Valentine's Roundup!

Happy Valentines Day! I hope that today you are celebrating the special people in your life and are thankful for the privilege it is to love them!

For today I wanted to do a round up of sorts of some Valentine inspired fun around our house!

Top Row- Heart Shaped Peanut Butter Sandwich, Red and Purple Goldfish Crackers, Heart Shaped Apple pieces,
Bottom Row- Heart Shaped Pretzels :), Salsa for dipping, and heart shaped string cheese pieces

This is a throwback to when I used to do these muffin tin lunches all the time with Titus!
We still do this occasionally, and this week I couldn't resist throwing together a Valentine-themed muffin tin lunch (however NOT on Monday haha). These are really fun to get creative with, and kids love them!

Norah has just started wearing hair clippies! I finally needed something more than the hairbands she always wears to keep her long bangs out of her face, so I went to my dear friend (and former business partner) Laura, from The Blue Ladybug! She made me a lovely set of Valentine's clippies, a Tiny Pink Boutique Bow (Seriously adorable!) and another set of pastel clippies. I'm thrilled that Norah is keeping them in (for the most part!) and I love having another option for her hair now that she has more of it! And I love all her new hair clippies- they are all sooo cute! So head over to Laura's newly re-opened shop The Blue Ladybug and check out some of her craftiness! She's super talented and is my go-to person for all things crafty. I don't think she has any hair things listed in her shop right now, but she's been making quality hair bows, headbands, clips, etc for years and loves to do it! She might create you a custom order if you asked her nicely :)

Fabric Heart Cards Tutorial
We had fun mailing these to some very missed friends and cousins, and handing them to some new friends we've made! God is good! :)

Valentine's Garland Tutorial
I decided I needed to make several more of these to hang around my new gray kitchen!  Of course I never got around to it, so maybe next year! I do love the one I have though! Did you make one?


Here are some pictures of the kids I took last Valentines Day when Norah was only about 6 weeks old! I have the most precious pictures of them from this time! Of course I couldn't resist getting a new one this year, although it was a little more difficult! Maybe I'll make it a tradition, although they'll probably get tired (or grossed out) of the ones where they're staring into each other's eyes! :)

I love having two kids! Yes, it is a ton of exhausting work! But there are those moments when I look over, and they're playing so nicely together, or they're loving each other, or Titus is so tenderly talking to Norah. And I know it's totally worth it! These are the greatest kids ever! I'm so blessed! And this Valentines day I'm enjoying focusing on how blessed I am to have these two (and their amazing daddy) in my life to love and take care of!

What love are you celebrating today?

Fabric Heart Cards

Before kids, my hobby was card-making.
Since having kids, I've fallen in love with sewing and fabric!
For this project, I dug through all my card-making supplies and my scrap fabric, and merged the two together!


Here are the Valentines that we made for all Titus and Norah's little friends, both near and far!

 

Fabric Heart Valentine's Cards

 

What you'll need:
Paper cutter
scissors
scrap fabric
card stock paper
sewing machine
glue stick
extra paper for a note
stamps/ink (any card making supplies)

First, find some scrap paper in pinks, reds, purples, etc. and cut them to the size you'd like.
Mine are various sizes because we just cut wherever we felt like it!
Titus enjoyed using my paper cutter, although he did manage to come away from it with a battle wound from it! :(

Then using scrap fabric in various patterns and Valentines colors, cut out hearts!
Polka dots are fun- which you can see I have a lot of! :)
I find the quickest way to do this is to start with a small square of fabric, fold it in half, and cut a half heart starting at the fold.
Or if you want to be precise or aren't confident in your cutting skills, you could draw a template. Just lay the template on the fabric, trace it and cut it out that way. But that will take a lot longer. I don't think an imperfect heart is that big of a deal, anyways. It just adds to the charm of this handmade card!

Now it's time to sew!
Place a heart on one of the pieces of paper anyway you like, and place the machine needle in the bottom tip of the heart. This is your starting point.
I just used white thread for my cards to keep it simple. In some of fabric it matched nicely and wasn't that noticeable. And in others it stood out more. Feel free to be bold in your thread color!
You also might need to adjust the tension/settings on your machine since you're sewing through paper.  I loosened the tension slightly and increased my stitch length because I noticed some of my stitching with looking tight. It would be a good idea to play around with the settings on a practice card.
Start at the bottom tip of the heart and work your way up the first side and around the first hump. When you reach the middle point, keep your needle in the fabric/paper, lift the presser foot, and swivel the whole thing so you can do the next side.
Be careful when stitching around the curves, but also keep it moving! And be sure to keep a good hold on the heart since it's not pinned! Don't worry if it's not perfect- mine certainly aren't!
Be sure to back stitch at the beginning and end, and clip the threads close the fabric.
Now repeat with how ever many cards you plan to make!

Here's what they'll look like when they're finished!
Beautiful! Just a few more steps to go!

Now when you're done sewing, the back will look like this. You'll see the stitching.
To cover it, we glued a Valentine's poem to the back.

  Then Titus signed the cards, and we stamped some hearts.

For the front, we stamped each of the their friends' names, or stamped the word "Love."
You can decorate your cards any way you'd like by rounding the corners, using decorative scissors, stickers, rub-ons, etc. 

Now they're done and we have a stack of envelopes ready to mail to lots of loved very-missed friends and cousins in MI!


  
For another Valentine's craft idea, click over to make a Valentines Garland!
 

tutorial : valentine's day garland

Happy February!!!

February is my birthday month!
And many other wonderful things happen this month, including lots of other family birthdays and Valentines day!

Here is a fun Valentines decoration I made last year that I posted on my old blog.
I pulled this baby out of a box while I was unpacking my craft room a couple weeks, and knew that I had to share it again!

This Valentine's Felt Garland would be really fun to make with your kids (that is, if your kids are old enough to use scissors!) with many ways to decorate!

Here are some decor ideas that I wish I could do with my garland:

~ drape it on a mantle

~ wrap it around a small Christmas tree to make a "valentines tree"

Ultra Easy Instructions:

*Cut hearts and other various shapes out of red,pink,white, etc Felt

 you can have your kids help with this.

(this is what takes the most time)

*Sew all your shapes together by feeding them one by one, back to back under the presser foot of your machine.

Voila!

Now you have a fun, easy Valentine's Decoration that is so versatile, you can use it every year in a different way!

Let me know you decorate with yours!!!