BFF Open House

 

Happy Friday Eve all! I hope you've had a great week and to those of you who are conducting COVID Home School, I salute you! While I worked from home most of the years my son was in school, it was NOTHING like what moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and aunties and uncles and teachers are doing now. And of course leave it to Makers to actually create some fabulous classrooms! 

Let's take a look at some of the ideas from last week's party! 

I'm in awe of those of you who change out your bedrooms seasonally and in LOVE with the black and white Buffalo check that Penny from Penny's Vintage Home used in her Fall bedroom! 

These fun and pretty Crochet Earrings from Lilah's Treasures caught my eye! Clean, bright, and with a virtual trip because Lilah's post will take you to the beaches of Southern Sicily which look like a place I'd like to be! 

Naush from Doodlebuddies showed us how you can take something as simple as empty pickle jars and transform them into beautiful color blocked vases. A pretty craft that's also "green".

Finally, this week's chocolate feature is aptly named: Oreo Yum Yum from Tracey at The Kitchen Is My Playground. Yes please! 

Thank you to everyone who linked up!! If you were featured, please feel free to grab a featured button here. 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Family Paint Pouring: Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip

 

Since he left for undergrad, we've been used to going months without seeing our son each year and looked forward to his Summer visits. Needless to say with COVID, we weren't sure that was going to happen this year but he made a carefully planned drive from where he's studying in Chicago to come see us in the desert. We've been hanging out at home and it was the perfect opportunity to do a family craft project so I asked my "boys" if they'd want to try  paint pouring and they did. The above is mine which I kind of mucked up because I messed up the white paint and it got lumpy but theirs turned out GREAT! 

Meet Mr. Chocolate and Chocolate Chip (off the old block...get it?! I'm punny) and their paint pours! 

Mr. Chocolate loves yellow, silver and black so those were his color choices: 

During COVID, son started a plant collection so he chose colors to complement his plant area in his apartment, green, brown and gold. 

I'm working on some Halloween decor and decided to use burgundy, black and white. I ended up doing two canvases to use up some of the leftover paint. The one above and this one. Stay tuned for upcoming projects that will use these as backgrounds. 

All of the supplies came from Michaels: Artist Loft Acrylics and Pouring Medium

A good time was had by all and they're happy with their first foray into paint pouring! 

Quilled Sugar Skulls

 

Happy Labor Day where I hope you're all getting a day to rest. My quilling adventures continue! Living in the Southwest and in what was formerly Mexico, it's no surprise that Mexican cultural influences are everywhere, for example Sugar Skulls. I decided to interpret them into my quilling! 

I'd also been curious about cutting my own quilling papers. There are tons of sources for actual quilling papers but many quillers also like to cut their own. What I learned is that you want to make sure you use papers that are dyed through and through so that you don't end up w/ white edges when you  make your coils. You also want the right weight. I took a chance on Astrobrights paper and it's PERFECT.

Supplies: 

• Astrobrights Paper
• Paper Trimmer or Cutting Knife ( XActo, Huskie, etc.)  
• Glue ( I use Aleene's Turbo Tacky and Elmers)
• Quilling Tool

I used the "Spectrum" pack which as you can see has tons of colors! I used my cutting knife and ruler and cut several colors in 1/2 inch strips. I like the depth that this width gives me in finished projects. I also cut my skull image on my Cricut Explore. This is the basis of your project, that you'll outline w/one strip and create a border to fill in. 

Like Makers are known to do,  we can find our tools anywhere from home improvement stores to the office supply aisle or office supply store. Binder clips are my friend! I use them to anchor stringing projects when making jewelry to keep the beads from falling off to, as you can see here, holding my cut strips together! 

I cut two skull images per skull and layer them using foam tape. I like the depth but you can use just one layer. Once your strips are cut, all you need is your imagination. Make your coils in various shapes or all the same shape and you're off! 

For this one, I went with a combination of leaf green, turquoise, black and white. You can fill in as much or as little of the open space. 

I filled this one completely. 

For this one, I went with a bunch of colors (this one ended up completely filled as well). 

This one, I left toothless :) 

As you can see, I had a lot of fun playing with color combinations and of course, I had to do one in my go to comfort zone of black and white ( cream ). I haven't yet decided if they're going on cards, or will become a wreath or a banner. 

"Las Calaveras"