Valentine Wreath

Oh how I love how this turned out! The inspiration came at first from this idea at Life in the Thrifty Lane, she covered a heart shape in felt rosettes. I knew I wanted to make a wreath, but use the same rosettes. In her post, she directed folks over to this site, Take Heart, for the rosette tutorial. I also knew I wanted to use yarn....what with my love of knitting and all...I thought it only fitting.

This is what I started out with. The styrofoam wreath is one that is flat. I intended to wrap the yarn very neatly around the form.

But as I worked on it, I thought it needed a little more dimension, so I'd wrap very neatly for several inches, and then go back over criss-crossing a little.

I found it useful to work with small balls of yarn at a time....although I kept dropping and unraveling them. I used a spot of hot glue every here and there.

I made a bunch of the rosettes after reading the tutorial and glued them on. And I added some bling because that's how Veronica did it...beautiful.

And here it is in all of it's NATURAL LIGHT glory!! Ahhhhhh, so bright and crisp and contrasty and fresh and lovely!!

Now, I fully intended for this wreath to be hung on my front door, but it's too white!! We live so close to a major road, it's just too dusty and yucky and I know it wouldn't stay clean. So, I hung it on my mirror right in the entry way....I've never hung a wreath from a mirror, I feel so trendy :-) And that only means one thing....I need to make something else for the front door!

Valentine Specimen Art

Specimen Art! Who knew? Thanks to blogland, I do! I saw this idea at Embellishing Life. I got right to it. She printed out a bible verse, but I opted for this poem which has several words suitable for highlighting in red.

A White Rose

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

~ John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890)

Also, in keeping with the "specimen" aspect of this project, I used little push pins to make it look like the hearts were pegged on that way. Click on the image for a better view, if needed.

I really love how my Valentine's "mantel" is coming along. Stay tuned for one more piece....

A Cool Pitcher

I found this super cool pitcher at "my" thrift store. I just love the way it looks all by itself. There is a glass insert that sits down into the main body of it. I guess maybe to fill with ice to keep the beverage cold? It looks like a super cool antique. It's made by Corning, though, so I'm not sure how old it could be.


My first vision for it, though, was to fill it with red marbles for Valentine's Day. And then easily change it out with any other festive decoration....jellybeans, rose petals, acorns, whatever! Isn't it gorgeous?

And here it is on my Valentine shelf paired with my Subway Art and a little red stemware piece.

Valentine Topiary

I saw this beautiful idea on Craftily Ever After. I had just bought the black candlestick at Ikea in hopes of soon having an idea to put it to use. I knew this was perfect! So, I made two of the balls and picked up a second candlestick at AC Moor. I think they are so pretty together and my girl had a fun time helping me.

Valentine's Day Heart Banner

This garland idea is all the rage for all different occasions, isn't it? I've been seeing it everywhere. I was inspired to do this Valentine's Garland from Little Birdie Secrets. So, I ventured up to the attic where my box of fabric is hidden to see if I had appropriate fabric. Look what I found!! I didn't need to buy one scrap of fabric for this project! I had ALL of the fabric, ALL of the embellishments, and the poly-fil all on hand! I don't pride myself at being a good keeper of a stash.....but I think I'll have to reconsider after this project!

It was a little more time consuming than I had anticipated, but a fun project nonetheless. I cut out three different shaped hearts from paper as templates. Cut pieces of my fabric and embellished them before sewing them together and stuffing them.

I went through an old bag of buttons from my Grandmother and came across this one that said "St. Peter's School". My Dad went to St. Pete's! So, I have a button on my project that my Dad once wore on a school uniform. I LOVE that! Click image to enlarge.




So, there you have it! An adorable Valentine decoration to hang from a mantel, a doorway, or a ledge like I have it.

I think it would be a pretty economical project even if you didn't happen upon a stash of red fabrics like I did! I think you could go to the fabric store and buy a couple fat quarters and go to town! Go do it!!

Cute Little Valentines

So, I know it's a little late to be inspiring anyone for this year's Valentines, but I needed to post my latest crafts and at the very least, tag them for next year.

Here are the little Valentines I made for my pre-schoolers to give to their classmates. They are not quite four years old, but they helped stamp some of the sentiments and put them together.


And here is the card I made for them to give to their teacher.















And lastly, on the Valentine front, are the cute little mailboxes I made for my girls. I'm pretty sure I got the idea from last month's Family Fun Magazine. I found the mailboxes at Target in the dollar spot. I covered them with scrapbooking paper and embellishments and finished off the lids with ribbon.