Valentines

I love giving and receiving Valentines, it is my favorite thing about this holiday! So I wanted to share with you what I did last year for my Valentines.

There is one of the cutest little Etsy shops called Paper + Pip and they create some of the cutest little printables. I was able to get these when they were running a deal on GroupDealz last year.

I just fell in love with all the different designs and the cute little pictures. They are too sweet!

These went together pretty quick.

I whipped up a batch of cookies using Valentine's M&M's instead of chocolate chips.

Purchased these paper CD sleeves and put a little red napkin in each one and then put a cookie inside.

I wrapped the Valentine's I printed out around the cookie sleeve and tied it up with twine.

They are so darling and yummy! I couldn't wait to give them out!

I hope this helps you if you are searching for a cute Valentine idea!

Valentine Mantle

I love decorating for Valentine's Day! It's the perfect excuse to have a little extra foof and glitter everywhere. Last week I showed you my two heart shaped wreaths and how to make them HERE & HERE. This week I'm going to show you how I decorate my mantle for Valentine's Day.

I love this year's mantle! I made the banner a few years ago and it's supper cute hanging up there; I just love it! It was very simple to make and there is a great toot HERE. I just used 3 different fabrics that I thought looked good together. I had a few extra triangles so I wrapped them around the 2 candles. The red rose thing is just a ball covered in extra pizza squares from my heart wreath. And the love story print is from the girls over at Eighteen25 and is one of my favorites. Everything else pretty much stays up there all year.
Anyway, I hope you like it; I know I sure do!
I'm not sure what happened to last years photo but here is a picture of the year before right after I finished my banner. 

2011 Valentine's Day Mantle

I'd love to see your homes decorated for the holiday, post me a link.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Feather Heart Wreath: a Tutorial

Okay, if you follow me on Instagram you have already seen this one. I first saw this boa heart idea last year when a friend of mine made one for a secret gift exchange we had at work. At the time I had never seen anything like it. It is so fun and fluffy and girly, just perfect for Valentine's Day. I asked her how she made it and it seemed pretty easy so a few weeks ago I thought I would finally give it a try. Seriously people, this will take no more than 30 minutes!

Supplies:
Cardboard
Utility knife
Feather boa - use a coopin if you can, this was way more expensive then I thought it would be.
Hot glue gun - with plenty of glue sticks
Ribbon
Scissors

Directions: 
1. Draw a heart on your cardboard and then draw another one about 1 1/2 inches bigger around the first one. I used a shoe box I had from a pair of boots I bought a couple months back but you can really use anything.

2. Cut out the heart shape. The thinner the cardboard is, like my shoe box or a cereal box, the easier it will be to cut out.

3. Glue the feather boa down to the cardboard heart using your hot glue gun. My heart was small enough for my boa to go around twice so it's nice and full. Depending on the size of your heart you may need more then one boa. I purchased 2 just in case.

4. Cut ribbon to length & hang. You can hot glue the ribbon to the back but because I wasn't hanging my wreath on a door hanger I wrapped my ribbon around the top of the heart, tied a knot at the end and taped it to my back door.

So what do you think? Do you want to make a Big Bird heart too? I giggle every time I see it.
Leave a comment if you do!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentine's Day Wreath: a Tutorial

I love Valentine's decorations they are so pretty! I have 2 heart wreaths and I love them both, they make me happy and my home looks so much more cheerful for Valentine's Day!

The first wreath I will show you how to make is a beautiful felt heart wreath, I absolutely LOVE it! I would keep it up all year round I love it so much! I had wanted to make this ever sense I saw it on eighteen25 in 2011. I tried to make one then but I couldn't for the life of me get a hold of a heart wreath form, they had been sold out the entire month of January and February at my local craft store and online. So I put it on the back burner until the summer when I knew there would be plenty of heart wreath forms to purchase. The Idea Room has a great tutorial that I followed to make my wreath. So I will just give you a quick run down of how I made mine.

Supplies:
Styrofoam heart wreath form
1 yard red felt
2 inch paper circle pattern
Fabric scissors - to cut felt
Package of straight pins
Ribbon - for hanging

Directions: 
1. Cut out a 2 inch circle. I traced a mason jar lid onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out to use as my pattern. I figured it would be about the correct size I needed.
2. Then cut out a bajillion circles from the red felt using the pattern you just made. Do whatever is easiest for you. I traced a bunch of circles with a pen on the felt and then cut them all out, it went pretty fast after they were all traced. We called these pizza squares at my house.

3. Fold a pizza square in half and then in half again to create a point an the end.

4. Insert pin into the point of the folded pizza square and push into wreath form.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 until your entire heart is covered in pizza squares on 3 sides. Leave the back empty so it will hang flat.
5. Cut ribbon to length and pin to the back. You could also hot glue it if you wish.

6. Hang and admire your beautiful work!! I love how velvety and rich it is.

If you make this or have made a wreath like this I would love to see it,  post a link in the comments!

I'll be back a little later today to show you how I made my feather heart wreath! It's super easy and can be done in less then a 1/2 hour. I hope you join me!

Sugar Cookies!

I love sugar cookies, they are so much fun to make and to decorate and to devour!

mmmmmm

On Valentine's day I made Cinnamon Roll Cookies for my hubby! He loved em! They are basically a sugar cookie dough rolled out with butter rubbed on it, brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled heavily on top. Rolled all up, cut then place on a cookie sheet and bake. Remove from the oven and drizzle with cream cheese frosting!

I'm told they are super yummy! I took a bunch to work and they all disappeared! It was wonderful!

Well, my sugar cookie recipe makes a lot of dough so what to do with all the rest???

It was Valentine's Day and I wanted to make heart shaped cookies. Too bad I don't have a heart cookie cutter, so sad. BUT I do have a maple leaf! Odd that I would have that and not a heart, I know! So I made Vancouver Olympics Cookies!

Valentine's fun!

I got this great idea from Creature Comforts and printed off these super cute little tags. I went to my local craft store and found the cutest little tins. I've made these for the kids for Valentine's Day! I can't wait to send these off in the mail!