Girlfriend Gift: Glass Block Sugar Skull

One of my girlfriends loves Sugar Skulls. Like she dressed as one for Halloween one year loves Sugar Skulls, so her birthday present was easy peasy this year...both the decision on what to make her and making it! 

I used a textured glass block that I had in my stash. I thought it was perfect for this since the texture reminded me of melted sugar. 

Supplies 

• Glass Block ( you can find these at every craft store)
• Black Vinyl
• Misc. Embellishments ( I used cording, rhinestones, and tassels from  my stash)

I looked for and found a Sugar Skull image I liked in the Silhouette Online Store, purchased, and downloaded. Sized it, cut it and proceeded to do my least favorite thing in the crafting world, weeded it. 

Lots of little bits and pieces to make sure to remove but SUCCESS!

Centered and applied the vinyl. I cleaned the surface of the glass block with alcohol to make sure and get up any oils etc. so the vinyl would stick well. 

I debated about putting lights inside and tried it and decided I liked it better w/out the lights since they competed with the detail of the vinyl image.  Plopped the thingy that seals the opening into place ( and gave her the extra toppers that come w/ the glass block in case she wants to fill it with anything or add lights) and then finished off by tieing several types of ribbon and fiber around the block and finished it all off with a cluster of misc charms and beads. 

I also added some clear self adhesive rhinestones which are hard to see because they blend into the glass. They stand out much better in person. 

To package it, I pulled some paper scraps from my stash and cut out some flowers using a Tim Holtz die. Repurposed a kraft paper bag using the papers, flowers and some of the Washi tape that was part of my last year's birthday present from the same girlfriend.  She knows me too well because look what she gave me this year: 

SWOON! A collection of gorgeous papers in my favorite colors to play with! See that Sugar Skull paper? Yep it will be coming to another gift for her lol.

BFF Open House Link Party

Another very tough week for our country folks. No words. I hope this little party is a bit of respite from the news of the world. 

DIY art? Check. Alcohol ink? Check. Technique? Fire. Yes you read that right. FIRE! You really have to check this out (and my husband is going to think I'm off my nut when I eventually try this) AMAZING idea from Sharon and Alex. The effect is a combination of marbling and faux fused glass. My mind reels with the possibilities! 

Let's go from fire to rust. Loving what Artsy Va Va did with a piece of old rusty metal. Being a total sucker for white pumpkins, I adore this piece. The elegance of the pumpkins against the aged rusted metal. Gorgeous! 

I like decor that can go past one holiday or season. This beautiful arrangement by Jenny Louise Marie does the job, combining dried hydrangeas and faux florals with seasonal pumpkins that can go all the way through Thanksgiving, and housed in a fantastic old wooden dough bowl.

Even though we are not big entertainers, every year I look at all of the amazing barware at places like Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma but can't justify the price . These DIY Skeleton Goblets from Bird's Party are just the solution to that problem! 

OK let's see what everyone's been up to this week and thanks for taking time out of your week to stop by! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Hello October! Fabric Pumpkins , Leather Leaves

Hard to believe it's October already yet here it is. Even though I'm not a Pumpkin Spice fan, I do love to decorate with pumpkins from Halloween through Thanksgiving. I've had fabric pumpkins on my to make list and finally made some! 

October Lettering Doodle

Everything's new when it's the first time you do it right? My twist on these was to add leather leaves. 

Supplies: 

• Fabric of choice: I used my never ending fabric dropcloth from the HW store, and some black and white swirl fabric from my stash
• Embroidery thread and needle
• Fiberfill
• Leather Scraps
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Jute Twine and Cotton Cord
• Charms
• Twigs

For the dropcloth pumpkins, I used a standard size dinner plate as my template. For the black and white pumpkin, I used a charger.

Trace your pattern and cut out your fabric:

Using embroidery thread, do a loose running stitch around the edge of your fabric, and then pull to gather together. 

I didn't care about the contrast in thread color because I knew I'd be covering up any exposed stitching. You'll have a little sac ( which reminded my of my favorite Taiwanese dumplings). 

Stuff your dumpling, I mean pumpkin, with fiber fill until you are happy with the size etc. I kind of rolled mine around to make sure the fiberfill was even. Then pull you stitching tight and tie off. 

I chose to do this step before adding my stem but I suppose you could add the stem and then do this. For the stems, I used a cedar branch I'd cut during the Summer that was now thoroughly dried. 

Leather Scraps

A while ago, for no specific reason, I bought a bag of leather scraps at Michaels or JoAnns. Now I knew the reason! I grabbed some coordinating colors and cut leaf shapes from them. 

I glued in the stem and attached the leaves and then used twine to wrap around the bottom of the stem and cover up my glue schlubs. I then added some ribbon and charms from my stash to finish. 

I used the same process for the black and white fabric pumpkin, only instead of wrapping the stem with twine, I used cotton cord and maple leaf charms insttead of hearts. 

BFF Open House All Party , No Features

Happy Friday Jr. / Friday Eve all! It's the crazy stubborn lady who has an insane full time job and who should just plan that the last party of each month is going to be featureless, again. We'll catch up next week!

In the meantime, wishing you all a wonderful last weekend of September and please stay and enjoy the party! 

Hugs! 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

September Celebration Cards

I make probably one or two cards a week during non-holiday times and don't post them all but sharing two special ones. 

My two oldest ( as in length of time, not age!) friends happen to share the same birthdate. Same date, one year apart. So my birthday "twins" each got this card, using washi tape one of them gave me for my own birthday last year. For the birthday cards, I used the "Confetti Stack" by DCWV that has coordinating birthday papers, and cut layers of a cake in two different colors using my Silhouette Cameo. I alternated the layers of the cake and glued them together then added to the center of the card with foam dots. 

The second card was for a friend celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Since apples are a prominent part of celebrating Rosh Hashana, I had fun doodling an apple and then using the Recolor app to color it. 

After I colored the apple, I chose coordinating papers from my stash to make the card. 

I had this gorgeous brocade looking paper ( Recollections, Michaels) that went w/ the colors,  accented w/ coordinating glitter papers, printed and layered the sentiment as shown. 

BFF Open House Link Party

Happy Friday and official start of Fall Eve all!  I think we can all agree "Mother Nature, the world has had enough of you for a while". 

Thinking of the people in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean who all got hit this week, along w/ FL , Houston and everyone recovering from recent weeks.

Let's take our minds off things with some pretties OK? 

I love tiered things. Height always seems to bring depth. This DIY Modern Farmhouse Tiered Tray  from Diane at An Extraordinary Day is so perfect! 

If this mantel doesn't scream Fall, complete with the perfect F A L L letters, I don't know what does. See it all at Vintage Paint and More

Would you guess that these birch candles are faux? Check out Chas' Crazy Creations to see how! 

Now, let's see what everyone's been up to this week!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

These Boots Aren't Made For Walking: Funky Witch Boot Printable

My nightly doodling continues and so does my obsession with the Recolor App. I decided to try my hand at a Witch Boot so I drew the outline, then filled it in with random doodles and colored in Recolor. The steps to do that are easy. 

I use my iPhone so these steps are based on that. 

• Take a picture of your image using your phone
• Open the Recolor App
• In the upper right hand corner you'll see "Import"
• Click, and then you can choose where you want to import from ( eg. Camera Roll). 
• Use the options to clean up your image if you like
• I've been using "Despeckle" which whitens and brightens your image. 

Then proceed to color your image! There are free options and pay options. I love the colors in the pay options but haven't purchased any yet. 

After I was done coloring my image I pulled it into PicMonkey and then added some additional graphics from my collection and voila! 

I duplicated the boot and flipped the image to make a pair, added a coordinating Witch Hat, Sentiment, and Frame  which  are all  from Designbundles.net Crafter's Delight Bundle. 

Image is free for you to use. It's sized to 8x10. If you do, I would love to see what you do w/ it!