Valentine Containers

I saw the cutest Valentine goodie containers on the blog Skip to my Lou. It only required paper, adhesive, and a crimper! How easy. Except that I don't own a crimper. But armed with a 40% off coupon I headed out to my local craft store to remedy that problem. Cindy has the best tutorial so head over to her blog to check it out.

Here is the "collection" I created for Julia's Valentine"s this year. This is her first time passing out Valentine's to her class at school.

I created a quick label to stick on the front.

I love these little goodies and plan to make them in different sizes and papers for different occasions. This was a fun afternoon project with my friend Tiffany. The only problem my friend Tiffany and I ran into was having them pop open a few days later. Maybe my adhesive tape was not strong enough? Or maybe we made them to far in advance? The morning that Julia was supposed to pass them out I just gave them a quick once over to stick them back together.

Crochet Bead Socks

My mom used to make me these in all color combinations. Then she taught me how to make them. They are a good project to do while watching "Design Star". :) I have plan to whip some up for the little girls in my life. I know of one little girl coming next week that will love these.

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day today. I was sick the weekend before and Valentine's Day. Sometimes it isn't a good idea to plan to create the night before a holiday. I am not a procrastinator just like to plan things late. :)

I made my daughter a simple shirt.

My supplies:

White t-shirt from Target

Plaid Simply Screen Paint in Cosmopolitan (sparkly pink)

Pampered Chef pan scraper

Freezer Paper

Cricut

Gypsy for my Cricut
While sitting on my couch sick I used my Gypsy to put my design together. I love how I can see exactly where I am putting the images and where they will be cut on the mat. First I created a large heart and then filled it with lots of little hearts and the word "Love".

Then I simply hooked up the Gypsy to my Cricut, loaded a mat with freezer paper (shiny side down), and pressed cut. I created a simple stencil that I ironed onto my shirt (shiny side down). Once your stencil is ironed down you can paint.

I squeezed some paint on and used the Pampered Chef pan scraper to "squeegee" it around the stencil. I love those scrapers. They are also great when caulking.

Once you have your paint on very carefully peel away your stencil.

Ta-Da!

I let it dry for a few hours. I didn't do a super thick coat so it dried fairly quickly. Then I heat set it with my iron. I covered the shirt with a thin piece of cotton before I heat set it to be sure that I didn't mess up my iron.
I also used my Cricut to cut out 2 1/2" hearts. I put candy on the hearts and stuck them all over her door. She loved this and the shirt. She is 4 1/2 so she is pretty easy to please right now. :)

Iron Cord Chaos

I have an iron in my craft room with a cord that I usually wrap up with a ribbon. But I keep losing the ribbon and having to cut another one. To solve this problem I put a permanent strap on my iron cord.There is Velcro to hold the strap to itself and the strap is sewn to the cord so I won't lose it. :)

Ahhh, all neatly wrapped up. Happiness.

Labels

I've been doing a lot of canning lately. I'm a hoarder when it comes to canned goods. I'm not very good at giving it away but I am getting better. When I do give a jar away I like to have a cute little label on top.

Pickle Relish-Yummo!

So I have these circles or flower shapes ready to go with adhesive on the back. I use a Xyron to put the adhesive on the shape. Then I slap it on top.

Birthday Shirt

I got this idea from my friend Missy who creates the cutest little birthday shirts for her daughters. I use Wonder Under to fuse the number to the fabric. I used my Cricut to cut out the number this year but in the past I have simply printed out a large number through Word to use as a stencil. Last year I did not have the right color thread to sew the number to the shirt. I simply used puff paint. It was also the wrong shade so I sprinkled some glitter over the puff paint that matched the fabric and hid the paint. This year I used a blanket stitch in a matching color.
If your child only wears it a few times you can probably get away with out the extra sewing or puff paint. I did notice that last years shirt did start to come apart after many washings.

A Place to Hang Our Hats

I've been working on remodeling my laundry room. We sometimes like to grab a hat on our way out. Here is a little way to keep them off my newly installed counter. :)Just bead board behind the same frame I used for my Dry Erase board and I added a few hooks.

Easy Peasy!

Dry Erase Message Board

We are remodeling our laundry room. It is, for us, the main entry into our home. I needed a place to drop my purse and keys. We added a new counter top and the back splash area was screaming for a message board. I love all the picture frame message board tutorials on the Internet! I originally saw the Message Board on Make It and Love It. What a great idea. Here is how I made mine:

Start with a frame you like. I purchased mine at Michael's yesterday. It is a 16 x 20 collage frame complete with mat. I saved the mat in case I decide to use this for pics again someday. I don't really see that happening but you never know when you might need a mat. BTW, I got this frame on clearance for 5 bucks! It was normally 20 bucks. I picked up 5 of them for our laundry room.
Find a fabric you like. I picked a neutral fabric that would coordinate with my laundry room color scheme. At least I hope it does. :D

Cut your fabric slightly larger than the picture frame backing.

Do you have one of these? A Pampered Chef stoneware scraper. I love these things. I use my for caulk work and for when I use my hot glue gun.
Hot glue down your fabric onto the back side of the frame backing. Below you can see how I do my corners.

All tidy!

Now for the lettering. I used my Cricut to cut vinyl. I have cut vinyl for my friend's projects but never for my own. I learned a lot this time around. First of all, you want the vinyl to go on the back of the glass so when you are writing you won't accidentally write on your sticker. That isn't a bad thing except that you will eventually have dry erase "crumbs" collecting on your words. Make sure you use the "Flip" function to create a mirror image. If I had been smart I would have also entered my letters in backwards so I could take the letters off in strips instead of individually.
I ended up using transfer paper to help me place the letters so I wouldn't have finger prints on my vinyl. Just picture when you are wrapping presents and you get finger prints on the tape.
On the front of the glass I used a dry erase marker to draw a line so that I could attempt to have straight letters. Then I placed each letter. Again, wish I could have just dropped one whole word down.

All the letters placed.

Backing back in the frame.

Voila! But be sure to erase your guide line.

I can't wait to try something like this for a chore chart for my kiddos! The bead board in the background is part of the remodel! Pics of that coming once it is all done. Funny how a project I think will take one weekend takes one month.