Valentine Countdown

Here's a repost from last year - a few days early in case anyone else is looking for a cute countdown...  We'll be doing our Valentine countdown again this year :)

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Valentine Countdown

I started with my sweet dollar-store-tray turned magnetic-chalkboard-tray from last year.  I bought a few packs of these conversation heart boxes from Walmart.

I like that they're Valentine-y without being pink.  This is, after all, a boy's Valentine countdown calendar.  While I like the colors, I did not like the words on them.  Enter a little Goo Gone from the Dollar Store

A few wipes of the Goo Gone and that print was, well, gone

To make the heart boxes magnetic, I just cut up a few old advertisement magnets and adhered a piece to the back of each box with a dab of hot glue.

Now for the fun part - numbering the boxes.  That part'll be easy I thought - just buy some white number stickers and {bam} cute countdown.  Oh silly me.  Nothing is ever that easy.  I couldn't find any white numerical stickers that were the right size for these boxes.  So instead, I cut each number out of felt and hot glued them on.  After all the boxes are numbered, just fill with a few Hershey Kisses, or your sweetheart's candy of choice:

On a totally random tangent, I think all month's should have fun countdown calendars.  Idea for Christmas gifts - a year of Kisses.  A Hershey-Kiss-a-day calendar.  Now that's my kind of calendar!

I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle, Southern Lovely, Naptime Creations, Ladybird Ln, Sew Many Ways,

Ruffly Felt Valentine Garland

I've decided that there's no reason not to have a garland on my stairs at all times.  I just love the cheerfulness that a garland brings to the underappreciated staircase.  So for Valentine's Day, I stitched up another quick ruffled felt garland.  I used the same quick technique as the candy corn version and last year's rainbow variety.  Here's a cliff notes version of the tutorial:


Ruffle up some loooooong strips of felt

Loosely twist 3 strands together

Pin to the railing (I use pushpins secured to the wooden railing)

Click here to read the slightly more detailed tutorial from the candy corn inspired garland.

I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle, Southern Lovely, Naptime Creations, Ladybird Ln, Sew Many Ways,

Home Sweet Home

My brother and his sweet girlfriend moved into their first house this past fall.  I wanted to make them HOME pillow and after a few different designs I ended up with this:

I was so excited to wrap it, that I forgot to take a picture!  I had to snap this pic after they opened on Christmas...needless to say, the lighting conditions were less than perfect ;)

For the letters and heart, I used the Silhouette.  I don't often plan my creative endeavors in advance, which means I didn't order the fabric fusing from Silhouette.  Instead, I tried the regular red package Heat N Bond and it worked perfectly.


As you can see, I used a different fabric for each letter, but all of them were cotton.  To start, cut your piece of fabric and Heat N Bond to size.  I cut the fabric slightly larger than the Heat n Bond so that the glue wouldn't seep out onto my ironing board during the next step:

Follow the instructions on the package to fuse the Heat N Bond to your fabric.  For this one, it was just a matter of ironing the right side of the Heat n Bond to the wrong side of my fabric:

Then it was time to cut!  I used a new blade and change the cutting settings to double cut:

When I first took the carrier off of the Silhouette, I couldn't even see where the cut was - I was amazed with out how sharp and clean the letters turned out:

Once all the letters were cut (5 minutes later), it was time to peel the backing and iron the letters right to my pillow fabric (I used an unbleached muslin)

Then zig zaged around each letter (and heart) with cream thread and I sewed a simple envelope style pillow cover (there's a great how-to here)

Since it was an odd size, I decided to make a quick pillow insert using the same muslin fabric

I love it so much I'm headed off to get some cute fabric to match my own living room :)

I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle, Southern Lovely, Naptime Creations, Ladybird Ln,

I Really Mustache...

This year when I was looking for a little Christmas ornament inspiration, my first stop was (duh!) Pinterest.  I wanted something for my sister & her husband and I knew this baby would totally hit the funny mark:

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 To replicate, I started with a standard white glass bulb.  I don't expect the bulb to get handled much, so I decided not to go the glass-paint route.  Instead I used dimensional fabric paint to give it some, uh...dimesion.  Then it was all free hand from there (you know you're jealous of my mad mustache painting skills!)  And I topped it off with a little snippet of red & white striped ribbon.

In case your curious...I painted the letters with a toothpick because I didn't have a small enough brush.  Sure it may have been faster to just go to the store and buy the right size, but where's the fun in that?

Click here if you'd like to see what other awesomeness I'm pinning :)



I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle, Southern Lovely, Naptime Creations, Ladybird Ln,