Mod Podge Heart

I did not do a tutorial, but honestly, who would need one with this? Cut some scrapbook hearts, paint a large heart, mod podge the paper hearts on it, and add a ribbon. Easy Peasy. The heart came from Dollar Tree.

 

  

  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend & Valentine's Day! 

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

From Christmas Tree to Valentine Tree

This year, I put up my beloved white Christmas tree, and my newest cat (whom we adopted about a year ago, so she wasn't here for Christmas last year), decided that it was too beautiful to let stand there unclimbed. She loved sitting in the branches. Unfortunately, she ruined the tree, as it was a cheap one to begin with.

I was going to donate it, but then I decided that since the top section was intact, I would keep that, and use it as a mini tree next year. As Nick and I were packing things away, though, I decided it would make a lovely little Valentine Tree, so I unpacked it.

I also unpacked a set of 10 mini Christmas bulbs I had that were shiny, pearlized hot pink. Ooo, pretty! I had everything on hand I needed to decorate, or create decorations, except 1 thing- garland. For some reason, I just hate tinsel garland on that white tree. It looks horrid, so even though I had some red sitting out, I refused to use it.

In all honestly, I wasn't going to add garland at all, but I found some cute wired heart garland at Dollar Tree, so I grabbed it. It's pink and lavender, and I'm really glad I did! I love how it looks on the tree.

I made several unique heart ornaments out of felt, and added those to it. I also dug out the last of my flocked red, and pink glitter heart stakes from Dollar Tree (I picked them up for a craft, then hated them in it, and never used most of them), and stuck those in the branches.

For a topper, I took a pink sequined pick I got on clearance 90% off at Michaels after Christmas, and I bent the two middle strands into a heart shape, then two others outward. The lone stray (it was a 5 strand spray), I spiraled around the base. I also formed a heart from some of the left over wire garland, and added that, and one pink glittery heart pick.

Instead of a skirt, I used one of my Valentine's Day placemats under the stand. Last weekend, I picked up 2 glass apothecary jars at Goodwill, and filled them with left overs. One has a couple of pink bulb ornaments, and the left over flocked & glittery hearts, sans picks. The other has the last of the wired garland wrapped around inside of it.

I love, love, love the jars filled with candy, but 2 of my 3 kids have ADHD, with a large emphasis on being impulsive, so leaving candy laying out is an open invitation for them to chow down until it's gone, then look at each other and say "I don't know who did it, Mom!"

So, until the kids are out of the house in 10+ years (my youngest is 8, and this is totally counting on them all going to college, which we are pretty insistent on), the candy displays will just have to wait.

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!

Quick, Easy & Cheap Heart Wreath

Today's the day- my house is a total disaster (though, with 3 kids, that's not new), and the living room is over run with taken down, yet to be packed away Christmas decorations. We even got the decorations that were outside down (thanks Nick!). Go us!

Psst... if you think YOUR house is messy, you haven't seen THIS yet:

Click on it to enlarge and play a rousing game of I Spy!

While I was taking stuff down, I remembered I had a stash of post-Christmas goodies in my closet, so I sorted out the things that are gifts for next year, from the items that are just decorations. In my stash were 2 candy canes from Dollar Tree.

Inspiration hit when I had to lay them at an angle to get them in the box. They formed a heart. Oh, love it! They are red and white, but not striped, more of a mix. They are just as adorable as can be in the shape of a primitive heart.

I bemoaned that I only bought 2, especially since they had them in solid red as well. Oh, well, next year, right? Anyway, as I sat there thinking of my misfortune, I thought... Why can't I just use these two? DUH! Yes, a blonde moment (I'm naturally blonde, but should have been a natural red head- true story.)

I quickly took time out for crafting. ;) All I did was use two white pipe cleaners- 1 to tie the curved tips together, and 1 to tie the ends together. Then, I had some red and silver ribbon left over from my Ribbon & Tulle Heart Wreath, so I grabbed it- just enough for an easy bow, with streamers long enough to wrap around it.

I am in love with it, and I have a wreath that can be put outside.

It cost me $1 for 2 candy canes (50% off at DT), and I got the ribbon for $1 at Goodwill, but most of it went to my other heart wreath, so maybe $.30 worth of ribbon.

End total? $1.30 for a super cute, kind of primitive looking heart wreath!

Just last night, I was looking at heart shaped wreath forms at HobLob, and cringing at the thought of spending $2.79 for the TINY one. I didn't even bother to look at the full size ones. Too pricey.

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!

Valentine's Day Placemats

This is a project I did when I was still spending most of the day laid up in bed. After Christmas, when Dollar Tree marked their Christmas items down to $.25, I picked up 4 bright red placemats. I picked up 4 because I was on a budget, and wanted to spend in even dollar amounts. I did not, in all my infinite wisdom, pick up on the subtle fact that we have 5 people in the family.

Because I was laid up at the time, I did not get back to DT for almost 2 weeks, and when I went, they still had Christmas stuff out, but were out of the red placemats. I did pick up 5 of the same placemat in white, though, for Easter.

Anyway, because I was in bed, there are no tutorial pictures, but it's easy enough.

 

 

You'll Need:

Felt
Scissors
Thread
Buttons, pom poms, or other embellishments
Placemats
Needle

1. Cut out shapes from the felt. Because I was doing Valentine's Day, I went with hearts. For Easter, I think I'll do eggs. 
2. Stitch a button to the center of the heart, if you are doing what I did. Otherwise, embellish the felt shape as you like.
3. Hand stitch the shape to the placemats. I did a primitive looking stitch, but you can do any type of stitch you want, obviously. You could also do this with a machine, if you are so inclined, but it was a fast job even by hand. 

Ta da! 3 easy steps, and you're done! I would estimate start to finish, it took me about 15 minutes per placemat, once I figured out what I wanted to do with them.

Total cost would depend on your On-Hand items. I had everything on hand once I decided to make these. I didn't have anyhting in mind for the placemats specifically when I picked them up, though. Breaking down the costs (cause, let's face it, you buy the supplies at some point, whether they are on hand or not), though, I spent $1 on 4 placemats. Thread- $1.99 for 1 roll, but I used very little. Buttons were bought in a big container for $4.99, probably close to 500 of them. So, a penny per button- $.04 for the buttons.

I had thought about adding some ribbon trim hand sewn on in loops and ruffles in the corners where the hearts were, but opted not to. Being 4 of them, I put the hearts in a different corner for each one. I did 2 pink and 2 white hearts, and used red thread on them.

 

Now, for something kind of funny... I have a red velvet (ish) stocking hanging above my desk. It's been there since probably late October, early November. I tend to forget it's there. Today, I did some much needed tidying around the desk, and saw a few picks I bought after Christmas at 90% off- all of them are in pinks, lavendars, and reds for Valentine's Day. Well, haven't come up with a use yet, so I decided to put the stocking to work as storage. I think it turned out cute:

 

 

Have a FANTASTIC weekend, everyone!! 

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!

Valentines Day Crafts

I'll admit it freely- before this year, I never really looked at how many cool things can be done for Valentine's Day. There are just so many wicked cool crafts that look oh so sweet! On any given day, I'm finding more and more fun ideas, and more and more takes on already seen ideas.

I am in love with Valentine's Day right now!

LOVE Banner

As many of you know, I've been off my feet (and subsequently, my rear as well) for the past 11 days now, with a broken tailbone. It's allowed a lot of time to read, watch movies, grow increasingly antsy, with bouts of cabin fever, and, lastly, nurse my creative bones.

For instance, when I craft, I normally handle almost all my stitching by machine. I'm not a patient girl. But, I've discovered over the past week- if there is no other place pulling me to be, nothing else that needs to be done, I can be a very patient girl.

And thus started "The Great Banner Project" of 2010. It's not all that grand, or large, and certainly, if I had been up to long bouts at the machine, I probably would have done a lengthier word than LOVE. However, doing it by hand means it takes longer. I must say, though, that I love the look of the contrasting thread stitches. They look folksy, or countryish.

So here it is, the hand made (by actual hands) LOVE banner. I only used the sewing machine for a frustrating 30 minutes last night to stitch all the pieces to the ribbon. Frustrating because my machine was acting out. Probably feeling ignored and petty. Pfft. It's such a child.

I used felt in red, white, and light pink. I used red and white thread, and added red and white pom poms to the tips of the triangles and the hearts. I tried to add sequins, but they glitz did not look right, so I ripped em off.

I stitched it all to a length of light pink satin ribbon, and on the ends, I added a length of wider red satin ribbon for the hang-downs. To hang it up, I used clothes pins to pin it to my curtain.

All in all, this project is easy, and inexpensive. I used about 2 sheets of red felt, 2 sheets of white felt, and half a sheet of pink felt. The ribbon was a cast off left over I had on hand. The pom poms were left from Christmas projects. All in all, it was done with on-hand items. Price wise, I got the sheets of red & white felt in large packages from DT. I used 2 of the sheets each, and there are 14 sheets to a package. Those sheets were $.07 each, or $.28 for the red & white I used. The pink was $.47 a sheet at Walmart, but I only used half, so $.24 for the pink. The poms were in a package of around 30 of them for $1 from DT, and I used 7, so roughly $.23 for 7 puff balls. The ribbon was from a $1.99 roll of 9 yards, but I only used about 2 yards, so about $.44 for that.

Total cost would be roughly $1.19 for the banner. This project can be made with a variety of on-hand items, and the length can be adjusted up or down. I could have used less ribbon and felt had I left out the hearts, for instance.

 

 After taking a few photos, I decided to add the Ribbon & Tulle wreath I made last week behind the banner. I love it! It's so festive! Later this week, I'll photograph my new, hand decorated place mats I made while laying in bed.

 

I am hoping to be out of bed for longer periods of time this week, and to try and tackle some decoupage. I have some wooden hearts, and 1 fiber-board heart plaque I found at DT, and I want to get them done soon. I'm itching to do more crafts, and it's bothering me that I'm fairly limited in just what all I can do from bed.

 

This post has been shared at the following websites. If you have a craft project you want to share, these sites are a great way to share them, and get your blog seen!

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Good Afternoon!

Happy Sunday to all!

I promise, I have not fallen off the face of the blogging world. I've been spending most the weekend in bed, since I have not had to be up through out the day for the kids. I am hoping that in being lazy all weekend (that's what it feels like), that I am allowing my body to heal faster.

I had Nick dig out our ancient laptop, so I can use it in the bedroom, so I have had access to the interwebs. Friday night, Nick and I were conversing online (yes, I am aware of how geeky that is, when we were only 2 rooms apart), when his cpu went nuts. He's been letting the kidlets use his computer from time to time, and one of them picked up a nasty worm. It's first function was to target and break all security programs- ad-aware, spybot, hijack-this, McAffee, etc. Each of the programs died as soon as we tried to use them.

Luckily, Mr. Nick is a techno Wizard, and knew how to handle it, so we were able to run programs needed to isolate and destroy the worm. So, fast forward to Saturday, and I'm laying in bed using the laptop, and poof- it goes nuts as well.

The laptop has not seen regular use in over a year. It was used briefly as a DVD player when I took the kids camping in June. It was used 2-3 times over the summer to stream music when I was laying out in the sun. It hasn't been turned on since August, but somehow, I had the worm. That was bad news, right there, because it meant it had hit our network.

The kids computer hadn't shown any signs of a worm, nor had my desktop, but Nick set to work getting them all scanned and fixed up. It took this laptop over 7 hours to run the program, that's how slow this machine is. It took less than an hour on my desktop (0 infected files), and about 2 hours on the kids machine (over 100 infected files, but we knew they would have some because there was a non-destructive worm we couldn't delete about a month ago, before we knew about the program we used yesterday). At the time, we were able to isolate it, just not destroy it, so it's probably certain that those 100+ files were from that worm. Could have been both, though.

The laptop had over 30 form the worm, plus close to another 40 instances of adware on it. It's running super now, though- the adware had been slowing it down tremendously. ;)

Today, we made a run to Lansing. It's a 20 minute drive, roughly, and I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I wanted to get to Michaels. I've been crafting in bed a lot- lots of felt work. I just have to sew my banner on the machine tonight or tomorrow, and that's done. Back a few days before the injury, I stopped in to Dollar Tree and got 4 red satin placemats for $.25 each on clearance. I wish I had grabbed 5, since there are 5 of us, but I was thinking in even dollar amounts, and only grabbed 4. Yesterday, I spent the day appliquing felt hearts to each of them.

Before we went to Lansing, I had Nick stop at DT for me, and I picked up a few things- including 5 placemats. They are the same, but kind of an off white satin. I'm debating whether to make 5 new Valentine placemats, or make them into Easter ones. If I can go back to DT, I'll grab 2 more white ones, and make 2 Valentine ones, and 5 Easter ones.

My way of thinking- we'll have 3 red and 2 white placemats for Valentine's Day, and I can turn 1 of the red placemats into a center mat, with more hearts on it.

At Michaels, I picked up lots of ribbon- thin satin ribbon was on sale 3/$1, so I picked up 4 of those (yeah, I know, but I thought I had 6). There was some thin organza ribbon on clearance for $.50, so I picked up 2 of those. Then, I found 3 rolls of grosgrain ribbon on clearance for $.19 each, so I got all 3 of those. They were from Christmas, but are not Christmas patterns or colors. I also picked up 1 roll of rick rack ribbon for $1 and 1 roll of lavendar flower die-cut ribbon for $1. I think both will look good for Easter.

Open stock scrapping paper was 5/$1, so I picked 5 new sheets up. Some for Valentines Day, some for the heck of it. I am going to try to Mod Podge from bed this week. ;)

I wanted dark pink felt, but they didn't have any. Instead, I picked up lavender, light blue, and light green, for Spring colors.

I also grabbed a flower stamp, and a lavender stamp pad. In the Christmas clearance, I sorted through the picks, and picked up anything red or pink and sparkly. I can use them in my Valentine's Day hurricane candle holder. Rather, my regular, clear glass hurricane candle holder I plan to use with red and pink sparkly things to make it a Valentine's Day holder.

I do not have any photos on this CPU, nor do I have a way to upload my camera to this one, so this post is photo-free.

I just wanted to give everyone an update. Didn't mean for it to get so lengthy! Tomorrow, I promise a craft post, complete with photos. Invalid's honor! I just haven't decided if it will be place mats or a LOVE banner. Guess you'll see tomorrow!

200 Posts, 100 Followers!

I wish I could say I had some special post in mind for my 200th post, but alas, I don't. I spent all day sleeping. I'm an insomniac to start with, but between pain meds, and laying in bed entirely too much, my schedule is all messed up.

I woke up today to a nice surprise- I now have 100 followers! I'm speechless. About a month after I started this blog, I wrote up a post, and post dated it for 1 year after I started the blog, to the day.

I listed in it some goals I hoped to have accomplished by the time the post becomes visible. One of them was having more people interested in my blog. I had under 10 or 20 followers at that point, so my goal number was 50. I've also had an amazing week in views. My single highest view day ever was this week, with 840 views on Tuesday! I credit that to all the MckLinky posts I've been finally figuring out and adding to. You guys are all wonderful!

I'm hoping to finish my felt appliqued Valentine's Banner this weekend. Part of it requires sewing, and I've been going back and forth on whether or not I'll do it in bed by hand, or try to rig a seat at the sewing desk for 20 minutes or so to sew there.

It is my hope that I'll have it done to reveal on Monday. I have the individual letters "done", in that the letters are appliqued on, and I've done some minor embellishments. I tried adding sequins, but I wasn't loving the look, so I seam ripped em off. I do want to add some tassels, though, and I'm thinking of adding 2 more triangles to the banner, each with a heart on it for the start and end of the word LOVE.

Here's hoping for a big 'reveal' on Monday!

Invalid Craft Time

I'm really surprised at how much it hurts to do little things. Sitting up. Walking. Standing up. Wiggling around. Scooting a chair. It all hurts! I've been spending way too much time in bed, and I just want to DO something! Yesterday, I assembled a bucket of craft items to use while I'm laying down.

I've watched my fill of movies. I've read 2 books, cover to cover, and finished a 3rd. I'm bored.

While none of my Invalid Crafts are what I would consider genius or something totally outstanding, they are, at the very least, giving me something to do.

Last night, I attempted to make a Valentine pocket to put treats in. It was cute, but small. Today, I found a cute basket in my back room, and decided to make it a Valentine's Basket, and found something to do with the little pocket I made.

This was easy enough to do. For the pocket, I started off with 1 heart shape, and I whip stitched it to a piece of plain red felt. Well, the felt puckered a bit, and pulled, and all together did not lie flat, so I cut it into a larger heart shape, and whip stitched it to a piece of white felt.

I decided halfway through stitching it to make it a pocket, instead of a full applique, so I only stitched the sides of the heart to the white. Once done, I opted to cut the white into a heart shape. The very last thing I did, which really should have been the very first thing, was sew a dark red button to the middle of the heart.

For the basket, I started by just winding thin pink ribbon around the edge of the basket. I like it- it's cute! Then, I opted to cut two slits in the back of my little pocket, and string it up, then attach it to the basket. I think it looks darling, but in my slightly drug dazed stupor, I think most things are darling. (I don't write that to mean I'm totally off my rocker and drugged out, but I do have a sensitivity to most medications, and while I do try to go as long as possible without them, my body aches badly even just laying down when I haven't taken them, and things like tylenol, heating pads, motrin, and ice are not helping much yet)

Lastly, or not, I wound what little tulle I had on hand around the handle. Maybe I'm not so in love with that. I imagined it puffy. It looked odd puffy, so I tugged it tight. I don't love it, so it may not stay. Probably it won't stay. Apparently, aforementioned slightly drug dazed stupor does not make all things darling.

As I said, it might not have been the last step, because the real last step was by far my favorite. I loaded it down with left over Christmas candy in red, silver, and oddly, purple. The purple is my favorite, and it's a nice Valentine type color.

All in all, not a bad little fix up for a basket I paid $.79 for at Goodwill. If you have baskets as part of your decor, this would be an easy way to fix them up for various holidays- a cute felt shape and some ribbon, which is all easily removed, but adds just a touch of holiday to the decor.

Easy Peasy Valentine Wreath

In my invalid state (read that with a bit of sarcasm), I can't do much crafting. I can't sit at my craft desk, because the chair is a wood dining room chair. My computer chair, which is easier (but not pain-free) to sit in doesn't fit at the craft desk. So, I'm limited. And of course, the post-Christmas craft laziness had come to an end. All I've wanted to do the past few days is craft, craft, craft!

Today, I finally tried something, which I did while laying down. It kept my fingers busy, but alas, I didn't take any tutorial photos. It's really easy, though- just fold the ribbon, lay it on top of the hanger, and pull the ends through the loop. Simple.

You'll Need:

1 Wire Hanger (On hand)

2 rolls of White Tulle (Dollar Tree rolls- I used about 1 and a half, though to make it fuller, you could easily use up to 4 rolls)

2-3 rolls of various red, pink, or white ribbons- I recommend using wired ribbon.

1. Bend the wire hanger into a heart shape. Easier said, than done. The hanger kept wanting to sort of fold in half.
2. Start cutting 3-4" lengths of ribbon & tulle. For my tulle, I used 40 total, 20 for each side of the heart. However, if you want a full tulle heart, you'll want to use about 4 rolls of tulle. 40 loops didn't quite fill an entire side, and was about 1 & 1/2 rolls worth of tulle. For the ribbon, I used about 14 ribbon loops per side. Again, the more full you want it, the more ribbon you'll use. You could do 20 per side, so it alternates between tulle & ribbon.
3. I did not tie the ribbon and tulle in place. Instead, I used the folding method where you pull the ends around something, and pull them through the loop at the end of the ribbon. Did that make sense?
4. Fluff the ribbon- I used 1 roll that was not wired, and it kept wanting to droop, so I sort of tucked it behind tulle, so it was being held in place.
5. I added a small ribbon bow to the middle with the non-wired ribbon I had left over.

All in all, I used 1 whole bolt of white sheer ribbon with red hearts (3 yards), and 1 whole bolt of red non-wired red & silver ribbon (4 yards), 1 whole bolt of tulle, plus half to 3/4ths of another roll (each roll is 8 yards), and about 3/4ths of a roll of red & silver wired ribbon (this roll was 5 yards).

I had all of this stuff on hand, but you could get all the stuff needed at the dollar store for $5-6, so it's a cheap craft. And best of all- when Valentine's Day is over, just remove the ribbon scraps & tulle, and set them aside for another project

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