All you need is LOVE...

I made a couple new Valentine's Day signs last weekend.  This first one was a piece of scrap wood I had out in the garage, and I have been wanting to use these Beetles lyrics forever!

I painted the wood black around the edges.  Then I glued on some scrapbook paper with wood glue.  (The sign was bigger than the paper, so you can see the line where I tried to merge the two.)  oh-well. :)

 

I made the lettering on my Silhouette using Bosshole font for the LOVE, and Eutemia I font for the rest.

 

Then, using a sponge dipped in a black stamp pad, I shaded the edges all around.

 

That's it! Super easy - I love it!  I think maybe the wording could have been a little bigger, but I wanted the LOVE to really stand out.

 

 

The next sign I made, I happened to find tucked away in my craft bin.  Who knows how long it had been there??  It's amazing what you can find that you didn't remember you even had! haha

 

I bought this wooden frame at the craft store & letters for the word love. (Obviously, haha) 

 

I added some more scrapbook paper and glued the letters on with Gorilla glue.

 

I was worried that the letters would pull right off the paper, but they seem to be holding up pretty well. I really like these colors, too - very non-traditional.

 

I put this sign up above my kitchen cupboards & the other one will go on the new built-in shelves we're working on. (I can't wait!!) 

 

Until later -

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Pillows: The Sequel

Okay, I promised to show more details about these pillows that my very talented sis-in-law Kris made.

First of all, they are made out of the most gorgeous fabric - I wish you could see them in person! 

She cut out circles of fabric and tulle, folded them into fourths, and then just stitched across the corner of each - just enough to give the center a pinched look.

She opened up the circles, and pinned them onto her pillow fabric in the shape of a heart.  Then, she just ran the sewing machine all over the heart randomly, kind of making large S shapes, making sure she ran over every circle.  Make sense?

 You can see in the pictures that some of the edges stick up, making it look super textured.

I LOVE this technique! And the tulle just adds to it so much. 

Well, there they are - aren't they gorgeous?  She is an excellent seamstress, so all her stuff looks totally professional.  I'm jealous!  Thank you sooo much Kris!



Simple Valentine Decorations

As I was putting up my Valentine's Day decorations, I realized that my hurricane jars are missing. I bought two of them last year on sale, packed them away when we moved, and now they're gone.  I am so frustrated!  I've gone through every. single. box.  Nowhere to be found!!  I love to put a big candle in the middle of the jar and then pour candy hearts around it.  Oh-well.  :(  Here are some more simple ways to decorate for Valentine's Day:

I love this one, because it's so pretty, but super inexpensive.  In fact, I got the entire thing at the dollar store!
Vase, artificial roses, and Red Hots.

Topiary.  I bought this gorgeous flower hanging ball at Michael's last year, and cut off the ribbon.  Then I painted a dowel red, and poked it through the middle. You could probably make your own with a styrofoam ball and artificial flowers.

Pillows.  I made these little pillows a couple weeks ago.  You can see the post HERE.

These are some gorgeous pillows my sister-in-law made.  I will post more details soon.  (Wow, I really shouldn't put the picture right next to the ones I made - hers look a million times better!)

I bought a bunch of these paint cans at a craft store, tied ribbons on the top, and put vinyl around the outside.  This one says "Kiss Me".  Sorry, it's hard to see - I am not very good with my pictures, yet.

Glass blocks - I love these, they make them so much more user-friendly now.  The new ones have wide slots in them that you can fill with things.  Rose petals would have been super pretty!!

I love printables! I got this frame at the thrift store, painted it black, and printed out the words on my computer. I can't find where I got this one - it was last year, but there are some stinkin' cute printables out there!  I might have to get more, and then change them out. Haha :)
(Oh, and that little jar is from the Taipan Trading Company, in Utah.)

Edit: Oh I just ran across that printable - it's from this site.

Candles with ribbon, and a glass from the dollar store filled with little styrofoam balls.  The glass has words all over it, it's really kind of cute.  The heart picks are also from the dollar store.

Well, that's pretty much it - I have a couple other projects I'm working on that I will post another time, and maybe I'll miraculously find my hurricane jars. Ha!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Goodie Boxes

I was looking through my card boxes the other day, and I came across these cute little goodie boxes I made a few years ago, so I thought I would share them with you.

The first one is a "milk carton" box, that I stamped on, and added ribbons to.  Fill these with treats, and you have cute, homemade Valentines.

When I gave these out for class treats, I actually just folded the template in the middle, so they were shorter. (More like the short ones they give out for lunches.)  You fold it all up, punch a hole in the top and close it with ribbons. 

Super easy! And you can do any color, for any reason!

The next one is a little purse card, that I actually made for my mom's birthday, but I thought it would be cute for Valentine's Day, too.

Aren't they cute?? They are the perfect size for a pack of gum or a flat candy bar. (Long ones like Snickers don't fit - bummer!)

I attached the flaps closed with a little magnet.  It makes me think of a real purse. I love purses! :)



Then it folds down, so you can write a little message inside.



These are actually pretty easy to make, just hard to describe.

Download the template, cut out your purse color (mine was brown) and score it where the lines are. I would have just listed the measurements, but they were really odd, so I just traced where I folded.

Fold it into a box, and you will probably see how it will come together. There will be a complete box, and then an extra flap - that flap will point up. (you fold it down to see the inside of the "card".)

Cut out a circle in patterned paper the same width as the purse, and glue it to where your top will be, then glue the back of the circle down as well. (Try out your circle before you glue to make sure it fits.)

Attach a little strip of ribbon with brads for the handle.  Cut a little square of paper for the message and glue it on the front.  Fold the flap up and attach magnet pieces.

Slide your candy inside - and there you go!

Like I said - hard to describe. Anyway, if you want, you can download my horrible hand-made templates here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Pillows

I love decorating my house for the holidays, and I know it's not quite time for Valentine's Day, but I saw some painted pillows the other day, and I reaaalllly wanted to try making one. (I LOVE that I have a 'blog excuse' now to make crafts. :D haha)

Anyway, here is how they turned out:

Heart-Shaped Pillow
The first one was really simple - well except for the fact that I am horrible at sewing! (Don't look too close).
I got some beautiful red chenille on sale, and it was still $10 a yard, so I got 1/2 yard and was able to make 2 heart-shaped pillows.  Not bad I think. :)

 So, you turn your fabric right side in, and I needed a heart to trace, so I used this heart plate from the Target $1 bin.

I just traced around my heart shape, pinned it and sewed it up. And in my excitement - I forgot to leave a spot open to fill with stuffing, and had to unpick some stitches! hahaha (Don't be jealous of my amazing sewing skills).

Anyway, just trim the edges, turn right side out, stuff with batting and stitch up the opening!  Super easy!

Painted Pillow
This next one is my favorite - I think it turned out so pretty.  Everyone that sees it wonders if it's got vinyl on it, but it's paint.

Materials:
Pillow case or white fabric
stencil
Americana Fabric Painting Medium
Americana Paint (I used Poodleskirt Pink and Napa Red)
paintbrush
wax paper (to protect back of fabric from paint)

I bought some white muslin that was really cheap, but I'm sure you could use a pillow cover from the dollar store or even just a plain pillowcase.

My pillow measures 18"x12", that's just the size I decided to make. 

I used my Silhouette to cut out some contact paper that I used as a stencil.  If you don't have a Silhouette, you could print your lettering onto freezer paper and use that instead. (Basically, you just cut out your lettering with an X-ACTO knife, and iron it to your material shiny side down.)

The font I used is SNF Infinity Bold, and I just enlarged it so that all the words wouldn't fit on my pillow at once.  Does that make sense?  I wanted it to look like they were running off  the fabric.

 This stencil looks crooked, because I cut the words separately, but I used a yardstick to make sure they were all even. (pretty much). :D

NOTE: Make sure you put some wax paper or something in between your layers, because it will totally bleed through!

Follow the directions on your fabric paint.  I used Americana Fabric Painting Medium, and I love it because I can mix it with any of my other paint colors. Which is nice, because I have a bazillion of those little paint bottles.  I think you mix 2 parts paint to 1 part medium, and you only need a tiny bit.  (I think I used a 1/4 tsp to measure it out).

Make sure your edges are sealed down really well, so you don't bleed out of the lines.

Let it dry.  I'm impatient with drying time, but luckily it dried really fast! :)

I did one row at a time, so I could see where I wanted my words, and some might overlap.  I didn't really even measure the rows, I'm sure they're horribly spaced, but I wanted it to look kind of random and hand-drawn.  Uh-huh. yep. I wanted it that way! ;P

Well, there you go - hope you like them!  I have another pillow I'm working on that I will show you soon. :D

Thanks for stopping by!