Another Year of DIY Valentines

I’m so disappointed – I had Valentine’s Day projects to share but I never got the opportunity to post any of them and now the day has come and gone for another year! But I think I’ve got a pretty good excuse, Nathan turned one last week and I returned to work. It was a busy week! I’m hoping that as we get used to our new schedule I’ll find a better rhythm of posting here because I have a lot of birthday party projects I’m excited to share. In the meantime, here’s this year’s Valentine’s Day cards.

 

Hopefully you’ll see me back later this week!

Love Day Smoothie for your Littlest Valentine

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I’ve been thinking of ways to get my little guy in on the action. He’s too little for most of the activities I’ve found on Pinterest and, at almost a year, he’s definitely still too young for all the awesome looking desserts I’m dying to make. But, he’s just the right age for a yummy pink Strawberry Banana Smoothie! These are super easy to make and, since they’re full of fruit they make a healthy treat for your toddler -  or for you ;) I made a giant batch (multiply the ingredients below to make more) and froze it in ice cube trays for later.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sliced strawberries (I used fresh but frozen works too)
• 1/2 sliced banana
• 1 cup plain yogurt 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp honey (this is optional to add extra sweetness and only appropriate if your child is a year or older)

Put all ingredients in a blender (or a baby food processor) and blend well. You can alter the above quantities to change  how thick or thin the smoothies are, depending on your child’s ability. My son loves drinking through a straw but it’s a new skill so our smoothies were a bit on the runny side. Also, depending on your child, you can partially freeze your smoothie once blended to make it more of a slushy texture.

Serve these pink drinks up to your little ones on Valentine’s Day or any day you want to give them an extra serving of fruit!

DIY Valentine’s Day Canvas

February is here! My house got dressed up for Valentine’s Day yesterday and I finally found some time to work on some Love Day projects. First up is a Valentine’s Day canvas made with paint and stickers. I’ve seen this idea about a million times on Pinterest and thought it was time to try it myself!

 

The concept is really simple – put letter stickers or vinyl onto a canvas, paint over them and then peel the stickers off. I started by painting my canvas light pink and then applied my letters. Then I painted the whole thing with two coats of red. Sadly when I peeled the stickers off I discovered that some of the red paint had bled through a bit. I’m not really sure how this can be prevented but if you’ve got a suggestion I’d love to hear it. I cleaned up my letters the best I could with a small paintbrush and some of the pink paint but since it still didn’t look perfect I decided to give the whole thing a distressed look that might help it look imperfect on purpose ;)

I couldn’t find any sandpaper so I used a nail file and rubbed it firmly all over the canvas until the pink was showing through in places. I rubbed some of the red paint dust onto the pink letters to help camouflage where the bleeding had occurred. I love the shabby end result I’m sort of glad that it didn’t turn out perfectly!

At the moment I’m working on mastering coffee filter roses so watch for that project soon!

Incredibly Late DIY Valentine Cards

Those of you who follow Sugar and Shimmer on Facebook will know that I’ve been MIA for a few weeks because I had a baby boy on February 12! I’m loving being a mommy but I’ve quickly learned that my time is definitely no longer my own and my little guy doesn’t care what my plans are for the day if they don’t coincide with his! For example, today I had intended to blog about Diet Coke Cake but Nathan decided that he was going to forgo his usual naps so that I couldn’t get into the kitchen. Hopefully I’ll be able to share the cake with you later this week but, in the meantime, I’m sharing this year’s DIY Valentine’s Day cards. Obviously they’re a bit late but perhaps you can bookmark them for inspiration next year :)

Magnetic Calendar - February

I’d like to give myself a pat on the back for having February’s calendar ready to post so early in the month but first I have to remind myself that I have yet to complete January. Oops - there’s always next year! The good news is that last year I started this project with March so next month I can begin reusing the months. But back to February. Here it is in all its pink and red glory!

 

As I said, I started this project last March which was just the right time to load up on clearance Valentine’s Day stickers. I had no shortage of embellishments to work with this month. Here are a few close-ups so you can get a better look.

Of course I’ll have to change out one square for my baby boy’s birthday – whenever he decides which day that is! The poor guy’s birthday month is looking pretty girly but I just couldn’t resist all the hearts. To see more of my calendar months or to learn more about how I made them you can click here. This calendar was a lot of work but now that this project is (mostly) completed I’m so glad I took the time to create it!

2011 Valentine's Round-Up

Are you looking for a little Valentine's Day crafting inspiration? I thought I'd pull together a bunch of my projects from last year into one post to get you started!  I forgot how pink my house became last February ;)

1 Crayon Hearts 2 Heart Envelope 3 Paper Wreath 4 Love Day Cards 5 Felt Garland
6 Tissue Pom-Poms 7 DIY Heart Art 8 Cardboard X & O

There are other posts from last Valentine's Day so be sure to check them out by clicking here. I hope to have some new projects to share with you soon!

Freebie Valentine's Printables

Is January 6 too early to start posting my Valentine's Day projects? I'm hoping you don't so think so because I'm expecting a baby right around Love Day so I've got to share everything with you well before labour begins!

Today's post is two freebie Valentine's Day printables. I created them using this tutorial - who knew you could create words in the shape of a heart with no Photoshop necessary? The fonts are from dafont.com and Fonts for Peas. Simply click on an image below for the full-size, print on cardstock (I think these would look great on cream!) and pop into a frame. They are designed to print on to 8.5x11 paper that you can then trim for an 8x10 frame but you can print them smaller for a smaller frame as well.

Don't mind the shadows in the preview pictures. I'm not sure why they're showing up but they don't appear in the full-size versions. I hope you enjoy these and please let me know if you print them out for your home this Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Cards

Ok, ok, I know that Valentine's Day is over but I really wanted to show you the cards that I made this year - mostly to show you how little time and few supplies you need to make cards. And I promise that this will be the last Valentine entry for the year ;)

I made two cards this year. The first was for my parents.

I started with a white card with some embossing around the edges. I bought these 8 for $1 at my local dollar store! Next I glued on a piece of scrapbooking paper that was all pinks and reds in a striped pattern. On top of that I layered two squares of cardstock (from one of those big variety packs) and finished with the XO stickers in the centre and a layered heart sticker in the corner. And that's it! One card, three small pieces of paper/cardstock and two stickers and I think it's quite pretty. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

The second card was for my husband.

Like many men, he's not really into pink and frilly so this is my "manly" Valentine's Day card. I started with a red card made of textured cardstock. I had cut the heart out of that piece of brown paper for another project (and kept the scrap because I never throw paper away!) so I stuck a scrap of polka-dotted paper behind it and then glued it down to the card. The "my valentine" is a sticker from a sheet that I bought on sale for a couple of dollars and then I wrote the "To:" with a red marker.

So I used a cardstock card, two scraps of paper, one sticker and a red marker. It doesn't get easier than that and Chris really liked it.

The best part is that I probably saved my self around $8 by making cards instead of buying them. Do you make your own cards?

By the Batch - V Day Cupcakes

In honour of Valentine's Day I took a break from cookies this weekend and made a batch of pretty pink mini cupcakes to share with family and friends.

The cake part is French Vanilla from a plain old Betty Crocker mix. The buttercream is homemade using the recipe I learned in my Wilton class.

Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 tsp clear vanilla extract (make sure it's the clear kind so you end up with true white icing)
1/8 tsp butter flavour
2 tbsp water
1 lb (approx 4 cups) icing sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
Pinch of salt

Directions:
Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add all other ingredients and mix on medium speed until thoroughly mixed together. Blend until creamy.

This recipe yields about 3 cups of stiff consistency icing. For these cupcakes I needed medium consistency so I added water by the tbsp until the icing was thin enough. To tint the icing pink I used gel food colouring.

I used a Wilton 22 tip and piped a swirl on the top of each cupcake, working from the outside in to the centre. Then I sprinkled on some coarse red sugar to finish them off. Easy and delicious - and the mini size makes people feel less guilty about indulging :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last Minute Valentine Garland

Still looking for a last minute Valentine's Day craft? This garland is super cute and incredibly easy to make!

I bought a bag of felt heart stickers at my local dollar store and then stuck them back to back on a piece of pink string.

Then I taped it over the front door to add a little colour to our otherwise very white front hallway.

15 minutes and about 50 cents and I've got another pretty Valentine's Day decoration. Try it yourself and have a great weekend!

Freebie Love Printable

We're less than a week away from Valentine's Day and I've got love on the brain. This is our first Valentine's Day as a married couple and, while we generally don't get behind the flowers and candy part of the day, I still find myself getting a little sappy and romantic as February 14 approaches.

In honour of Love Day I've created a cute little printable to share with all of you! Just click on the image to get the full-sized version and then print and use however you like. It'll print to fit an 8x10 frame or you can make it smaller and use it for cards or just as a little love note.

I hope you like it and, should you use it, I'd love it if you left a comment to tell me about it!

More Paper Hearts!

Ok, I admit that I might be obsessed with making things out of paper hearts. I've never made as many Valentine's Day decorations as I have this year and I've put many miles on my heart punch - still not tired of hearts! I hope you aren't either because tonight I want to show you two more paper heart projects that are quick and inexpensive to make. Both of them are courtesy of Martha Stewart's website and I made them both using less than one whole piece of scrapbooking paper.

The first is Heart Envelopes. Start by cutting a heart from a patterned piece of paper. Pick paper that has a pattern on both sides if you have one. The size of the heart is up to you; obviously the bigger the heart the larger your final envelope will be.

With the side you want on the inside of your envelope facing up, fold the left and right sides in so they meet in the centre.

Then fold the top down.

 Lastly, fold in the point to make the flap of your envelope and you're done!

These cute little envelopes can be used to hold a love note, a little trinket, or even a piece of jewelry. Once you've put the gift inside seal the flap with a sticker.

The second project made out of the same piece of paper (though my instructive photos show a different piece) is a Heart-in-the-Fold Card featuring a heart that unfolds to look like a flower. Start with a square piece of paper. Like the envelopes, the size of the paper you start with will affect the size of your end product.

Fold the paper in half vertically and then unfold. Then fold horizontally and unfold. Turn the paper over and fold it in half diagonally and then unfold again. Turn the paper over again and bring the corners of the diagonal fold up to meet each other. Then press the sides in to form a diamond shape.

Draw a heart shape that lines up with the folded point of your diamond.

The cut the top of your heart out making sure not to cut the point at the bottom.

And that's it! If you've folded it correctly then your heart will unfold to reveal four heart shaped petals.

The last step is to affix the heart to a folded piece of cardstock to finish the card.

Easy, right? Two inexpensive Valentine's Day projects that you can knock off in less than half an hour!