Happy Valentine's Day!

Yep, it's finally Valentine's Day!

Yay!

I feel like I have been preparing for it forever! :o)

So, did you get all your Valentines passed out?

I just handed out the last of mine this morning.
 

 

I thought the packaging turned out way cute!

The cake balls...not so much. 

 They taste good. They just don't look good.

See, they were supposed to be pink, but ended up more purplish gray...

Well, anyway the packaging is still cute! :o)

Oh, and super simple too!

I started by printing and cutting out these  
Baked with Love Valentines by Wild Olive. 

Then I just stapled them to some snack sized baggies...

...and added some cake balls.

 That's it! Sweet and Simple! :o)

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

My day started off like this...

Complete with a Diet Dr. Pepper in each cup holder, and an old favorite song playing on the radio.

...so I am guessing that it's going to be a pretty amazing day!

Oh, and did I mention that I love that N8dogg of mine! :o)

Happy Valentine's Tuesday!

 

Valentine's Day Roundup!

Good Morning, and Happy Monday! 

How was your weekend? 

Mine was Awesome!

However, since that Awesomeness did not include anything blog related...

I just have a Valentine's Day Roundup for you today...

A Simple Valentine's Day Bracelet

Valentine's Day Coffee Filter Wreath

An Etched Valentine's Day Candle Holder

Valentine's Day Pillows

Just a Couple of Valentine's Day Links

More Etched Glass: His and Hers

Sending Happy Valentine's Day Mail

Tomorrow, I hope to show you the Valentine's Day treats I made...hopefully they turn out. :o)

Happy Monday!

Sending Happy Valentine's Day Mail!

Happy Friday!

Today I am sending some Valentines to my Nieces and Nephews, and thought I would share.
 

Cute, huh!

I started by printing and cutting out these cute  
Printable: Stamp Valentines by Wild Olive.

Then I used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut out some paper pouches.

I stapled some little Valentine's Day baggies to the inside of each pouch.

Then filled them with goodies...

Valentine's Day fruit snacks from Target,

Heart shaped slinkies from Wal-Mart,

And some wedding bubbles from the Dollar Store.

 Just a Quick Note: The wedding bubbles were a complete and total impulse buy. I had originally planned to make matching Valentine's Day labels for them, but ran out of time. So, instead I just put some little heart stickers on them. 

 

Cute and simple, my favorite combination! :o)

Ok, so once I got all the goodies in the pouch I just folded them up, and secured them with a piece of tape.

 

(Oh, and the tape was not my first choice, but it ended up being my best option). 

Ok, so once I had them all put together I just used a glue stick to paste my Valentines on to the front, and that was it. 

I think they turned out really cute! 

What do you think?

Happy Friday! 

 

More Etched Glass: His and Hers

Yep, more etched glass! 

His and Hers! (or Hers and His)

 Man, I love etching cream! 

The "I" looks really faded in this picture...but it's really not?

 I actually bought these glasses as a Christmas present for N8dogg. 

 They served their purpose, but I thought they just looked too plain. 

Hers!

So, for Valentine's Day I decided to spice them up a bit. :o)

*Sigh* One day I will be able to take a decent photo of glass.

 I even considered re-gifting them to him...but I thought that might be a tad too obvious...even for N8dogg. :o) 

Happy Tuesday! 

Just a Couple of Valentine's Day Links

Good Morning, and Happy Monday!

How was your weekend?

Mine was busy...good...but busy.

I didn't manage to get a whole lot done, but I did manage to find some Valentine's Day Links to share with you all!

Yay!

Image courtesy of Wild Olive.

Do you have your Valentines picked out yet?

Well, if you don't, here are a couple of links for some free Valentine printables.

Another Yay!

Another image courtesy of Wild Olive.

 A Babble Roundup of 20 Handmade and Printable Valentines: By Lil Blue Boo

And Another...

A Babble Roundup of Free Vintage Valentine Printables: By Lil Blue Boo

I love them all...but I think I am leaning towards these Printable Stamp Valentines from Wild Olive...if you couldn't tell. :o)

Oh, and check these out:

Printable: Valentines in Two Styles: By Wild Olive

Aren't they cute!

I saw them this morning on my blog roll, and had to add them to the list.

And of course, another  image courtesy of Wild Olive!

Seriously, way too cute! 

Happy Monday!

Valentine's Day Pillows

Let's start with Happy Friday! :o)

Are you sick of all the Valentine's Day stuff yet?

Well, I sure hope not because I have a couple of more projects for you. :o)

Starting with this one...

Valentine's Day Pillows!

Random Not So Fun Fact: I have 2 very ugly pillows in my home.

Ugly, huh.

Well, the other day I had finally had enough of their ugliness, and decided to make some cute slip covers for them.

Yay! 

I got the idea HERE, and just kind of ran with it.

I grabbed some scraps of fleece that I had left over from another project, and just started sewing.

The red ruffled one was kind of an afterthought...

 I basically just started piecing parts together, and this was the result.

 
Pretty cute for an afterthought though. :o)

For this one I did a little more planning.

I sewed the little pink hearts on by hand, but you could easily use your sewing machine to do this.

They are a little crooked, but hey, let's just call that character! :o)

NOTE: These are a great project for beginning sewers...like me (ok, I am not a beginning sewer...I am just not a very talented one). :o)

Remember, fleece is forgiving, which is a BIG plus.

Well, I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

What do you think?


Happy Friday!

Oh, and Have Wonderful Weekend!

An Etched Valentine's Day Candle Holder

Have you ever used etching cream before?

Well, just an FYI, it's kind of awesome! 

I used it the other night for the first time, and let me tell you what, we became fast friends. :o)

See, I found these the other day at Tai Pan Trading for about $5.00 each.

I just figured that I would put some candles in them and call it good, but they just looked too plain. 

Then I remember an etched glass Tutorial I saw over at I AM Momma Hear Me Roar. 

So, I went out and bought some etching cream and some removable contact paper...

and started etching. :o) 

I found the word Love in fancy writing, and used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut it out. 

I applied the contact paper to one of my candle holders. 
 

Then applied the etching cream...

let it sit, washed it off, and peeled away the contact paper...and that was it!

Ta-Da! 

Instant Etched Glass!
 

I think it turned out pretty cute! However, there were a few spots that didn't etch very well. I think that next time I either need to add more cream (it says to apply it generously) or leave it on just a little bit longer.
 

Now just add a candle and you're all set!

 
I only ended up using one of the candle holders, so I think I am going to save the other one for another holiday...maybe a Shamrock for St. Patrick's Day...or maybe even something for Easter... :o)  

Anyway...

Happy Wednesday!

 

Valentine's Day Coffee Filter Wreath

 

So...remember how I told you I was kind of obsessed with wreaths. 

Well, guess what?

I am still very much obsessed! 

My newest obsession is with coffee filter wreaths. I love their texture, but am not crazy about the limited number of colors they come in. 

Anyway, the other day while browsing in Krumpets (A local home decor store that I am also obsessed with) I found this...

Sorry for the bad phone photo!

Isn't it AMAZING! 

I instantly fell in love...and then I saw the price tag. $49.99!

Yep, they want $50.00 for what is basically a pink coffee filter wreath with a few embellishments.

As N8dogg would say, "Not Cool Man. Not Cool." 

So, since there is no way in...Ahem... that I am ever going to spend $50 on a wreath I decided to make my own. :o)

Now the concept of a coffee filter wreath is pretty simple. Get some coffee filters, a wreath frame, and start hot gluing. The problem with making a pink or colored coffee filter wreath is the colored part... 

See, as far as I know coffee filters only come in white or brown. So, to solve this problem I decided that I would just dye some coffee filter pink. Simple right...well, yes and no. 

See, when you dye a coffee filter it ends up losing its coffee filterness, which means you basically end up with a nice pink circle.

Can you say coffee filter FAIL!

 Now don't get me wrong, pink circles are nice, but when you make a coffee filter wreath the purpose of using coffee filters is for the little scalloped edges...there are no little scalloped edges on a circle.

So, in order to solve this problem I had to get creative, and there was most definitely some trial and error involved. 

So, if you know of a much better, much easier, and much faster way of dying coffee filters please laugh at my stupidity and then let me know how it is done! :o) 

Again, sorry about the photo quality.

Anyway, let's start with the dye. I decided to get really sophisticated (cough, cough), and used food coloring. I got a bowl of water and added 14 drops of red food coloring and 4 drops of blue to get "dusty rose" (it's the pink color on the back of the box). 

Next, I prepped my coffee filters. I used a pack of 200 8 - 12 cup coffee filters broken up into four tiers. 

I took each tier and dipped the scalloped edges into my bowl of pink water. Then, I took a spoon and spooned a little of the pink water in the middle of the coffee filters. 

 I put an elastic band around the tier to help keep them from flattening while they dried.

Note: you may have to break your tiers in half in order to get the color to go all the way through.

Now, it's time to wait. 

Random Fun Fact: coffee filters take an abnormally long time to dry if they are sittings in tiers.

So, if you have some time just set them aside, and wait until they're dry. If you are impatient, like me, you can do what I did and bust out the blow dryer!  

 Note: I have also heard that you can put them in the oven on low, but the oven and I are not friends, so I didn't want to take any chances. :o) 

I divided each tier into 4 separate sections, then placed each individual section into a bowl (the cup on your coffee machine works extremely well for this also), and used my blow dryer to speed up the drying process.

There are too many filters in this picture, but you get the idea.

However, even though using the blow dryer sped up the drying process it was still not the fastest process in the world. It took me probably about 5 minutes per section...maybe even longer, so just be warned. 

Oh, Blow Dryer = Fluffiness. (BTW I seriously think my camera is broken)!

Ok, so after my coffee filters were nice and dry (scalloped edges still intact) I started my wreath assembly.

First, I separated my filters (the blow dryer is also very useful for that).

They really are pink, I promise.

I used an 18" floral wreath frame that I picked up at JoAnn's for about $3.00.

 Since there isn't a lot of gluing surface on a floral wreath frame I sandwiched some filters around the perimeter.

 The actual assembly process went much faster than I thought I would.

I took each filter and pulled it into a loose point.

 Then I put a dab of hot glue on the end, and pushed it onto my wreath.

 
 Now it's time to start adding...

 And adding...

Until you're happy. :o)

 And there you have it!

A Pink Coffee Filter Wreath perfect for Valentine's Day. 

LOVE!

A couple of quick notes:

I used all 200 filters to make this wreath.

 

You can use more or less depending on how fluffy you want it to be.
 

Also, if you notice above in my inspiration photo you can see that there are a couple of flowers and some feathers embellishing the wreath. In the beginning I had every intention of embellishing my wreath in the same way. However, after I rolled a couple of paper flowers and added some feathers the wreath just didn't look right. Maybe it was my embellishments or maybe it was a proportion thing, but whatever it was it just didn't look right.

So, in the end I just decided to leave it plain, but there are definite possibilities there. :o)  

Well, that's it!

Thanks for following along with my uber long tutorial!

I hope you liked it.

 

Now what are you waiting for, go make one! :o)

Happy Monday!