Heart Sun Catchers & A Heart Hot Pad

I started making some sun catchers a few days ago.  First you need white school glue, some plastic lids (mine are Pringles lids), and glitter and/or sequins.  I found some cute heart sequins and used those.  Then you fill the lids with white glue and add your glitter and sequins to it.  Let it dry completely.  Mine took about 4 or 5 days to dry.  Then pop them out of the lids.

My little experiment was to see if they would work with a die cut.

It worked.  So I die cut hearts out of all 6 disks that I had made.

I am saving the circle ones for when inspiration hits.

It was night when I made them, but you can see that the light does come through them.

Then I just punched holes in the top and bottom of the hearts, added pink string, and hung them up.

Now I have sparkly Valentine's sun catchers for my home, and it did not cost me anything.

I also made another crochet heart hot pad using 2 strands of red acrylic yarn.  

Episode 32 of Its Easy Being Green: Valentine's

Here are four videos from the Valentine's episode of my local access t.v. show, "Its Easy Being Green."  

This wreath was inspired by http://ourlifeinaclick.blogspot.com.



What's funny is that I recently saw a similar project in Family Fun magazine, but I thought this up all by myself.  Coincidences are a funny thing.



These ladybugs were inspired by http://www.familycorner.com.



You can watch my video on how to make a crochet soda tab heart here.
You can see the individual blog posts on these projects by looking through the archives on the right hand side of my blog under January 2011.

Valentine's Envelopes & Candy Cane Heart Wreath

Last night I finished these two crochet Valentine's envelopes.

I filled them with handmade Valentine's ornaments and mailed them off to some online friends today.

The other day I saw this great blog post by our life in a click on how to make a Valentine's candy cane wreath.  I knew that I had to make one.  First I figured out how many candy canes that I would need to make the wreath.  Then I die cut 2 hearts out of a cereal box and 2 hearts out of some red glitter eco-fi felt (made from recycled plastic bottles).  I glued the felt onto the colored side of the cardboard.  I then hot glued the candy canes onto the brown sides of the hearts.  I attached a loop of ribbon to the top.  The ribbon is white and red and says "Let It Snow," which is fitting since February is when we get the most snow here.  It was very easy to make and it looks great.  It is a little heavy and fragile (because of the candy canes), so handle with care.  Sorry that it is not a better picture, but I really wanted to show it right away.

Got Milk?

What do you do with your white milk cartons after the milk is all gone?

Make snowflakes.

I cleaned the milk cartons, then I cut out the 4 sides and die cut snowflakes out of them.

Using a denim needle on my sewing machine, I sewed the snowflakes together to make garland.

The end loops are the two threads tied together.  

It does tangle easily, so I'll have to be careful when storing it.

Then with the opaque green tea jugs, I die cut hearts out of them.  I also die cut hearts out of some eco-fi felt (made from recycled plastic bottles).  Then I sewed them together vertically to make these Valentine's ornaments.  

Last but not least, I have been crocheting envelopes to hold some special Valentine's cards in.  I made the cards today, but I won't be showing them for a little while.  One of the people who will be getting one follows my blog (you know who you are), and I want to surprise her.  Back to the envelope.  As my husband said the other night, it looks like Mrs. Claus's purse.  The person who will be receiving this one does not like pink, but I might be using pink for the other ones that I am making.  That being said, I like that it can be reused for Christmas.  After making this envelope, I have the pattern memorize.  Yep, its that easy to make, as long as you don't mind hand sewing (which I don't mind doing at all).  

December's Box Exchange Blocks

This school year I signed up for two box exchanges with my quilt guild.  One is a regular box exchange and the other is for paper pieced blocks.  What is a box exchange?  Its where you pick out a quilt block that you want others to help you make.  You put the instructions and maybe one piece of fabric for them to use into a box.  The people in charge number your box (you don't know what your number is).  Then each month you pick up your assigned numbered box, or in the case of the paper pieced boxes, your lettered box.  Then you make one or two blocks according to the directions in the box.  You return it at the next meeting and pick up a new box.  You do not know whose box you have and you do not know who has your box.  In April or May is the big reveal.  We pin the blocks from the last box that we picked up to a sheet of fabric.  Then we hang them up at the quilt guild meeting for everyone to see.  Its a lot of fun to go and find your quilt blocks (the ones from your box that you get to keep) and to see everyone else's blocks.

Here are the two blocks that I made today for the regular box exchange.

This is the paper pieced cat block that I made for the other box exchange.  This one took a good bit of time.  The person wants two blocks, but I don't know if I will make a 2nd one.  The 2nd one is optional in the box exchange.  When she gets her blocks back, she'll embroider a face on the cat.  I'm glad that quilt blocks count towards my 365 item goal, because this one took a while to make.  Did you notice that the cat is wearing a dress?  The person put several different cat blocks to choose from in her box.  Very cute idea.

Cereal Box Matchbook Notebooks

I was a very proud mommy last night.  My 3 year old had an untouched cookie sitting in front of him for the longest time, because he was so into drawing in his large matchbook notebook.  He filled up the whole book last night with some awesome drawings.

He wanted to draw more this morning, but he needed more paper.  So I made him two new large matchbook notebooks.  These notebooks were made from two sides of a box of Captain Crunch cereal.  The paper is made from 100% post consumer recycled paper.  One of the notebooks has the cereal box design on the outside, and the other has it on the inside.  For the one that is brown on the outside, I decorated it with Valentine's Day stickers.

These are quick and easy projects to make for kids of all ages.  I've made these with kids ages 7 - 13, and they always love making them.  Basically what you do is to fold a half an inch of the bottom up.  Then you insert some paper in that fold, and staple it in.  Make sure to staple in the center of the folded flap and not near the top of it.  Then you fold down the top of the cardboard and inset it into that stapled flap. You might need to cut the paper at this time to make sure that it is the right size.  You can make these in all kinds of sizes.  I like using the large side of a cereal box when making notebooks for little kids.  Its a great thing to stick in your purse with some crayons and pull out when you need to keep your child entertained while on the go.

While I was resizing the pictures for this blog post, my son filled up the Valentine's notebook with some really great drawings for his daddy.

Be My Valentine

I've been placing all of my Valentine's creations on my fireplace mantle for both decoration and so that I won't misplace Valentine's for other people.  My husband took the photograph.  It is of my youngest son's hand holding a dandelion that he picked for his grandma.  The red and pink floral fabric is mine.  What I mean by mine is that I designed that floral print, then made the silk screen, and I silk screened it onto this sheer pink fabric.  It is over 10 years old.  I made it in college (I have my BA in Textiles).  In the back of all the little objects are pictures of my family.  It was a lot of fun finding pictures of my kids when they were younger.  The center picture is of the 4 of us on the Hershey Chocolate ride.  Its my favorite ride at the park, and it just so happens to be the only free ride.   Its not the greatest display, but I like it.  

I've been busy making Valentine's for other people this week.  I'm participating in a Valentine's swap in the From Trash to Treasure group on ravelry.com.  I want to have all of my Valentine's finished by this weekend so that I can mail them on Saturday.  Because of this swap, I have made a lot of items.  So far my total for this month is 69 items.  At this rate I'll have reach my goal of 365 items before the summer.

Last night I made this knitted dog bone.  It is stuffed with quilting and sewing scraps.

Today I made these two catnip filled felt hearts. 

Of course one is for my old man.  You can see the one from 2 years ago under it.

This heart hot pad was crochet using 2 strands of acrylic yarn.  I prefer the crochet pattern vs the knitted one that I made two years ago.   I still use that hot pad often.

I knitted another "Be My Dishcloth."  It is easier to see the hearts on the purple cotton yarn than it was on the red cotton yarn.

I made two more heart ornaments, this time with the left over light purple cotton yarn.

I made yet another scrubby.  This is the 2nd patriotic one this month.

For those just seeing this scrubby, I doubled the pattern for size.

Now I need to do my quilt guild homework this week.  I have about 13 or 14 blocks due on Monday night.