Valentine's Craftiness

I saw this post of The Peanut Paintshop on Pinterest.  She's selling these and if you don't have the time or the inclination to make your own, you should head over to her shop at www.thepeanutpaintshop.com and buy some.

Still, I'm always on the lookout for new crafts, so I decided I had to make my own. 

Five $0.79 hearts from Hobby Lobby and $1.50 in ribbon from Hancock Fabrics and I was ready to go for less than $6.00.  We had the paints at home and Buttercup and I enjoyed an afternoon of crafting and chick flicks.  What could be better? 



The names are painted on, instead of using vinyl letters.

Anyway, I used my Silhouette machine to cut vinyls of everyone's names and used the negative space to create stencils.  (I could have just used red vinyl, but I decided to practice the whole "painting with stencils" instead.)   So, the names are painted on the hearts.
 

I played around with the colors of conversation hearts,
just made them deeper.

A quick clear coat and they were ready...I sewed the ribbon to a D-ring I had in my stash, stapled the hearts to the ribbon and, viola!, a super cute (and super inexpensive) Valentine's decoration.

Oh, and they turned out so well, I made another set for my sister-in-law, paying special attention to the baby arriving this summer. 



Boy or girl?  We've got it covered!

The names on the little hearts?  If it is a boy, my nephew thinks it should be named "Lightning McQueen" and if it is a girl, "Sparkles".   Works for me!



Doesn't every home office have an xBox?

P.S.  In case you're wondering what Superman was doing during all my craftiness, I'd have to say he was embarrassing his son...yes, he's trying get up to speed on the latest xBox games.  Valiant says Superman is a "noob", poor guy!

I'm so NOT that woman...

If you are the kind of woman who makes beautiful hand-made Christmas cards, I am so in awe of you.  Seriously.  I am not you.  Not even close.  I admire you tremendously.  I used to have grand plans for somehow being organized and inspired enough to make beautiful Christmas cards for all of the people on my Christmas card mailing list.  This summer I finally let go of those visions of myself...I shipped all of my scrapbook paper to my sister...and let go of the pressure.

None of this means, however, that I don't want to send out pretty Christmas cards, even if they're store bought cards.  Every year, at the After Christmas sales, I buy my Christmas cards for the next year.  I've learned to put them in with the pre-tree household decorations, so that I have them when I'll actually need them.  (Oh, and if you're wondering if I've ever lost Christmas cards by doing it this way, the answer is YES.  Putting them with my "pre-tree" decorations means they come out when the initial Christmas decorations come out and they're ready for me to use at the beginning of December.)

Last week, I pulled out the Christmas cards I bought after Christmas last year and thought they were, well, plain.  Boring.  Ho-Hum.  Then it occurred to me that I could be like that woman who has that cooking show that is about half home-made (or something like that--I haven't actually seen it).  I could have store-bought cards with a little bit of home-made sparkle.

One dollar and half an hour later (a half hour during which I watched/listened to the Sing-Off with my kids), I'd embellished my Christmas cards.  Glitter was successfully added to Santa's hat, sleeves, and coat.  I love the way they turned out (even though the pictures are terrible!).

So, I'm not that woman, the woman I secretly long to be, but I am the woman who took the time to add a little oomph to my family's Christmas cards.  As compromises go, this one definitely works for me.

Cut yourself some slack and "cut corners"...semi-home-made is good enough...really!