Valentine's Craftiness

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I have finally finished all of my crafty, decor projects. What can I say, I procrastinated a little. Of course when I say a little, what I really meant was a lot. I am not known for being a particularly crafty type person. I love doing crafts and I usually love the end results but my OCD tendencies kick in hardcore when I do crafty things which means it takes forever to complete anything and even then sometimes I trash them when I'm done because they aren't my idea of perfect. Its frustrating and kind of expensive when I get crafty.

This year though, I am determined to do better about decorating my house for the various holidays and that means being more crafty. I guess I have Pinterest to thank for that? The best decorations are the ones that are home made after all and now that its crazy in my face how easy this is supposed to be, I am going to make it work or else.

So, there's that unreasonable neurosis out there for you.

Anyway, Valentine's Day is first. I got the supplies for these things in early January and have slowly but surely making my way through the bag of slightly intimidating craft projects and I have to say, I am quite proud of myself! So far, I have only thrown one project in the trash but trust me, it was bad. That and it took me quite a bit of practice to make my crepe paper rosettes look more like roses than crumpled piles of paper, but still, a win.



First there was the wreath. It was extremely simple. I took a styrofoam wreath from the craft store, ever so carefully and meticulously wrapped the string around the frame, row by row, inch by inch, until my fingers would cramp up and I would have to take a break. It took me longer to figure out how to wrap the points than anything though so I can't really complain. After I got it all wrapped up and the ends glued and tied and hidden, I made the paper rosettes in three sizes out of pink crepe paper and glued them to the wreath. Then I just tied the ribbon in a bow around the inside of the heart and figured out which way to hang it. Bam! Easy, peasy. It took my about 3 hours total to do this one.

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Then there was the hearts I put around our family picture arrangement on the wall above our ginormous couch. This one was super easy. I bought some red and pink contact paper at the craft store. I had a few scraps of other colors from another project a few years ago also. All I did was take the contact paper to the preschool my mother works at and die- cut the hearts out then arrange them around the pre-existing photo arrangement. It as a little color and a little fun to the wall and it ties in with the hearts on the rest of the decorations. Of course if you don't have access to a die-cut machine or a Cricut, you can always cut them out by hand just as easy. Pin It

I also made a felt heart garland. This one was a little more labor intense and it took a lot longer. First, I took two sheets of stiffened felt from the craft store, folded it half and glued right down the crease. It took me a few trial and errors on this one to find the right kind of glue but I finally decided a hot glue gun was the way to go even if it was way messy. After that glue dried and wasn't burn my fingers hot anymore, I cut it into strips about an inch wide from the bonded edge down. Then I folded the ends back over the bonded edge and glued them together to make a heart. Super cute. Then all I had to do was take some regular, clean filament thread and string the hearts together to make the garland. The original tutorial had little wooden beads between the hearts but I kind of liked the hearts all in a line. When all was said and done, I had about 10 feet of garland which I strung across the bar that separates our kitchen from the living room.

None of these craft things took very long to make and none of them were over 7 bucks. Can't beat that, right? Of course I did buy some regular decorations as well because just these three things wouldn't satisfy my decoration ideas and I didn't have time to make all I wanted. The best part though, is over the next few years, I can add to my homemade decorations and eventually replace or get rid of the things I don't like as much.

Next holiday coming up: Easter.

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