A Blast From Valentine's Past!

If you peek through our history, you can see that we really love crafting for Valentine's day. 

Maybe too much?

  I see it as an excuse to create with girly pinks and reds in my world of boys!

So, while we're busy trying to figure out how to make the many Valentine projects swirling around in our heads, take a look at some our favorites we created last year!

Felted Wool Heart Pillow

"Love" Sacks

Red Felt Heart

Ribbon Heart Wreath

Quilted Heart Pillows

Haunted Village

Here's a little Halloween craft we're sure the kiddos will enjoy.  My son didn't think that it was too scary....but I know he liked it! 

 We had tons of K&Co. paper left over from papering our pennant banners and we were determined not to let this cute paper go to waste.

We bought our paper pack at Michaels but I know you can purchase it here.  K&Co used the same design to make chipboard pieces and pop up Haunted houses, this inspired us to bring to life our own Haunted House.

We wandered down to the unfinished wood section and picked up these birdhouses for a dollar a piece.  Perfectly shaped for haunted houses!

We pulled the strings out and gave them a good coat of black paint.

My son was playing around with them the other day and lined them up in a row.  We thought it would be great to make a haunted row with them on a 2x4.  We cut up smaller pieces of wood to give the houses some height.

Using Mod Podge, we papered away.

We ended up pulling out the little perch for the birds so we could paper over the holes.

We drilled some holes for the dowles to hang the banners. We didn't glue any of the dowels so you can remove them for storage. I always end up with so many broken crafts, so we thought this would be a good solution.

We did the same with the large dowels. 

And this is where I stood back and watched Nicole work her paper magic on the wood.  I wasn't a lot of help, just a back seat driver ordering doors on one house ...pumpkins on the other. She's just so darn good with paper and wood...so I let her take over. :)

We made mini paper pennants, cutting paper triangles and hot gluing them to ribbon.  Nicole backed the top pennants with wire so we could shape them easily. 

We added more spider web yarn and ribbon to dress up the wood blocks. We used really fine wire to  hot glue the bats, ghosts and moon.  

My kids love chopping paper...any paper they can get their hands on.... I think I have six to eight pairs of  confiscated scissors tucked away on a high shelf.

These little paper triangles would be perfect for little hands to practice their scissoring skills. :)

I think this little haunted village needs to go straight to Nicole's house

~ where it can be adorned by her little girl with Little Pet Shops!

Sharing at Tatertots and Jello's FALL Linky Party

Freezer Paper Pillow

I am fascinated by freezer paper stencils! After trying it out yesterday on the love sacks, I started thinking about all the possibilities! Pottery Barn has a linen/burlap pillow with red stripes that I like, so I tried copying it.  My pillow did not turn out nearly as cute as theirs, so I'm too ashamed to post a picture of theirs.  I over did it on the spray paint and it spilled over into the fabric.  I tried to scrub it a little but the lines aren't super distinct in some areas. Lesson learned, take it easy on the paint! :)

I used a straight edge ruler to make strips with the freezer paper. I then ironed it on spacing evenly.

I highly recommend these rulers.  I have used them for so much more than quilting.

All ready to spray!

I love peeling off the paper when it's dried.  I was a little bummed that it bled, but I used scraps, so I wasn't out too much. 

Here it is paired with my mother-in-law's ~wonderful~Valentine quilt she made for our family.  I love that quilt!

~LOVE~sacks

Are you all sick of so many Valentine's projects yet? I think you can kinda tell that we love Valentine's!  For me, it's an excuse to decorate a little more girly. In my boy house, it's sport teams, footballs, jerseys, trucks, toy guns, and Star Wars.  So, I love anything pink, red, frilly, or feminine.

These "love sacks" are influenced by staring at tons of blogs.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Nicole told me not to name them "love sacks" because people might think it's derogatory! :) I'm not sure what else to call them?  I wonder what people we might pick up off of Google's search looking for a "love sack"?

These were so easy to make!  I first found a font and I didn't even print it off.  You know, computers make great light boxes.  I held my freezer paper up to the computer screen and penciled it right on.  It saves some ink. I then used an exacto knife to cut the freezer paper out carefully.

Iron the freezer paper onto the fabric.

Most people have stenciled the paint on, but I prefer spray paint.  It sprays on so evenly!

Just make sure you cut your freezer paper wide enough to cover the fabric.

Look at that!  So cool!

I sewed the two pieces of burlap together and stuffed with fiberfil, then finished the sack off with twine.

I swear we have some other projects besides Valentine's stuff coming really soon! :)