Valentine’s Day Treat Packages

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Moms are you prepared?!? If not, that is okay. We all know you are busy. You can go to the store and buy generic valentines, which is totally acceptable and allowed, or you can make these little packages of awesomeness with a tad more time an effort. However, you will get to skip the CVS last minute Valentine’s Day lines, which is a huge plus. These are a super simple Martha Stewart project that you can throw together in no time, but still feel like you went above and beyond with personalized treats. Check it out… Happy Love Day Eve my friends!

Supplies

• Picture of your child
• heavyweight matte paper or card stock
• Scissors
• pinking shears
• Stamps (optional)
• Cellophane bags
• Preferred treat (candy, cookies, etc.)

Directions

To make these Martha Stewart custom treat packages, cut out a picture of your child, scan it, and print onto heavyweight matte paper. Cut tags using pinking shears for the bottom edges, draw hearts, and stamp or write a message on each one. Fold the tags and tape them to cellophane bags filled with sweets.

Let Love Cleanse You!

This is possibly my favorite DIY project for the Valentine’s Day season. Well, right after the Love Coupons of course. While the coupons are fun and kitschy, the love soaps are so adorable and useful at the same time. I found these from non other than Martha Stewart. She seems to be the DIY Queen and tends to offer the best Valentine’s Day projects around. These heart-shaped soups are great for friends, family members, teachers, co-workers or anyone with good hygiene really Check out the how-to below!

Supplies

• Nonstick 9-inch square pan
• Heart-shape cookie cutter
• Glass measuring cup
• Glycerin soap
• Bench scraper
• Soap colorant or food coloring
• Spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol
• Cutting board
• Needle nose pliers
• 1/8-inch metal letter stamps
• Masking tape

Directions

We used a 2-inch cookie cutter (1 inch high) and 2 ½ pounds of glycerin soap-sold at crafts stores-to make 16 hearts.

Depending on your equipment, yields may vary. To determine how much glycerin you’ll need, fill pan with water to ¼ inch below height of cookie cutter, and pour water into measuring cup. Record amount and discard water.

Cut soap into small pieces with bench scraper, and fill measuring cup. Microwave on medium heat until melted and stir. Add soap and heat until you’ve reached the water amount. Add colorant and stir. Pour liquid into pan. Spray with alcohol to eliminate bubbles.

Let harden at room temperature, 2 hours. Freeze 10 minutes.

Turn upside down onto cutting board. Create soaps with cookie cutter and pull cutter out with pliers if it sticks. Tape stamps together to form words, and imprint on soap, applying light, even pressure.

• Source: Martha Stewart

Love That Never Expires…

The day of love gets closer and closer every day. For some reason that seems to freak most people out. I sort of understand and sympathize with all of the Hallmark Holiday complaints. It is no fun to think companies cash in on a required expression of love, but I have a different take on the whole day. First off I don’t think there is anything wrong with devoting a day to love. Don’t get me wrong, I think you should express how you feel on the other 364 days as well, but taking one day out of your busy life to give a little extra to the ones you love is not a bad thing. However, “a little extra” doesn’t mean you have to celebrate by buying fancy gifts or expensive dinners. Somewhere along the line showing your love got translated to $$$, which is not cool. You can tell someone you care for little to no money at all, especially when you express your feelings with a homemade gift, which brings me to todays DIY project in the Valentine’s Day countdown.

This one is an oldie, but a goodie… Printable Love Coupons. Remember making these handmade coupons for your mom when you were like seven with 32 cents to your name? Well, now you are 27 going on 28 and may have a little more cash in your pocket, but like I said before, $$$ ≠ LOVE.  However, since you are little older now, we can up the production value of our love coupons and even make them a little more “interesting” if you know what I mean. Feel free to get as risqué as you like. Don’t have glitter thumb for DIY, no worries. I stumbled upon these wonderful FREE printables by Key Lime Digital Designs, via Tatertots and Jello. On a totally unrelated note, I would just like to say I love tatertots. If my Hubby really wanted to say he loved me, he would cook me a whole bag of tatertots for dinner on Valentine’s Day. (I guess it was not such an unrelated note after all, just totally random and a little sad.)

Okay back to the coupons. These are awesome. You can give them to your man/lady or even family or friends (some say things like a free meal or movie). If you have any kiddos you can give them the ‘free chore day’ coupon. I am sure they would love that one. I don’t have and children yet, so I may keep this one for myself and spring it on my Hubby on a day I am feeling tired. See the coupons can be for everyone, but be sure to save the kisses and back rubs for your lover or it may get a little weird. There are also a couple of blank ones that you can spice up if you like Enjoy!

CLICK HERE to get the FREE printable pdf!

Heart-and-Lollipop Flowers

Supplies

• Lollipops
• Card stock
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Glue

Directions

Use card stock to make a half-heart template about 3 inches high and 1 ¼ inches wide. Fold a 12-by-3 ½-inch piece of construction paper in half vertically, and trace four half-hearts along the fold.

Cut out hearts and unfold.

Stack hearts and punch a hole ¼ inch up from bottom. Position petals to form a flower, making sure holes line up. Secure by applying glue around holes and let dry. Write name on a petal. Insert lollipop.

• Source: Martha Stewart

Valentine’s Day Heart Garland

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I thought I would help everyone get in the lovey dovey mood with some DIY heart garland. I found These super simple guys on How About Orange. This would be perfect for decorating a classroom or even an office. It is a great way to celebrate without having to say, “Will you be my Valentine?” in sparkly glitter. it is much more subtle.

Supplies

• Quilting fabric
• Fabric stiffener
• Sewing thread

Directions:

First you must treat the fabric.

Spray both sides of a piece of quilting weight fabric with fabric stiffener until it was thoroughly wet and do as directed on bottle. Or if you are super impatient, lay the fabric on a paper towel and microwave it for 30 seconds. Press it for a couple of seconds with an iron to smooth out any bumps.

Once all your fabric pieces are stiff, start by making a set of paper templates. I layered and cut four identical heart shapes, then progressively shaved more off the sides of each one.

Trace the four heart shapes onto the back side of a piece of stiffened fabric and cut them out. Fold all but the largest piece in half, then layer them onto the largest heart. Stitch a seam up the center to create a “book” and tie off each end. Press the folds with an iron if desired. Once the ironed fabric cools, it will hold its shape nicely.

Use these as Valentine package decorations or string them into a garland by running a thread through the bottom-most heart shape.

Poof Balls Outside the Box

If you know anything about me you know I love me some tissue pom-poms poof balls. Martha Stewart may call them tissue pom-poms, but I call them poof balls. I can’t help it. It is just want comes out of my mouth when I think of them. I have used poof balls to decorate for parties, dinners, gift wrap and even used them at my wedding rehearsal as my bouquet instead of those horrible shower bow bouquets (I hate those). I made about 50 of them for my wedding shower and could not bare to throw them away, they were just too beautiful. So I ended up storing them in my childhood bedroom at my grandmother’s house. They looked absolutely perfect in there, because the room is covered head to toe with pink flowers. The wallpaper… The bedspread… Everything! Adding piles of pink textured tissue poof balls only added to the ridiculousness and sort of made it all work. So I guess you could say I have used them as home decor as well. I would like to use them in our new home hanging in a room somewhere. I always thought it would look so cool if you covered an entire wall with them. You could do it in a baby’s room or make it for a photo backdrop for a party or wedding. It would definitely make for some interesting a colorful pictures. There are tons of uses for these adorable little buggers, which got me wondering how else I could incorporate them in my life. So to the internet I went in search of fun and unique uses for Martha Stewart Pom-Poms My Poof Balls. Trust me I was not disappointed. Check it out!

These are all so great. I love the little animal poofs for a kids party, or the monogram for a baby or wedding shower. However my favorite has to be the tissue paper wreath. You can use it year round as every day home decor, or you can personalize it for the holidays. So amazing!

Click Below for the How-To

1. Animal Poof Balls // 2. Monogram Poof Balls // 3. Poof Ball Wreath

DIY Owl Creations

My girlfriend, Miss Mary ‘Frankie’ Ferris, is an amazing and talented interior designer. She also is super creative and crafty. I swear she could go on one of those Design Star shows. She recently started a new company, Frankie Accessories, where she sells handmade handbags and earrings as of late. I actually just purchased one of her bags and I love it!!! Well I love it from afar right now… (That’s it on the right) When your friend makes bags you don’t have to worry about paying shipping & handling… I score the benefits of hand delivery the next time she is moseying through town. I can’t wait until my new ‘Stud Muffin’ is chilling in my closet.

If you look closely at her logo you will notice that her company “mascot” is an owl, and sometimes she even incorporates them into her design. (The zipper on my new bag is a little owl… I love it, and it was definitely the deal sealer in my purchase) Anyway, with the birth of her new company, I am reminded of how much I really really really like owls. However, I could never display my owl affection in college, because I was a Delta Gamma, and our sorority symbol was an anchor. The Chi Omega’s were the owls. Needless to say I could not be caught dead with an owl anywhere near me, or I would have been considered a traitor. No no, it wasn’t that serious, but it definitely would not have been considered cool. I figured 5 years out of college, I am now far enough removed to proclaim my owl love. Now that I have one in my closet, or will soon enough, I think it is time to get one for the house. Maybe a little ceramic statue or something along those lines? I can replace one of my 5 buddhas I have sprinkled throughout my home. I am Catholic I swear… I just really like buddhas and TJ Maxx/HomeGoods. Anyways, I am now on the owl prowl. I found some absolutely fantastic DIY owl projects that would make for great decor and some fun gifts! Check them out…

Click Below for the How-To

1. DIY Plush Owl Pillow // 2. DIY Owl Pin Cushion // 3. DIY Pillow Box Owls // 4. Owl Sweater

Notes: Be sure to check out Frankie Accessories on Etsy and if you follow her on Facebook you can get inside looks of what she is making next, so you can snag it before it hits the shop!

Recycled Wood Pallet Table

Yay! The Hubby and I did our first of many DIY projects for the new house over New Years Weekend. I have been doing many different DIY crafts for a while now, but this is the first time I ever made DIY furniture. From my perspective it was super easy, but I also had a man with some tools helping me out. My job was to:

1. Get the pallet
2. Sand the pallet

Easy enough. The Hubby cut the wood and connected the legs. Thanks to my Grammy, we got a new miter saw for Christmas. So this job was pretty easy peasy for everyone involved. Here’s the play-by-play.

Supplies

• Wood pallet
• 8 foot 4×4
• Sandpaper (I used 60 grit)
• Miter saw
• Jig saw
• Drill and screws

Directions

Step 1. Sand the wood pallet. Don’t sand too much, you don’t want to lose the weathered look of the wood. Sand just enough to get rid of any potential slivers.

Step 2. Cut the legs. We used one 8 foot 4×4 and cut it into 17-inch pieces. Thanks for the miter saw Grammy! Can’t wait to do more projects!!!

Step 3. Cut holes for legs. We decided to use our jig saw (wedding gift also from Grammy) to cut holes for the legs. This would make connecting to the wood pallet easier and more stable than using brackets. We also thought it would give the table a nice finished look.

Step 4. Connect Legs. Try to make them as even and level as possible. Obviously, you are working with both old and new wood so it is pretty impossible to make it 100% level, but it is supposed to be a table made out of reused wood so it definitely does not have to be perfect.

Step 5. Age the 4×4. As you can tell the 4×4 legs have a beautiful green hue to them that does not really match the wood on the pallet. The Hubby doesn’t mind, but I can’t live with it like that. So, I will be distressing the wood to make it match the weathered pallet. After I do some research I will post a How-To and some updated pictures of the finished finished product.

Notes: If you look closely, you can see a couple of the projects that are next on our DIY To-Do-List. Get excited, because I am!

Stenciled Animal Mugs

Supplies

• Printed animal shapes (or any shape you would like to use)
• Contact paper
• Pencil
• Craft knife
• Sponge brush
• Dishwasher-safe PermEnamel paint
• Cotton swabs

Directions

Print and cut out the animal shapes. Feel free to use these templates for Cow, Sheep, and Pig shapes. Place each shape atop a small piece of contact paper and outline it in pencil. Cut out with a craft knife; then discard the paper inside the outline. Peel away the backing and affix the stencil to a clean, dry mug, making sure to center the image. Following the package directions, use a soft brush or sponge brush to fill in the outline with dishwasher-safe PermEnamel paint. Let set for a few minutes. Carefully remove the contact paper, clean up any edges with a damp cotton swab, and allow the paint to cure for 10 days.

• Source: Country Living

Custom Fingerprint Art

Not only is the day of love quickly approaching, but I am also in dyer need of some beautiful personal art for our new place. Why not knock out two birds with one stone right? I came across this awesome DIY custom art project on Man Made, which is a “male” DIY blog. I don’t know how I feel about it being classified by sex… Sure there are posts about how to make DIY Boomerangs and an 18-Shot, Ratcheting Triple Barrel Nerf Gun, but I think I am still qualified to do this project for the love in my life. I do have to give the author of this project, Chris, some credit… He documented the process in very good detail, it is very sweet, and very inexpensive. He only spent 6 bucks on this project!!! Male or female, that is my kind of DIY! Check out how to do this project below and be sure to check out Chris and all the other “boys only” projects on their manly blog Man Made.

Supplies

• Inkpad and paper
• Scanner
• Computer and graphics software
• Printing method (see below)

Directions

Step 1. Begin by inking your fingers and making several prints on paper. Don’t go for the roll-y effect they do at the police station (it was for a job, I swear), but the oval versions like you made in kindergarten. Don’t worry about getting it too dark; it’s more important that the friction ridges and negative space are separated rather than high contrast. Take several prints, re-inking your figures multiple times and making lots of prints. Be sure to label which prints belong to whom.

Step 2. Select a print you think will work the best. Scan it at the highest resolution you can get, at least 600 dpi, but preferably 1200 or 2400. If your scanner can’t do hi-res, go to the local copy shop and have them do it for a few dollars. Be sure you only select one or two prints, as resolutions this high can make for very large files.

Step 3. Once you have your print in bitmap mode, play with it in your graphics software to clearly define the lines. I’m using Photoshop, but you could try the freeware alternatives available. [See this link for options] Play around with contrast, levels and curves, or even the filters (like stamp or posterize) to get as much contrast as possible, minimizing the gray between the friction ridges. You might need to go in and manually erase any bleed.

Step 4. When your satisfied, you’ll want to convert your image to a vector file, so that you can scale it to any size you want. If you’re not going for a huge final printed piece, you might be able to get by with just the hi-res scan, but it’s worth playing around with the vector conversion, as it will continue to clean up your fingerprint. I imported mine into Illustrator and used the Live Trace functions, but there are free online raster-to-vector options like VectorMagic or Raster to Vector Converter that will work. One of your friends probably has Adobe suites, or your local print shop will as well, so you might be able to ask nicely and have them convert it for you.

Step 5. At this point, you can style your artwork in whatever way you please. I decided to put both of ours on one sheet, added some color and some paper-cut style text, but you could go for the cropped look as in this example and have two framed pieces hung side-by-side. (That’s called a diptych – impress your friends!)

Notes: Printing options are up to you. You could do something as easy as printing it at home, or get all fancy and make a screen print. I opted to go to my neighborhood print shop, and had them make a giclee print for $6, which is an archival ink-jet option that’s much less costly than four-color offset printing. It’s not guaranteed forever – around 60-75 years, but that’s good enough for me. Be sure to save your file at 300dpi!