LOVE is in the Air

Yesterday, we took the Christmas items down, and as we sorted things out, I got a few ideas. It seems stores are marketing towards more and more holidays, with more and more decorations available all year round. And pricey! I just can't stand the thought of spending $10 on a decoration that might hang in my house for 2-3 weeks out of the year. I can't do it, so I don't.

Instead, I scan clearance sales, yard sales, and thrift stores, and I come up with a lot of things on my own as well. Yesterday, I posted about my new heart shaped wreath, which I made from 2 Dollar store candy canes I got on clearance for $.50 each.

After that, we were taking down the white tree, and deciding it's fate. The cats kept climbing it this year, and it's such a lightweight tree, that it did not handle the abuse well. Most of the lower branches are bent to a point where trying to bend them back would likely snap them off.

I decided to just pitch it, but at the last minute, saved the top section to reuse next year as a mini tree (which brings my tree count to 1 full size, and 3 mini's). While we were putting it away, I joked about how it would make a cute Valentine's Day tree. And, it did- but more on that later.

I wound up making another wreath yesterday, this time just a circular one from one of those wooden wreath forms at Dollar Tree. Of course, I was so excited to get started, that I failed to take pictures.

 
What I used:

1 "grapevine" (except, not actual grapevine) wreath from Dollar Tree
1 long strand of really old, overly used red garland from the Christmas Crap pile
1 foam "LOVE" shape, bought on clearance for $.10 at CVS a few weeks ago
1 section of hot pink tulle that I've had for years

Cash wise, this puppy set me back $1.10. I won't factor in the cost of garland headed for the dumpster, or an itty bitty section of tulle from a large roll I found at a thrift store 4 or 5 years ago.

I wrapped the wreath with my old red garland (seriously, it was so old, some spots were devoid of tinsel). I came up just a bit short, so in the area where I was planning to attach the LOVE foam, I spread it out thin.

I then hot glued the LOVE foam piece on it, and attached the pink tulle to the top, tied part if it in a bow, and used the streamers to tie it to the curtain rod.

Originally, my Ribbon & Tulle wreath was in that place, but it was much larger, and the tulle really fascinated my cats. 3 separate times over the course of 2 days, I came out to find it no longer hanging, with 1 or 2 cats tearing at it. Thankfully, it survived just fine, and I moved it back to it's place in the front door window.

So far this year, I've done up a nice little batch of Valentine's Day crafts:

Ribbon & Tulle Wreath
LOVE Banner
Candy Basket
Heart Placemats
Candy Cane Wreath
Garland Wreath

I'm just feeling so stinking crafty and sweet about Valentine's Day this year! Check back later this week for more projects I've worked on.

This post is linked up at the link parties listed here. 

Check back on Tuesday to link up with Talented Tuesdays at My Frugal Family!

Cheap Craft Supplies

Today, Nick and I took a drive into Lansing to do some craft supply shopping. You gotta love a man who is willing to shop for craft supplies with you, while holding the bags, and paying. Ahh.. true love!

My main goal was to just get to Hobby Lobby. We also stopped into the Dollar Tree next to it, and the Big Lots across the street, both of which yielded some supplies for very little cash. I love frugal crafts!

At Hobby Lobby, my main goal was finding some sort of wooden doo dad (technical term) to put in the middle of a picture I'm working on, similar to the monogrammed "H" picture I worked on earlier this week. It's smaller, and I wanted something different in the middle, but lacked anything on hand.

I was hoping for a Fleur De Lis, but alas, did not find any. Instead, I found a little wooden medallion thing that is similar in shape to a Fleur, but isn't. I also wanted to look over the scrapbook paper.

 

 

My niece, Alex, is turning 3 in April, and my sister loved the monogrammed "H" picture, and requested one for Alex in bright colors. Since I don't scrapbook, I only get paper when I have an idea of what I want to make, and because it's been mostly Christmas and house items, I had nothing in bright colors.

I found 2 pretty bright colored flower paper, then I saw some nice antiqued looking paper with old letters on it. I picked up 2 of those to use on the wooden cigar box I found at Goodwill yesterday. I can't wait to work on it!

I picked up a 2 pack of wooden letter "A"s, a wooden cross, and an oval medallion to put the cross on. I also picked up a Distress Ink pad, since so many people use them. I found, though, that while it's supposed to be easier to use, it really is just a regular ink pad, simply raised up. I thought it would have some sort of pattern on it for distressing. Anyway, it was 40% off, so not a horrible buy. Oh, and ribbon! I found some cute, bright colored striped grosgrain, which I'll use to make a banner for my niece's birthday- 50% off!

 

 Next, we stopped at Dollar Tree, where I just wanted to look around a bit. I did find some things, though. I picked up a 10-pack of flower shaped wooden shapes, a 7-section shadow box, 2 "pictures" (which will be sanded down, mod podged with paper, and made into 1 "A" sign), plus 2 letter "H" wooden shapes, marked down to $.50 each. I forgot to get the shadow box in the photo.

What I'll do is layer the smaller picture ontop of the larger one for the "A" sign. The big one already has some pretty light aqua sheer ribbon to hang it from, too!

At Big Lots, I wasn't doing much looking, but found a great deal- scrapbooking kits for $2 each! They each had 8 sheets of 12x12, and an assortment of embellishments, plus some letter shaped post-it notes. I also grabbed 4 small spools of decorative ribbon. One is lavender and says "Heaven Sent" on it, with stars. One is white and says "Father's Day" on it. One is lavender canvas ribbon, and the last is wired, sheer lavender & green gingham ribbon. The ribbon was only $.75 each for 2 yards.

 

 

 

This is 1 kit opened up- 2 chipboard alphabets, 1 accent stickers, 1 6pack of boarder art, some chipboard tags, sticky buttons, card kit, and more. LOTS of stuff for only $2!

 

This is kit 2- similar items, but some differences. Accent paper instead of boarders, different colored chipboard tags, 1 different chipboard alphabet, different buttons, and 1 of the 4-packs of paper is patterned instead of all solids.

All in all, I got 16 sheets of paper- 12 are solid colors (with some duplicates), and 4 are patterned.

Both kits came with a 20 count pack of stickers, but they are cardstock stickers. Both sets were identical, with the stickers shown above.

 

All of the paper from the packs. I love having some solids to work with, since I rarely buy solid colors.

 

Some of them upclose. 

It was nice getting out of the house, though my bottom is really sore now. It's been doing really well, but I've noticed on the days I'm active, especially if I have to stand up a lot, my tailbone gets REALLY sore. Tomorrow, we're planning to start putting the Christmas stuff away. I know, I should have already. Honestly, though, there have been times the tree was still up just before Valentine's Day.

It would have gotten taken down before now, but the weekend we planned to was just 2 days after I broke my tailbone, so alas, it did not happen.

If we can haul rear on getting it all down tomorrow, and put away, then I want to do some crafting. On my block for this week:

• "A" sign for Alex
• ALEX Banner for her birthday, similar to my LOVE banner
• Aged Cigar Box
• Finish the extra sign for me 
• Do some more organizing in my craft area

I hope I can get to all of it, but I'll be happy if I can even get 2 of the projects done. With the ALEX banner, I am planning to try and make felt flowers instead of felt hearts, but I'm SO not good at free handing flower shapes. The wooden flowers I picked up will help with that, though.

As for the shapes themselves, I plan to add at least 1 to the "A" sign I make.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Oh, and on a final note... I was amazed and flattered to find out that I've been featured on 4 sites since yesterday.

• My LOVE Banner was featured on Dollar Store Crafts for Friday
• My Post It Note Holder was featured on Mad In Crafts for Friday
• My Post It Note Holder was featured on The Girl Creative for Saturday
• My "H" sign was featured on Sweet Sumo for Saturday

Much thanks to all 4 sites! Your links are available on my side bar, so I hope to be able to send some new viewers your ways!!

I Made It, You Made It!

I haven't had my blog all that long, just since October. In that time, I've learned a lot of craft projects from other blogs, and found some amazing blogs out there. I've posted tutorials of my own projects, and ideas, and wound up with an amazing batch of followers!

It really does amaze me that I have people who actually read my blog. ;) I treasure you all!

If you have ever tried out a craft you've found here, I would love to share it with my readers! Either post a comment with a link, or send me an email with pictures at:

herberkids3(at)yahoo(dot)com

I'll feature your projects here on my blog!

I hope to bring you more great ideas in 2010. My goal right now is to post at least 1 craft per week in 2010!

Emily tried out my Scarf to Socks, and made these great socks:

Aren't they just the cutest?


Trish over at My Daily SAHM Life made a Valentine's Day Wreath from my Easy Peasy tutorial:

I love it!

Leah at Silly Little Sparrow also made her own Valentine's Day Wreath this week:

I just love this- so cute!


At Rosie's, another version of my Ribbon & Tulle wreath was made, in conjunction iwth a cute ruffled fabric wreath to make this darling little Valentine's Day garland.




Just so sweet!



Katie works for a campus ministry called Chi Alpha, and made this for the girls who live there. Instead of using scrapbook paper, she mod podged dictionary pages- isn't it great? It's based on my monogrammed "H" sign!

It's just perfect for a college campus!

Michele over at The Daily Nusz saw my Top O' The Morning St. Patrick's Day wreath, and made her own super cute variation.

Isn't that just the cutest? I love the addition of the tulle and the shamrock!