Valentine goodies 2009

 

 

 

 

 

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Grubby angels

I made these for Valentine’s day, but kept them plain and simple enough that they could be left out year round.

I started with purchased plain muslin ‘doll body blanks’ from a craft supplier, and stained them up real good with my special recipe.

For the wings, I used pages from an old hymnal which I also stained.  Once they were dry, I Mod Podged them to some leftover cardboard from picture frames.

* A note about Mod Podge.  I hear so many other crafters say they use it for adhering paper to paper in all types of altered art, so I decided to try it.  And I really did NOT care for it.  I have a jar of ‘MATTE’ and it had too much sheen in it to suit me.  Also, when I brushed it over the top of the stained pages, it left streak marks on my paper.  Guess I’ll go back to using tacky glue and then my matte varnish if it needs a top coat!

I tried tying the wings on with the string criss crossing in the front between the arms, but I just didn’t like how that looked.  So I ended up just using a big safety pin to attach the wings!  This way they could be removed and the doll body used in a different way if desired.

And I tied little keys with heart shaped cut outs in them around their necks.

Quick and easy Valentine wreath

My best wreath making tip is to NOT ‘permanently attach’ your decorations to your wreath.  Why, you ask???  Well, by leaving  your wreath embellishments easily  ’removable’ , you gain a LOT of flexibility!

You can take ONE grapevine wreath and re-decorate it for different seasons and holidays, instead of having several different wreaths to pack up and store. 

Here is a Valentine wreath I just made for the store:

I simply took this purchased glittery ‘love’ garland and cut the pieces apart and tied them onto the wreath!

BAM!  Done in 60 seconds! 

After Valentines day, just untie these embellishments and pack them away and add on something for spring or Easter.  Berry picks and pips are very easy to do.  Just ‘tuck them in’. 

You can also use your grapevine wreath ‘as a frame’ of sorts.  First hang something like one of these hearts and hang it on from your nail; on the wall or your door:

Then hang your plain grapevine wreath so that it ‘frames’ the heart. 

You can also wrap the wire hanger around the wreath to have the heart hanging form the top of the wreath.  I use ‘rebar tie wire’ on all my hanging things, and it’s VERY durable and can be bent and un-bent and re-bent many, many times.

Got punch????

No, not fruit punch!  Not a punch in the nose either.  And not punch as in you are so tired you are getting silly and ‘punchy’.

COLOR PUNCH!!

You hear the designers on TV shows mention ‘adding a punch of color’ all the time.  Meaning adding something that is dramatic or REALLY catches your eye.

I tend to be quite ‘matchey matchey’ in how I create my store displays.  With as much product as I cram into a small space, I feel like I need a sense of ‘unity’ to each vignette to keep it from feeling ‘too busy’.  I have certain colors that I like to mix together in grouping and tend to not venture far from that.

But after putting out all the Valentine stuff, I was feeling like the red section was just TOO RED.  (dies that make any sense at all???)  Like so much red together made it feel a bit bland.  Like I wanted more CONTRAST. 

I didn’t change up the red section, but I ’sprinkled’ red stuff throughout the store in somewhat unexpected places.  For a ‘punch of color’.

Here on top of a stack of tan suitcases.

And on the table filled with mostly black items that is right next to the stack of suitcases

And right in the middle of a yellow and white display:

THEN, in the beachy blues and green section:

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

Quick and easy!

If you can;t find any of the clear boxes, here is another idea for a Valentine goody (or gift) container.  I got these little metal mail boxes at the craft store.  Tied a bow around it and put a Valentine scrapbooking sticker on the front! 

Valentine goody boxes!

Okay, remember those spools of pretty ribbon in the last post????

Well, they came in these little clear plastic boxes.

I take them out of the boxes because I like how they look piled into clear glass bowls.  But I just hated throwing away all those cute little boxes.  So, here’s what I did!

Cleaned them up real good.  Put some assorted candies (candy corn and jelly beans) into little plastic zipper bags and put the bags of candies in the clear plastic boxes.  Since the chocolate kisses are individually wrapped, they did not need to go in the zipper bags.  Then I taped the boxes shut and tied on a pretty red ribbon!  Well???? Whaddya think????

I want to print up some tags to put on the bows.

Cupid corn on the candy corn

Cupid kisses on the kisses

But I don’t know what to put on the jelly bean ones?!?!?!  I’ve seen them done as ‘cupid poop’, but that is one idea I’d rather NOT use.  Any suggestions?

Here they are all piled onto a cake pedestal:

And a box of the kisses in a ceramic heart dish in a table setting:

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

Handmade hearts

These grubby felt heart bowl fillers are individually cut free hand, so no two are exactly alike.   Grubby tags are handcrafted too.

The hearts were cut, stitched with a ‘blanket stitch’ (leaving enough room to stuff), stuffed then stitched closed.  Stained with my grubby stain.  Also stained some strips of muslin colored denim for the stamped words.  Stamped the words onto the fabric, cut the word sections and pinned them to the hearts!

And don’t forget the ‘love potion no. 9′!!

Sweet handmade raggedy doll with her own little dolly.

More PINK!!

Pins, frames and journals.

Flowers and frills.

Sparkly pink garland.

Fun pink bead garland.

More Valentine trees!

A PINK one, of course!

And another green Alpine tree decorated with red stuff.

How cute are these little ‘love monkeys’!?!?!

And here is what I ended up doing for the topper on the red metallic tree with the white hearts.  The small white angel seemed a little too small.  And the big angel was too big.  So, I just added some glittery feather thingys behind the small angel to make it appear bigger.

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

Inspiration

Angi, from Angi’s Angels came by the store the other day to pick up their first check.  (they are the group the is making cards to raise money for Race for the Cure; I sell the cards in the store and donate ALL the proceeds back to them)

Angi’s husband’s grandmother, who lives with them, and is a breast cancer survivor, has even been helping with folding the paper designs.  I wanted to do something special for Grandma when she came in with Angi to pick up that first check, so I bought her a dozen roses and thanked her for being such a great helper and inspiring the younger gals.

The smile on her face as I gave her the roses was priceless!

Here are some of the beautiful new cards they just brought in for Valentines Day.

 OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html