BFF Open House #85 Wrap Up and Features

Well almost. I just can’t bring myself to think that at the stroke of midnight, we will enter a New Year. There are many parts of 2012 I will gladly remember and other parts I will just as gladly leave behind.

One of the parts I look forward to continuing in 2013 is the weekly BFF Open House Link Party which I hope you all will continue to link up to. I have some other thoughts about the blog I’ll share in a different post but for now, thanks for hanging in in 2012 and hope to see everyone just as much in 2013.

Now, for our last set of features for 2012, here we go.

If you need a high style low cost way to decorate for New Year’s , then you need to see what Bethany at Pitter and Glink did with a dollar store plate and paint pens.

Must be a pink blog New Year’s thing because Pinkopatamus has a wonderful tutorial on how to make a great New Year’s hat.

Needless to say, chocolate has to be a part of my New Year’s celebration. Jenn from Rook No 17 has got a recipe for milk chocolate peanut butter truffles with banana dust that will make you drool:

If you already have a dessert picked out, I’ll bet it could only be made better with some chocolate sauce because what can’t be made better with chocolate sauce? OK some things. Maybe. But not many! This recipe from Cath’s Cookery Creations would be great to have on hand just in case.

Wishing you all a peaceful and joyous New Year.

Easy Filigree Metal Bead Bracelet

Fighting off some sort of bug today so wasn’t up for tackling anything too hard. Sometimes though, the easiest things turn out to be those you love the most.

I fell in love with this Mud Pie bead mix from Blue Moon Beads the second I saw it. My colors and style 1000%.  This is one of the mixes that’s available exclusively at JoAnn’s.

It’s a mixture of filigreed metal, wire mesh wrapped, and metallic colored beads. I decided the beads were so awesome they needed to be used simply. What’s simpler than stretchy cord? I keep seeing fun stretchy bracelets at places like Nordstrom for $50 and up. If you can tie a knot, you can make enough of your own bracelets to match your entire wardrobe for the price of one.

I started stringing with no patter in mind. Just grabbed beads from the tin until it was the right size.  I don’t pre-cut my cord, but leave it on the spool and string my beads on until I’m happy with the size.

I had these smoky grey faceted charms in my supplies and decided they’d go great on this bracelet. I added these after the bracelet was complete and put them on using silver jump rings. Again, just kind of eyeballed the spacing.

While I was provided the beads for this project as a member of the Blue Moon Beads design team, the pricing is such that these are an affordable way to achieve a high fashion look.

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BFF Open House Link Party #85 Last One of 2012 Edition

Yikes. I got all turned around and forgot what day it was and almost missed putting up my own party. Welcome to the last BFF Open House of 2012! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is busy with plans for New Year's Eve. Ours are always very low key. I think this year we'll celebrate at midnight London time which will be about 5PM our time lol.

So let's get right to it:

Chocolate Suede Antique Gold Necklace

Now that Christmas is over, I can share a couple of projects that I made as gifts. This necklace was one of the December designs for the Blue Moon Beads design team.

I started with this mix of supplies including this mixed metal pendant. I took off the ends and used it sideways versus a dangling pendant.

I used a combination of gold chains and chain pieces and didn’t have any set design in mind but just kind of went with whatever seemed to make sense. I used some coordinating beads from a toffee themed mixture to balance it out.

Strung all of it together on a dark brown suede cord and added some coordinating beads from my stash.

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We Wish You A...

Can't believe it's Christmas already. 

Wishing you all of the joys of Christmas and time spent with family and friends. Thank you to all my readers for another fun year. 

Last Minute Decor: 3 Chalkboard Printables

I was playing around in My Memories Suite and PicMonkey. Originally I was going to do our Christmas menu and then I realized, no one actually reads it, they just eat. So I decided on the above Dickens quote since for as long as I can remember, I have loved "A Christmas Carol". 

I really like the chalkboard background ideas I've seen around the interwebs so I had fun playing with these.

Click on image to bring to full res. Right click to Save As. Re-size as appropriate in your digital editing program. If you download, a follow isn't required ( but appreciated !) . Would love to see how you use. 

BFF Open House Link Party #84

Well, here we are, the last party before Christmas. Hard to believe . Fess up, who's got EVERYTHING done? Not me! Hopefully Friday will be full-on baking day and then Saturday I will be staring at the clock, willing the plane bringing my College Boy home for the holidays to go faster and faster.

So without further delay, let's see what all you busy elves have been up to this week.

Remember, it's a party! Go visit some other links and/or bring a friend to link up.