14 Days of Valentines - Day 8

Are you starting to  wonder what you're going to eat for Valentine's dinner..hmmm maybe Japanese? Well, today's project would be perfect for that!

All you need is a square sheet of paper 4.75" x 4.75". I found this cute heart print wrapping paper at the Celebrations store. Take the paper and fold it into thirds.

I usually roll it into thirds and pinch the ends to mark where I have to fold. Then, I refold it and crease it nicely. Unfold.

Fold the bottom right corner to the center, crease well.

Repeat with the left bottom corner. Unfold.

 

Fold in the bottom right  corner to the creased line. Crease well.

Repeat with the left corner.

Fold the right side flap in and align to the one-third crease fold. Crease well.

Repeat with the left side flap.

Fold in the bottom right corner to the center. Crease well.

Repeat with the left bottom corner. Crease well. You can see the heart taking shape now.

Turn the whole piece over.

Fold in the right side to the center. Crease well.

Repeat with the left side.

Turn over. Now, you can really see the heart shape.

Pick the piece up and tuck the straight edge into the back of the heart.

Ta Daa! Your heart is complete! What's it for?

It's a chopstick rest!

Although you think there are a lot of steps because of the number of photos, there really isn't. I just like to show the before and after each step. Thanks for stopping by today and hope you're having a Fun Saturday! Hmmm...maybe I'll have Japanese food tonight?

14 Days of Valentines - Day 7

Happy Aloha Friday! It's time for our 7th project and it's a nice and easy one.

I've been doing a lot of Easter and Spring projects so I have a bunch of these colored up chicks. It's from the dandelion designs' Happy Spring set.

I love punches so I'm using the small heart punch from Marvy Uchida, the orange one. I punched out 6 hearts.

I laid some crochet thread across three of the hearts. I wrote "I" and "U" on two of the remaining hearts. Then, I used  mini glue dots to glue the second set of hearts onto the first, with the crochet threads sandwiched in between. This made a mini garland.

I used pop dots behind the chick to place on the card front.

I just took a 4.25" x 5.5" card and placed a smaller scrapbook paper on the front. This one is from Amy tangerine's line of scrapbook papers. Added the chick and used glue dots to attach the "I {heart} U" garland. I used the extra wing piece that the stamp set comes with. I colored up two so that I could really make it seem like the chick was holding the garland.

Here's the inside of the card "Happy Valentine's Day from your favorite Chick!"
It's always fun to use different designs for another occasion.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

14 Days of Valentines - Day 6

Today's project is really for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Wear Red day in support of Women's Heart Health. Show your support and wear something red!

For those of you who just want a touch of red, how about a little pin to wear? Here's Day 6's project...

Start by stamping  a small image onto cardstock. I chose this cute dandelion design because the kimono girl is holding a heart..how appropriate!

Next, color your image up. I used Copic markers but a lot of times I just use colored pencils.

Cut the image out. I know that I won't be able to fit the whole image, that is why I didn't bother cutting out her feet.

I cut the image out because I am going to use a red background (wear red!). So I punch a 1' circle from red cardstock.

I cover the red circle with some Mod Podge.

Then, I added the image on top. Mod Podge acts as a glue, too.

Then, I add a coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing.

Instead of a marble, I placed a round glass tile over.

Press down to get rid of any air bubbles. Now, to let it dry.

The Mod Podge dries clear, revealing the image! Glue on a pin back to the other side. Now I'm ready for Wear Red day!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you're ready for another project tomorrow!

14 Days of Valentines - Day 5

Today is the fifth day in this series of 14 Days of Valentines. Yesterday, I used Plarn to tie up one of the gift card holders. So, you ask what is Plarn? Well, today is your lucky day, we're going to make a Plarn-ation!

Okay, I made that word up. We're going to make a carnation flower from Plarn, which is like a yarn made from plastic that's super strong. A Plarnation would be great for outdoor decorations and fun for Graduations, too. They are simple to make. Choose your color of Plarn, it comes in 6 colors: White, Red, Pink, Blue, Yellow and Green. I'm going to use two colors, the red and pink.

It's going to be just like making a pom pom. Take a piece of sturdy cardboard about 3" wide. First, wrap the pink plarn in the middle of the cardboard about 20 times.

Then, take the red plarn and wrap it around the cardboard left to right about 80 times.

I took  12" of the red plarn and slid it under one side of the wrapped plarn, like when you make a pom pom.

Tie the piece of plarn up, bundling the wrapped plarn. Tie it  as tight as you can and knot it two times to secure. Slide the cardboard out.

Cut apart all of the loops of plarn.

The pink plarn should be in the center,  just to give it some contrast. You can even trim this section shorter to make it stand out more. Shape the flower by fluffing the strands and trimming the ends as needed.

Take a 12" length of the red plarn and wrap around the bottom, tie securely.

Slip an 18 gauge floral wire through the bottom of the bundle. Fold the wire in half for the stem.

Place 5 satin leaves along the bottom to make a calyx. Glue in place, slightly overlapping each other.

Wrap up the stem with floral tape. Start the floral tape about 1" below the calyx. Wrap upwards to the calyx. Then, work your way back down to the end of the stem. Remember that you need to pull the floral tape slightly as you wrap to release the adhesive in the tape.

You can add leaves to the stem as you wrap it with the floral tape.

Fluff and shape the "plarnation" until you're happy with it. One roll of plarn can make a lot of flowers!

Although roses are generally associated with Valentine's Day, carnations always have a special place in my heart for that day. In my sophomore year (our first year of high school), my group of friends included four girls (my besties!) plus a couple of guys. We always hung out together and none of us were "couples". But on Valentine's Day, the guys surprised us! They each gave us girls a single stem rose and some carnation stems. It must've made them broke going to the florist near our school! So, we carried our flowers around all day, class to class. It was really sweet of them to make us all feel so special! Carnations take me back to those sweet memories.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope your week is going great!

14 Days of Valentines - Day 4

Today, I'll share project 4 of the 14 Days of Valentines. We're going to play with one of my new favorite toys, the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board!

Besides making envelopes for greeting cards, this tool helps you whip up Gift Card holders really fast. It's a really great project for scraps or those cute 6 x 6 paper pads.

Basic instructions are printed right on the board. So, for my gift card holders, I'll need a 5" x 5" paper.

I'm going to use some papers that aren't "Valentine's Day" but they have that feel in their designs.

The instructions say to line up the edge at the "2" mark.

I press down that big blue button which is the punch for the corners of the envelopes. Next, you score using the scorer that comes with the board.

You rotate the paper counter clockwise and line up the first scored line with the point protruding from the punch towards the left. Score the next side. Repeat until all sides are scored and punched.

It should look like this.

If you want to round the points, turn the board around and place your corner into the other side of the punch. Punch down to round the points.

Here's the rounded point.

Fold up at the scored lines. Fold in the sides and use tape or glue dots.  Fold up the bottom to make the envelope.

I used some Martha Stewart mini doilies and some metal "love" tags from the wedding department to embellish.

I slipped in a Ben Franklin Crafts gift card.

I decided to tie up the gift card holder with baker's twine and tied on the "love" tag.

I used Plarn to tie up this holder.

 

These mini gift card holders are also the perfect size for tiny love notes. You can also just fold them up an tie it closed,  that way they can open up completely and reveal your secret message!

Hope you're having fun with these simple heart felt projects. Thanks for stopping by on this rainy and soggy day!Happy Crafting!