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!

By the Batch - Honey Florentines

Until yesterday I hadn't yet tackled a Light & Delicate cookie and I think it was because I was a bit nervous. To me Light & Delicate sounded like Easy To Ruin so I was really pleased at how lovely these cookies turned out. They are included in Martha Stewart's Cookies book but the recipe is not available on her website so if this post should disappear you can assume it's because someone asked me to take it down and you'll just have to buy the book ;)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
pinch of coarse salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt butter, brown sugar, and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

Transfer to a bowl. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth. Working quickly, drop 1/2 teaspoons of batter onto large baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing at least 3 inches apart. Use a measuring spoon to get uniform sized cookies.

Bake cookies until they spread and turn golden brown, about 6 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Carefully remove cookies from sheets with your fingers.

According to Sarah:
When I first read the ingredient list I thought there must be a typo. You can't make two dozen cookies with only 7 1/2 tablespoons of ingredients can you? Why yes, you can, and they are delicious!! They taste very much like the toffee bits in a Skor bar. They are amazing on their own but Martha also suggests dipping them in chocolate. I think they would be great crumbled over vanilla ice cream. They took less than 15 minutes to make so these are a great option when you're low on time and ingredients or you have company unexpectedly. These will definitely be made again!

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!

Valentine's Hug & Kiss

In keeping with my Valentine's Day theme of not spending any money to make decorations I made this latest project from a cereal box!

You can buy chipboard letters for a project like this or you can cut them out of a box that's sitting in your recycling bin. Instructions hardly seem necessary since this was so simple but, just in case, I'll tell you what I did to make these. I used my computer to print an X and O in the desired size and font and then I cut them out to use as a template. I traced both letters on to pieces of cereal box and then again on to scrapbooking paper. Then I cut both sets out and glued them together. I would have liked to try a more scripty font but I think you'd need a craft knife to get the curves right on the cardboard versions - if you've got a Cricut then you're laughing.

This is a simple and cute project that you can knock off in 30 minutes or less so why not try it today? :)

Party Perfect - Thomas the Train Cake

Last Saturday my friend's son turned 2 and I was asked to make the birthday cake. Andrew is crazy about Thomas and trains so his mom asked if I could make a train themed cake. This is what I came up with!

I made a two layer vanilla cake and some homemade buttercream icing. I tinted most of the icing green and iced the whole cake with it. I then traced a 2 into the icing with a toothpick and piped green grass all around it and down the sides of the cake.

Once my grass was finished I filled in the 2 with brown sugar that I patted down gently and then I used pieces of black string licorice to make it into a train track.

I tinted my remaining icing blue and used it to pipe a waterfall down one side of the cake. I decorated the edge of it with chocolate rocks.

The final touch was to dip the tip of a sugar cone in white chocolate and let it drip down a bit to make a snow capped mountain.

If you're wondering where Thomas is, we just used a toy version that the birthday boy already owned so it wasn't on the cake when I took pictures at home. Just imagine him sitting there on the track ;)

I was really pleased with the final product and everyone at the birthday party seemed to really like it too!

Easy Paper Valentine's Wreath

Lately my goal has been to think of crafts that I can make from the materials that I already have. I like Valentine's Day as much as the next person but I can't really justify spending a lot of money to decorate for it. So far I've made tissue pom-poms, crayon hearts, napkin doilies and framed hearts and I have spent a grand total of $3 - not counting supplies I already own. Last night I came up with a Valentine's Day wreath made mostly of scrapbooking paper!

This project was really easy - I took 4 sheets of paper and cut them into strips that were 6" long by 1.5" wide. I only ended up using about half the strips but I wanted the variety of 4 different patterns. Next I stapled the strips, one by one, to a Styrofoam wreath form, overlapping them slightly as I went. I didn't worry about what the back looked like, just made the strips smooth on the front.

To decorate the wreath I made three tissue paper flowers and hot glued them on. It seemed like a lot of white so to break it up I punched two hearts and stuck them on as well.

Voila! Super easy and made entirely of stuff I already had. The one thing I will have to purchase is some pretty ribbon to hang it with - the pipecleaner I'm using now is not really doing it for me but I was excited to share with you. The other great thing about this wreath is that if I get tired of it I can easily pull out the staples and start over again with different paper. I'd only be out a couple of dollars worth of paper which is better than paying for a new wreath form.

What do you think? Can you picture this is in other colour schemes for different occasions?



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