All the goodies we are working on in our magical workshop!

Hey Binker and Diva Dog fans, here is just a taste of some idea's we are currently working on for the impending holiday season.  We have snow here this morning so we are really getting excited for all that is to come in the next couple of months.  Enjoy pics, more information to follow!

These lanterns will make our Thanksgiving table sparkle with delight!   We picked up the lantern at Ikea for $7 and then the ribbon and picks from Mighty Dollar.  Our total cost for the whole project came in between $10-11!  Remember when you buy picks to use in this manner, cut them apart and tuck them around you get more BANG for your buck.  Any hoodles, this looks like something you would see in the pages of a high end magazine spread.  When the candle is glowing, it is magical.

Our Big Fat Greek Bridal Shower!!

 Diva Doggie and I were lucky enough to host a fabulash bridal shower for the daughter of a dear friend!  Did I mention this darling girl is Greek?  And guess what!  She is marrying a delightful Greek young man!  You know what that means?  WE GET TO THROW A BIG FAT GREEK BRIDAL SHOWER!
Our goddesses were divoon!  We found directions to make an authentic greek chiton quickly and easily (see below)

 Diva Doggie and I believe everything is better with glitter so we drew greek key borders in glue and sprinkled with glitter.  We happened to have some old trim lying around that we spray painted gold for the belts!  Voila!  Serving girls for our beloved Goddess Bride-to-Be and her guests!

Our lovely serving girls greeted each guest with Nectar of the Gods in a gold trimmed flute (who knew the ancient Greeks had the technology to make plastic flutes!  Geniacs!)  It was deeLISH!  To make your own:

Nectar of the Gods

12 oz Frozen Orange Juice

`12 oz Frozen Lemonade

24 oz Pineapple Juice

2 Pints Brandy

2 Bottles Champagne

Upon receiving said Nectar, our guests were encouraged to enter Mount Olympus

Our theme colors were Fuschia, Turquoise, and White (with touches of Gold)  Believe it or not, Diva Doggie and I made the columns AND the bougainvillia!  So!  To recreate this fabulousness, lets start with the columns!

 We started with two 48" Quick Tubes we got from Lowe's.  Now, this is where you can be as adventurous and authentic as we absolutely had to be because we are insane OR you can go for option B for the Nervous and Unsure. We don't judge.  Much.   For those adventurous souls, follow me into the insanity.

We found the most amazing and cheapity cheap recipe for Paper Mache right here:  http://ultimatepapermache.com/paper-mache-clay  We love this blog.  I actually love it more than Diva Dog because I follow directions...not that I am casting aspersions...just saying....but yeah...LOVE THIS STUFF! For the Adventurous, go get this recipe and tell the blogger there she rules.  We'll wait.

ADVENTUROUS AND AUTHENTIC
Step 1:  Use your styrofoam cutter to cut 2 12" squares for each column.
Step 2:  Press your tube onto the styrofoam square (making sure it's centered) to make an indentation in the styrofoam.  Remove the tube and make the indentation deeper with the styrofoam cutter so it will stay put on the tube.  Repeat on all.
Step 3:  Triple the paper mache recipe.  We used this much for each column.
Step 4:  Cover the tube and styrofoam (except for the base of the styrofoam) with a thin coating of the paper mache.
Step 5:  To get an authentic, weathered, ancient column look, we used our index fingers to draw lines down the tube all the way around.

Perfection is not the key here.  You will love how weathered this looks!  We were thrilled!  It takes a few days to dry thoroughly but it dries very hard and sturdy!  We have thought of a million more things to do with it!

NERVOUS AND UNSURE:
Step 1.  Use your tube to draw a circle on the sides of two square boxes  (we frequently use the express mail boxes available at FedEx Kinkos).  One for the top and one for the bottom of each column.  Cut out the hole and insert the tube to create the base and the top.
Step 2:  Spray Paint the tube light gray (it doesn't matter if paint gets on the box top and bottom).
Step 3:  Use painters tape to create stripes rounding the top and bottom of each piece.

Step 4:  Spray paint everything white.
Step 5:  Allow to dry and remove the tape!  VOILA!


MORE TO COME!!!!  This was a smashing success and you must see it all!  Stay on the edge of your seat.....

Halloween

BOO, CACKLE, SCREAM....

WE HAVE A HALLOWEEN PARTY BEYOND YOUR SCARIEST DREAMS!

Hello to all the Binkers and Diva Dog fans out there!  Can you believe summer is over and we are already deep into the fall season????  Don't panic this is the BEST time of the year for all kinds of celebrations and Binkers and I thought we would toss our rakes aside and wow and amaze you with some awe inspiring Halloween party ideas that are fab bu bu and soooooooo easy peasy.

Now since some of us have just become friends so you might not be aware that Halloween is the Binkers and Doggies most favorite holiday of the year (well, besides Presidents Day, of course).  If I can toot Binkers horn for just a moment, she is kinda famous in the town we live in for throwing the most incredible, creative most sought after mob Halloween celebrations that make people drive from all over the city to ring that door bell.  One giant Halloween altering trick I have learned from Binkers is the use of black light- it will take your Halloween from yea to VAVOOOOOM.

Due to our deep devotion to the Halloween celebration, we are much in demand for setting up one of a kind Halloween parties, centerpieces and buffets.  We thought we would share one of  our master pieces with you that had a ton of impact.  The crazy thing is, if we all dug in our closets and attics, we all pretty much have the basics to recreate this creepy display.  Pull out all your skulls, tombstones and skeletons, grab some black fabric & spider webs and we have a party.  If they are not looking so spook-tacular, paint them, add some glitter, put them up on a pedestal, if they are fabulous alone they are super duper fabulous together!

So as I mentioned we ransacked our attics and in, Binkers case, her GIANT, STUFFED TO THE HILT storage space;  we took an inventory of all our goodies then we jumped in our dune buggie and off to Dollar Tree we went.  What a treasure trove off Halloween goodies; big skulls, glow in the dark mice and spiders, ooey gooey eyeballs, skeletons, big books, glass jars etc.   (In the pic above, we had this skull, but with the addition of slimy eyeballs it really took on a creepy quality.)   Armed with our cart full off finds, and ideas we had gathered over the year, we got working.

Here is one of our $1 skulls that we altered to make not only boo-tastic, but it also glows in dark!  Super easy to do, painted each skull with glow in dark paint that you can find at any craft store, I did do 3 coats, then just cause glitter makes everything better, I gave it a coat of crystal glitter.  Were we done?????  Heck no!!!  We also picked up a bag of the $1 store bag of bloody eyeballs and hot glued them in the eye holes. BANG!


Here is another Dollar Tree idea that I LOVED!  We had the idea to do something that looks like glass test tubes out of a mad scientist lab, after rooting around store we found all the elements to create embalmed skeletons.

The elements we used to create this bubbly body holder were easy and all found at The Dollar Tree.  We used Goop glue to glue a glass cylinder to an odd little metal candle holder.  The Skeleton was part of a garland and we simply glued his feet to the bottom of the cylinder.  By using tonic water as the liquid in the jar, it created bubbles like it was being boiled and it also glowed under the blacklight!  The quinine in tonic water makes it glow!  Who knew?

GLITTER SPELL BOOKS

Two more quickie cheap project!!

OMG, these books are so easy, but everytime we use them to set-up a Halloween display, someone wants to take them home!  (we know it is because glitter makes everything better)  We picked up some books at The Dollar Tree, painted the outside cover either Orange or black, brushed on a coat of modge podge and while still wet sprinkled on a layer of glitter.  after the glitter layer dries, we just glued on images that we downloaded.  these are great fillers just to make your display look more beefy and finished.

EYEBALL BOOK

We saw this idea on Pinterest and loved the idea of a gory eyeball book to add a little extra spook top this table.  Here is the link for instructions.  We had decided we wanted a old looking giant book reminiscent of medieval times, but where to find a giant volume????  As we were brainstorming the mailman ding donged with a package in one of those express boxes- that was it.  We taped up the box and that was going to be the base of our giant book!!!  One other alteration we made is we needed a glow in the dark element so instead of using glass beads for the eyes, we found that Sculpey Clay had a glow n dark product, so we rolled some round balls baked them then painted blood red irises on them.  Perfect!

ALTERED BOOKS

We found directions on how to make books like these on pinterest!  The directions were incredibly easy.  Check them out here: http://lifeartcollide.blogspot.com/2011/09/halloween-easy-altered-book.html  This woman's work is amazing and so inspiring!  You can really creep up your Halloween display easily and inexpensively!  Again, we went to The Dollar Tree to get the books, the 3D Spider, and the skeleton for the front of the books.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!