Washi Tape Valentine Art

 I am obsessed with washi tape (paper tape). I love the concept, and the colors, it is just the easiest thing to work with! I have been dying to be crafty lately, but was feeling uninspired. I was trolling the interwebs when I came across this adorable washi art from "My Sister's Suitcase". It was for spring, but I knew it would be so easy to make it suit my needs.

I purchased washi tape from Target back before Christmas. I had received some as a gift and I fell in love, but hadn't really had the chance to use it; and then I purchased three more rolls when it was on sale in December. It was calling my name and this was the perfect opportunity!

 Here's what I used:

-washi tape: just in case you are the only one who isn't familiar with this stuff, it comes in four packs (the four rolls I have above came together) for $4. This project only uses a tiny bit.

-run of the mill contact paper

-something to trace, I used cookie cutters

-embellishments, I used buttons (these cute little jars are only $1 at Michael's!)

-something to adhere your embellishments. I "heart" glue dots!

-scrapbook paper, not shown. I used a silvery gray 8 1/2x 11 piece from Hobby Lobby (left over from this wreath)

-frame, 8x10 is perfect if you are backing with letter size paper, you will only need to trim it a little to fit.

I had all these supplies on hand, so this project was free to me. I reuse this poor frame all the time-this is the third thing it has had in it in the last three months. Yay for $3 Walmart frames!

 

First, trace your shape onto the *back* of the contact paper. You are essentially making a "sticker" with your washi tape, so that will go on the front of the paper. Then when you remove the contact paper backing, you will have your washi tape on the front and the sticky part on the back!

I went over my designs with a permanent marker to make them show through to the front. Remember that your image will be reversed when you flip the paper over, so if you were doing a letter or something you would want to trace it backwards.

 See how you can see the shapes through the paper?I used water bottles to hold down the edges of the paper, since it has a tendency to curl.

Cover your shapes with washi tape! It is so user friendly, I could pull it up and place it over and over. I overlapped mine, not placing it perfectly straight because I liked the handmade look it gave it. If you haven't noticed yet, yes, I changed my mind about the shapes and switched from one large and two smaller hearts to four smaller hearts. But this project was so quick it didn't even matter!

 I realized as I was typing this that I forgot to take photos of this part. I know it probably seems completely self-explanatory to most of you, but just in case, you have the washi tape front, and the backing from the contact paper. I decided to use my big heart from earlier to show you how it is done.

Peel off the backing and you have a washi sticker! I found the scrapbook paper to be pretty forgiving, I could pull my stickers up and reposition them. I plopped this heart in the middle of the paper.

 

And then used some more tape to give it a little flair! I didn't use anything but tape on this one. 

 

I used glue dots to place the buttons on this one. They hold securely but they don't add bulk like hot glue does, and they are much faster! Since I was planning on putting the glass back in the frame, I also knew it wouldn't need to be super permanent, as the glass would help keep it protected.

And this is the second one. This whole project takes about 15 minutes, if that. It probably would have only taken me about 5 minutes to put the second one together. It was a perfect last minute craft! Have a happy heart (art) day!

I linked up here:Six Sisters' Stuff,  Whipperberry,  My Repurposed Life

Ombre+Fall=Love

If you aren't aware with my obsession for making garlands for my fireplace, please see here, here and here. If you are, read on. :)

I made this initial for my door, and realized I was absolutely in love with gray, yellow and black as fall colors. I do also love the traditional orange, reds and browns, too, but I was just ready for a change. Currently the trend right now is yellow and gray, and ombre everywhere! I decided that, since I usually follow all the trends anyway, to jump on that bandwagon!

This is such a great, simple project. From start to finish it took me about an hour. First I enlarged the leaf template I found here, to about 150%. Then I printed it off (I changed my print preview view to just the leaves, and chose to not print the turkey on the bottom of the page). When you are working with felt, you don't want details that are too intricate. I thought the larger maple leaf worked perfectly!

I did not end up using all the felt I bought. If you work carefully, you can use just one sheet of each color! I used two, just to be safe.

-heather gray felt, Hobby Lobby
-light gray felt, Hobby Lobby
-black felt, Hobby Lobby
-"goldenrod", from Michael's
-gold, from Michael's
-gray grosgrain from the Dollar Store (did  you know that gray ribbon is kind of hard to find?)

I toyed with the idea of using the exacto knife. I changed my mind-it was easier to do with scissors! I also opted against using the cream felt, I had enough pieces without it. However, I only figured that out *after* I cut out the cream leaves. Anyone need four cream felt leaves?

Cut out your pile of leaves. If you do not have fabric scissors (I love my Fiskars) I implore you: buy some now! Cutting felt is an absolutely dreadful task without nice, sharp scissors.  I cut out four leaves of each color. This is the most time consuming part, but once it is done, your garland practically puts itself together!

To make the slits to put the ribbon through, fold down the top part of your leaf. This doesn't have to be terribly precise, I did them in sets of two (if you have sharp scissors, you can cut your leaves out two at a time to make the process faster, too) and just eyeballed it.

 

See, how the leaf isn't folded quite in half? I then cut two slits, about an inch long and an inch and half apart. Each leaf needs two to thread the ribbon through.

 

I liked the way that it looked having the ribbon just peek through, so I threaded mine starting from the underside. I didn't secure the leaves in any way, they move freely on the ribbon. I overlapped them quite a bit, I preferred the way they looked like that.

 

I debated about putting them in pattern order, and decided instead to do them ombre style. I know it isn't a true ombre (my understanding is that is just one color gradient) and technically my brighter gold leaves should have come first, but I craft on the fly and I was just happy as a clam with the way it turned out. I love that it says fall without being blatant, and love, love, that it incorporates the gray and yellow combo that I am clearly obsessed with! 

 

I apologize for the bad photos, my living room does not have an overhead light on the fireplace side, and it was late. But you are welcome to come over and see how cute it is in person!;)

 

I'm linking up at: 







An "Egg"-Cellent Garland

    I pared down my Valentine's and St. Patty's decor, but when I unpacked my Easter things, I realized there was nothing to get rid of! I had some plastic eggs, a tray, a kitchen towel and a wreath. Period. That was it. I am loving having a fireplace for no other reason than that I adore hanging garlands! But I had no garland. I didn't really have anything!

   When I went to the store to find something, I realized why my decorations were so sparse. Everything is cheesy, or ugly, or ugly AND cheesy. So, I realized if I wanted anything new, I would have to come up with something.

  At Target, I was looking at Easter eggs and I saw something interesting: there are two small holes at the top and the bottom of the egg. Which meant only one thing (besides that they are not a suffocation hazard): they would be perfect for stringing! My idea was very simple: a bunch of eggs on a string. And it worked!

The supplies: does it get any simpler? I bought a bag of 48 eggs from Target, super deal, they were only $2! I already had the string (It is the "innards" from 550 cord, also called parachute cord. It is nylon so it was easy to put through the holes, I didn't even need a needle! You could also use embroidery floss.)

See the holes? Almost all plastic eggs come that way now, so it should be easy to find them anywhere.

I shoved the string through the bottom half, pulled it through and then through the top half.

Then snap the halves of the eggs back together. It truly is so simple even a child could do it. I didn't glue or tape the eggs in any way. They hold together just fine without anything.

 Simply keep repeating until your garland is the length you want. I didn't fuss with making sure that I used the same set of holes, and mine came out just fine. (Picture that if you are holding the egg horizontally there is are two set of holes: one on the top and one on the bottom- it doesn't matter if you put them in the upper holes on the bottom half and the lower holes on the upper half, it works out fine.)

If you were wondering how I hang my garlands, I use the 3M removable hooks. I have had these up since Christmas and they work so well. However, the hooks looked really bare. So I bought some ribbon at Hobby Lobby ($2) and made really simple bows. I just sort of stuck them on the hooks.

I didn't want it to be too explicitly "Easter" so I chose this geometric pattern. I figured the eggs were plenty Easter enough!

And there you have it! Now that I have discovered there are holes in the eggs, I think there are a lot of creative things you could do with them. You could hang them individually from the ceiling,  or make a swag with varying lengths of strings and ribbon.

I may try something different, because out of my 48 eggs, I had twenty left over! For right now they are looking festive in a white dish on my table.

I promise all my post won't be about seasonal decor, especially since I am running out of holidays for a while. I have been in a funk lately and I just really am trying to not stress about blogging (or lack thereof). For now, I hope my quick, simple projects appeal to you!

A Little St. Patty's Pretty

 I tried going simple with my Valentine's decorations, and that made me really happy. Still, I love to give a little nod to even the "not-so-important" holidays. My decor for March is St. Patty's, and it is even sparser than my V-Day stuff, but I still wanted to whip up a little wreath.

I had been wanting to try one of the yarn wrapped wreaths that I had seen in a multitude of places (my friend, Sarah, had made one, too.). I decided spur of the moment to do it one night. I was pleased to find that I have become crafty enough that I didn't even need to purchase anything! I had a styrofoam wreath (I don't recommend the kind I used, an extruded foam wreath like this one, would be much neater. That kind doesn't shed like my Goodwill find, however Hobby Lobby wasn't open at 9pm on Saturday when I decided to make this!) yarn, my trusty floral pins, and some felt, buttons and ribbons all on hand!

I started by wrapping yarn around my floral pin and shoving it in the wreath, at an angle so it wouldn't come through the front of the wreath. I left the end attached to the skein of yarn initially but later realized it was too much of a pain to try to move that whole thing around the wreath. I ended up pulling out a big wad and working in sections.

One thing I decided to do was wrap a shorter amount of yarn in sections around the wreath. Because of the type of styrofoam I was working with, I couldn't slide the yarn to fill gaps. Having those pieces that weren't part of the later strands gave me something that I could move a little.

I didn't worry about how the back looked. I concentrated on the front, so the back definitely had gaps. That is something else that I am sure would not have happened on extruded foam, it would have been easy to slide the yarn, since the surface is smooth. However, it didn't affect the final product. When I would reach the end of a piece of yarn , I would wrap it around another floral pin and shove it in.

It only took me about an hour to wrap the whole thing, My wreath was about 12 inches, and I wasn't aiming for perfection. I am sure if you were more precise, or had a larger wreath, it would take longer.

My plain brown wreath needed a little "something" to make it feel St. Patty's and actually, these clovers, from Pinterest, inspired the whole thing. The blogger made barrettes with her clovers, but I spruced mine up by sewing a button in the middle and attaching them to my wreath (with floral pins, of course).

I turned a little ribbon into a bow, and added it. I decided to leave it at that! This is another wreath, like my burlap one, that will easily transition to a different season. Because I didn't hot glue anything it will be a snap to remove the clovers and replace them with other seasonal accents. But for now, I am really liking the bit o' green it is bringing to my front door!

Valentine's Day Extravaganza 2012

 Our Valentine's Day this year started off with the traditional breakfast: pink pancakes! I even got all fancy and made them in heart shapes. It is really simple: just add a generous amount to a little less water than the recipe calls for, until you reach the required amount. I would say I probably used be 20-30 drops to get this color.

 My little morning person enjoyed his breakfast and kept me company while his sleepy head, late-riser sister snoozed. He suggested we take her breakfast in bed.

 I thought that was a really sweet idea! I even arranged her bacon in a heart shape. I picked up the "foldable" vase at the Dollar Store- really only $0.50 since there were two to a package. I love my Ikea kids' dishes- pink worked really well to make it festive.

 The surprised Valentine. She is really sweet, even when we wake her up early. I thought it was a nice coincidence that she wore her little cupcake jams (thanks for the hand-me-downs, Aunt Robyn and Gilly!).

 I always tell myself that I need to be a little more reserved when it comes to minor holidays, but it is hard! I start buying Valentine stuff in December, because I love it! Target's Dollar Spot delivered this year. It is so hard to find cute Valentine's stuff for boys, but the little robots were adorable! I *have* cut down on the amount of candy I give them- they only got about three pieces and a box of chocolates each.

 Carson showing off his new pen "necklaces". He really wanted Joel to have one, he is such a good little share"er".

 Josie showing off some of her loot. I like to pick up little things at the after Christmas sales for Valentine's Day (and other occasions). Her Squinkie ring was over 50% off at Walmart and she loved it.

I always want to make Valentines for the kids to give their friends, but they really like handing out the store bought ones (although I am a stickler: they are ONLY allowed to give out ones that come with stuff-candy, stickers, etc. because just a silly piece of paper is a waste. Kids love junk and it is  too fun to give it out!) However, Josie wanted to give Valentines to her skating instructors, also. I didn't want embarass myself by having her give the animal sticker and Tinkerbell ones she gave her friends. I usually do something for them on the last day of class anyway, and this was easy! They are "Smarty" Pants Valentines!

 I got the idea from a back-to-school issue of Family Fun magazine, I think. I can't remember. I tweaked it for a Valentine. I traced half of a pair of pants from some cardstock. I just free handed it.

 I folded the cardstock in half and cut the template out so the pants would be even. I added some details, just to visualize the effect.

 I traced the pants onto red and pink construction paper. I then drew on details: waistband, pockets, fly and "seams" on each pair. I wrote "Happy Valentine's "Smarty" Pants!" on the back. I put two glue dots on each "leg" on the front and attached an entire roll of Smarty candies to each side. I thought they turned out pretty cute! I put them in bags with hand sanitizer, some more candy and pencils for each teacher (she had four, and they were all pretty young, so I think they appreciated the little gesture).

 She also did Valentines for all the students in her class. Here she is, all ready for her last lesson of Basic 1. I figured out that between the two kids and myself, we handed out almost 100 Valentines! I really do love that holiday.

Showing off her "snowplow stop". She tested that night to get her patch and move on to the next class. She passed, and we were so proud of her! Her Valentines were a big hit, too.

 My real Valentine and me. We love celebrating as a family, I think for right now that is more special than trying to make it all romantic. We had a great day anyway- how could I not? Joel brought me chocolates!

 Joel's special surprise to the kids was an ice cream cake. I thought it was so cute.

 The kids thought it was so tasty! They loved using their new dishes (again, thanks, Dollar Spot). It was a little late at night, but who doesn't love ice cream in their jammies?

 We celebrated Valentine's Day late at my moms' Bible study (the Thursday after) so I had time to make these tasty Cake Batter Truffles. The blogger says that out of the three that the Cake Batter is her favorite. I have tried all three (Oreo and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough are the other ones) and Oreo is still my favorite. But these ARE really good, and super simple! I heart candy making.

 Sooo, funny story. I bought these adorable take-out boxes at Walmart to give all the truffles to my Bible study friends. I packed two and then decided to do the rest in the morning. I meant to finish at church. Except I forgot the cute boxes. Fail. Maybe next year...

I had a blast buying some things at half price to decorate at Bible study. All the women exchanged Valentines. It was wonderful to get grown-up encouraging notes from everyone! I highly recommend it. All of them were handwritten and some were even handmade. It was better than being in first grade and going home with a stuffed mailbox. It definitely made our little party a success.

It was a great Valentine's Day. In my mind, there can be nothing wrong with a holiday that lets you go all out to tell the people that mean the most to you that you love them: your hubby, your kids and even your friends! I am already planning next year...