT Call

I love it when an unplanned plan comes together. Core’dinations is having a design team call and it so happens they asked for three cards. It also so happens I needed to make three cards and so VOILA.

If you’ve seen any of my card posts, you know I already love their stuff and use their papers a lot so naturally already had some in my stash. I also have a thing for neutrals so I coordinated my Core’dinations cards using a neutral palette.

I chose a Core Essentials paper in Weathered Tin and a Gemstone paper in Pearl. Also used a floral print paper from my stash:

You can see the textures in the two solid papers which are fun on their own, but I love running this through an embossing folder to really bring out the texture.

I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder (Damask) and ran through my Cuttlebug. TIP: Cut your panel slightly larger than your embossing folder and then trim to size after you emboss. The Core’essentials paper is great for sanding or tearing. I used a sponge-sander-thingy leftover from a pedicure. TMI?

Speaking of Tim Holtz, I also used one of his dies to cut out some layered flowers for my cards. Some of these I cut from the damask paper. Others I used pieces of my Core’dinations papers.

For the patterned paper flowers, I scrunched them up before I layered / glued them together. For the Core’dinations flowers I used the end of a small paintbrush to curl the edges. I just couldn’t leave them flat ya know?

This card uses a handmade Japanese paper for the main layer; the embossed Core’dinations panel; “molded” Core’dinations flower with a rhinestone center. I tied black and white baker’s twine around the panel and finished off with a floral charm.

For this card, the first layer is Core’dinations Gemstone Pearl; embossed Weathered Tin panel, handmade Japanese paper strip and “scrunched” dlowers. Trimmed with rhinestone strip, a chipboard die cut, and “smiles” sticker.

For the last card, I used a Weathered Tin panel as the first layer; embossed Gemstone layer rubbed with Rub N Buff and Ranger Distress ink; a suede paper strip; scrunched floral flower and baker’s twine.

Wish me luck!

BFF Open House Link Party #64 Wrap Up and Features

I still can’t believe it’s August. July was definitely a blur. It was great seeing what everyone’s been up to so here are a few features from last week’s party. Thanks to everyone who linked up!

If you’re looking for a cool, stylish look for these hot Summer days, visit Bev at Flamingo Toes for the how-to on this sandal re-fashion!

I need to eat more cheese. What does that have to do with this ab fab birthday banner in a box? You’ll have to pop over to visit Keri at Shaken Together to find out!

Were you as excited by the first week of the Olympics as we were? I love watching the athletes realize their dreams. Celebrate week two and the closing ceremonies with these gold medal worthy cake pops from Karyn at Pint Sized Baker:

Finally, do you have any of those battery operated candles and do you want to transform them?

Mary over at Sweetwater Style has a great tutorial showing how she upscaled these.

Hope you’ll go and visit these ladies as well as the other wonderful links. Make it a creative week!

BFF Open House Link Party #64...The Let's Get Back to Partying Edition

Hope you didn’t forget that I have a party! Wouldn’t blame you since I bailed abruptly last week. Glad to be back home. Glad the Mumster’s doing well. Trying to get caught up on my day job and back to some crafty time. So since I’ve made almost nothing in the last three weeks, let’s see what everyone’s been up to!!!

Party on and thanks for keeping the fun going while I was away!

Olympics Charm Bracelet and oh I'm Baaaacccckkkkk.

I haven’t written a blog post in 3 weeks, so I hope I remember how! First, for those of you who’ve asked about my mom, she’s doing great and I’m now back home. I appreciate all your positive thoughts and energy!

So have you been watching the Olympics? We love to watch them and even when text alerts spoil the events we’ve yet to watch, it’s still as thrilling when we see the actual event.

While I was in AZ with the Mumster, I did have a chance to pop into Hobby Lobby as well as one of my fave places in Tempe, Beads Galore. I picked up the British flag charm at HL and the crown charm at BG. The red white and blue crystal beads I had back home in my stash.

For whatever reason, I had this notion that “stretchy cord” was more for kids projects. Then I was on the Nordstrom website and saw these:

which are, you guessed it, stretchy cord bracelets with nice beads and charms but they’re $58 each. Um no thank you. I actually whipped up a couple using some stone beads before I was gone but used the same idea for my Olympics bracelet.

Measure your stretchy cord longer than the size of your bracelet. I cut about 12 inches for a 7-8 inch bracelet. Sting your beads, charms etc.

When you are happy with the size, knot your cord. I knot, double knot add a dab of jewelry glue and then knot again. Trim close to the ends of the knot and then off you go to have a spot of tea.

With the British and American flag colors the same, this was perfect since I could honor both countries in one project!

Sharing At: 

Mommy's Sweet Confessions

SORRY...No Party This Week

Hopefully things will be back to normal next week . Have a great weekend!

Workshop Wednesday: Dry Erase Christmas Countdown Printable

Welcome to the last Workshop Wednesday of July. It's been so much fun sharing ideas to get ready for the holidays with creative geniuses Michele from The Scrap Shoppe, Bev from Flamingo Toes, Kara from Mine for the Making, and Tracey from My CreativiT. We hope you've gotten some ideas an inspiration to get a head start on the holidays.

I'd planned an easy gift idea to share with you this week but life is what happens when you're busy making other plans and I've extended my time away from my little Santa's Workshop to be w/ my mom another week.

But I do have a fun ( I think) and easy thing to share today that's fitting since ahem, Christmas is exactly 5 MONTHS, 22 Weeks, and 153 Days from the date of this post people! I am one of those annoying people who will announce on the 25th of every month exactly how many months are left. (Although I will probably not start the week / day thing until a lot later)  I know I'm not the only one. Right??? For other compulsive counter-downers, you can print this puppy, slap it in a frame and then change the numbers accordingly as we count down.

I made this using PicMonkey which will definitely be a key part of my holiday planning because it's so easy and they keep adding functionality! 

Now, off to The Scrap Shoppe to see what Michele's cooked up this week!

Click on to bring to full resolution, then Right Click to Save As. Size to your frame of choice, print, frame, and done! Happy countdown!