All posts tagged: valentines

tiny hearts.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite crating holiday. Here’s a super simple DIY to adorn your home, your love day tree (that should be a thing!), or a gift. Materials: Create tassels to your desired length and thickness (See tassel tutorial for detailed instructions.) Use a non stretchy cord for the hanging string. To attach to the heart, thread the two ends of the hanging string through the heart’s bottom point, front to back. Bring the two strands around to the front and tie a double knot. Use a craft needle to sew the loose hanging string ends into the top of the tassel. Trim excess hanging string. Alternatively, you can simply trim the hanging string, or leave the hanging string as is and allow the strands to blend in with the rest of the tassel. For the top string, cut a 12” piece of non-stretchy cord (can be the same cord you used for the tassel or a more decorative cord like Baker’s twine). Fold the cord in half and loop it onto the top …

seed paper.

It’s Baby’s First Valentine’s Day so we put together a little something for all his baby friends. Since babies can’t indulge in your typical Valentine’s sweets, I picked a non-food Valentine’s treat: seed paper in heart confetti form so friends can watch love grow all year long. (Aww, sweetness.) I am a big fan of nature confetti – what I’m deeming as dried leaves or fallen flowers harvested from the same area where you will toss the confetti – so I am all over this biodegradable confetti! I found this seed paper from Botanical PaperWorks. It came in so many colors – I picked three colors to mix and packaged them up. Here’s how I put it all together — I gathered: Seed paper confetti (I picked hearts but you can choose other shapes or punch out different shapes from full sheets of seed paper instead) Bag/pouch (I had 4” x 6” plastic bags in my stash. You can also source something biodegradable if you want to keep with the earth-friendly theme) Tag design (I’m …

ring dishes.

For our fifth annual Hearts and Crafts Valentine’s celebration at work we made ring/catch all dishes out of air dry clay. We celebrated early to allow the air dry clay to dry in time for Valentine’s day gifting. To set the crafty mood, we decorated with paper fans and honeycombs, a felt ball garland, and heart balloons (leftover from Hubby’s tennis bday!). My friend and I made a snack plate and guests brought additional goodies to share. All set up for the craft! I also made kits for my coworkers who were out sick (it’s flu season!). Look at all the fun creations my coworkers made! Someone even made a rat (for Lunar New Year)! Here’s the how-to for the marbled effect. You will need: air dry clay, hard surface, parchment paper, circle shape guide and Xacto knife (or cookie cutters), rolling pin or glass jar, paint markers, decoupage glue and brush (optional), and stamps (optional). I explored the interwebs for the best air dry clay and found Maqaroon’s super helpful air dry comparison video. …

mini envelopes.

Valentine’s is just around the corner. Here’s a super quick paper envelope DIY for the occasion (or any occasion!). For this craft you will need: paper, paper cutter, bone folding tool (or similar), and glue. Cut paper into a square, any size works. I cut out 5″ squares to form ~3.5″ by 2″ envelopes. Fold paper in half diagonally, open, fold in half diagonally the other way, and open. This creates guidelines. Use a bone folder to create crisp lines. Fold the left and right corners into the midline. Fold the bottom corner up, not quite to the midline. Fold the bottom ‘corners’ up, aligning the edges with the tip of the bottom corner. Add glue to the left and right flaps. Fold up to seal. Write a mini note. Fold the top flap to complete the envelope. Optional: add stickers or other decor to your envelope. Review! Happy Valentine’s crafting!

heart.

I came across these heart shaped grapevine wreaths – so cute! I usually use grapevine wreaths in my felt workshops, so I wanted to see if I could decorate a wreath with non-felt supplies. I chose paper! For this project you will need: Heart shaped grapevine wreaths Scrapbook paper with fun designs that you can cut out Paper scissors Hot glue String I went through my scrapbook paper stash to see if I had any designs I could use. I decided on cutting out flowers. Cut as many designs as you want to fill the wreath and use hot glue to adhere. Careful! You can really feel the heat of the glue through the paper. I filled most of the wreath with paper flowers, and overlapped flowers in some areas. Then added a string for hanging. A super simple craft with a big impact! How cute would these be on each door of your home! What have you been crafting for Valentine’s? Share below.

xoxo.

More weaving with shapes! Vilasinee of The Loome also came out with a lip weaving tool. She’s so sweet; she included one in my order when I bought the rainbow tool. I thought these would be perfect for love day gifting. For this weaving project you will need: the Loome lip tool, yarn (at least two colors), non-stretchy cord, scissors, and a craft needle. The full weaving tutorial can be found on The Loome. Protips: Use two colors – one for the lips and one for the lipline. And make sure to pull the warp tight to get the Cupid’s bow on top. I finished my weavings by adding a hanging string with hot glue and sewing on a pomtass. I went a lil crazy with the color combos, but I’m into it! All together now! Hope your Valentine’s crafting is off to a colorful start!

dear ball-entine.

Happy Ball-entine’s Day! For my work’s fourth annual Hearts & Crafts gathering we made Valentine’s surprise balls! We had lots of treats set up – some for snacking… …and some for including in the surprise balls. We also had animal erasers, confetti packs, trinkets, stamps, and stickers (all the small gift items!) for everyone to choose from. Plus ribbons and washi tape to embellish the outside of the surprise balls, too. Let’s make surprises! Materials: crepe streamer paper glue stick treats (toys, candy, anything!) scissors Optional: paper strips markers/pens stickers confetti pom poms ribbon How to: Start with 4 feet of crepe paper. Fold accordion style and cut in half lengthwise. You’ll need more than this, but it’s easier to work with shorter pieces. Wrap surprises with crepe paper strips, starting with the largest surprise object. If creating a shape other than a sphere (a heart, for example!), place a template (you can use thick card stock or cardboard) inside the ‘ball’ to help guide the shape. I find that it’s good to use bulkier …

i heart you.

For all you lovers: watercolor hearts! Here’s a simple Love Day DIY! Materials: watercolor paint watercolor paper paint brush water scissors brush pens Brush water directly onto paper in a heart shape. Drop or brush on some paint while the paper is wet. Drop or brush on another color if you want colors to blend. Allow to dry. You can keep your watercolor hearts as is (I intentionally started with postcard size paper in case I wanted to use some as notecards), or cut out the heart shapes. I personalized some of the hearts for Galentine’s gifts. These would be fun as treat labels, too, for a Valentine’s parrrtay. Yay!

a box of love.

I love creating and sending surprise gift boxes to my family for different holidays or just because. Here are some fun ideas for a Valentine’s surprise box! These postcards by 3 Fish Studios are perfect for sending hugs all around California to my family. And pretty much anything from the Target “dollar” section – Heart dishes? Yes please! These would be great for trinkets, holding keys, or an air plant. And now for the sweets – Valentine dates (get it?), heart-shaped cookies, love crunch granola bars, Chocolove chocolate bars, and a long-time favorite – seasonal heart-shaped Junior Mints. It’s fun to scour the snack aisle to find themed goodies. Other cute prizes: temporary tattoos and squishy happy faces for the kids. And to bring it all together: stickers for the box and the packaging. The goal is to pack the parcels so they ship safely. I like using photo boxes – they are study and can hold a lot of stuff – and I like to fill them with crepe party streamers (you can also tissue …

confetti of love.

My most favorite crafting holiday is just around the corner! So, it’s Valentine’s confetti time! For this project you will need: A cross-cut paper shredder Paper in shades of red, pink, and white – 65 lb paper works great! Assorted confetti Dried flowers Washi tape Containers or clear bags Scissors Large sheet of paper Prep all of the ingredients. For this mix I chose gold and neon pink hearts and gold hexagons. I also found ‘XOXO’ confetti at Target this year! (And these cute heart dishes!) Trim the dried flowers to remove the stems. Shred your paper. You don’t really need to ‘mix’ the confetti. Just make sure you evenly distribute/scatter the ingredients all over. I like to combine my confetti on a sheet of paper (versus a mixing bowl) for two reasons: (1) The heavier confetti bits tend to drop to the bottom and ‘stick’ to ceramic bowls – nothing sticks to the paper! and (2) It’s easier to pour the mixed confetti into containers by folding the paper in half and using it …