Sweet Treats

I know it's a little late for this post but better late than never right? I made these delicious treats for my red velvet loving boyfriend on Valentine's Day. I followed the recipe and technique found on Annie's Eats. I made my heart templates on the parchment paper, piped out the shapes just like she said and ended up some some scary heart blobs. Luckily the blobs were big enough that my heart shaped cookie cutter fit perfectly.

I cut each blob into a real heart shape using my cookie cutters, spread the yummy cream cheese frosting and rolled in these cute little heart sprinkles. Unfortunately some of the pies got indents from my wire cooling racks. Fortunately men don't notice things like that when served their favorite desserts.

Next time I swear I'll try to make my red velvet with beet puree like Coconut and Lime did instead of artificial red food coloring. Next time.

Valentine's Day Wreath

I was put in charge of making a Valentine's Day wreath for our office door. I

ended up with this yo-yo wreath that used all supplies I had at home.

For the base I used a sheet of bristol board. I cut a 10" circle. I made the base 1 1/4". I made a bunch of pink, red and heart printed yo-yos and glued them on with tacky glue. I then added buttons and trims that I had lying around. Easy, quick and a great way to use up some fabric scraps and odds and ends trims.

After finishing and hanging it up I wish I had made it heart shaped. But it was simple and easy and brightens up the door.

Side note: I treated myself to a few skeins of Debbie Stoller's Full O' Sheep yarn and it is lovely. It's great to knit with and is working up really soft. And the colors are fab.

Heart Ornaments

So, first off, I'm going to admit that my apartment has been fully decorated for Valentine's Day for at least a week (or two). I will also admit that half the crafts I did for the blog last year stayed up all year round. I am a full fledged lover of hearts and am always on the hunt for heart related crafts, no matter what time of year it is. I came across this picture in my scouring of the Internet for heart crafts. It was just a photo for inspiration and most of the other links don't work so I decided to just get to work.

I figured Heat and Bond would be the neatest and easiest way to make these. It keeps the fabric from fraying and if you want, there could be no sewing involved. I cut two squares of fabric and a square of Heat and Bond a little smaller (you don't want this stuff stuck to your iron!). I ironed the fusible to one piece of fabric, peeled off the paper, and ironed it to my other square. I then pinned my heart template down and cut it out.

I then stitched around my heart, glued on some ribbon and a button and hung with care. I made one without sewing around the heart and it worked fine but did curl a little at the round parts of the heart. So here are the finished products:

Heart Craft Day #14: Pancakes

Happy Valentine's Day!! This completes my 14 (well 13 because I skipped yesterday...) days of heart crafts.

This morning I made my Valentine heart shaped pancakes. I looked up some various ways to do this and came up with two: use a heart shaped cookie cutter, pour the batter in and once the pancake starts to cook a little you remove the cookie cutter. The other way is to put the batter in a ziploc bag, cut the tip and freehand draw hearts in the pan. I tried the cookie cutter method and wasn't crazy about it. The cookie cutters got very hot and since I'm impatient I removed the cookie cutter too soon and got a blob. I suggest the ziploc bag method. A lovely way to start off Valentine's Day!

Heart Craft Day #11: Freezer Paper Stencils

If you read this blog (which I'm not sure anyone does) or if you were on the Pumpkin Beer Pub Crawl '09 with us you've seen these t-shirts. Freezer paper stencils are one of the quickest and coolest ways to make a personalized t-shirt. Emma wrote up some great step by step how-to directions in this post.

I decided to make one for my man for Valentine's Day. And seriously... what's better than glitter fabric paint?

Heart Craft Day #10: Wrapping Paper

Now that you've made your special someone something heart shaped and homemade it's time to wrap it up. The gift I bought for my boyfriend will not be making it in time... so I figured I should wrap up the consolation gift in something pretty in hopes he forgets about my gift giving faux pas.

I had some white craft paper and these great new letter stamps (which luckily included a heart stamp) so I went to town. Just be sure to center your designs... I also glued some heart shapes made from cardstock on and a cute bow. The only snag was that the paper is a little see through. I just wrapped the gift in some red tissue and it solved the problem.



(I know technically this should be one of the last posts but all my other crafts are in the drying phase)

Heart Craft Day #9: Felt Coasters

These felt coasters are really simple:

Cut two pieces of 4" x 4" felt and one piece of 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" fabric. Fold one piece of felt in half and cut a heart shape on the folded edge. Layer the fabrics - uncut felt on the bottom, fabric with printed side up next, and the cut piece of felt on top. I embroidered a running stitch around the heart shape and a blanket stitch around the edges. But be creative! (Those are honestly the only two embroidery stitches I know) These can even be stitched on a machine if you are so inclined.

It looks like we'll be snowed in the for the latter part of the day tomorrow so I'm going to be attemping a craft we've featured on our blog but with, of course, a heart twist... and if it comes out as planned I'm going to wrap it up and give it to my special Valentine.

Heart Craft Day #8: Ribbon Belts

To find the length of your belt it's best to measure it around where it would sit on your jeans. Since most jeans sit lower on the waist these days, your belt is going to be bigger than your natural waist measurement. Just wrap the ribbon around and add about 7 - 8" to fold back and go through the d-rings.

I used 7/8" pink solid grosgrain ribbon with 5/8" wide heart printed grosgrain ribbon. I centered the printed ribbon over the solid ribbon and edgestitched both ends down. Giving the ribbon a good press with steam took out all the puckers (stitching ribbon makes it really puckered, ironing it always saves the day). The d-rings should be about 1/4" wider than the ribbon (I used 1 1/4" wide). Thread the ribbon through both d-rings and stitch down. Be sure to double bendback the ribbon so no raw edges are showing. Grosgrain ribbon frays like crazy. Double bendback the other end of the ribbon and stitch down.

You can get as creative (or uncreative) with this as you want. You can use a few layers of different sizes or just one ribbon... one thing I have learned is that it's always best to stitch the ribbon down. The heat adhesive tape or glue just doesn't look as nice and doesn't hold up as well.

Heart Craft Day #7: Cookies

Two of the cutest 3 year olds in the world brought over these delicious heart shaped cookies today. Decorating treats for a loved one on Valentine's Day is probably the most popular DIY gift.

Making cookie cutter sugar cookies requires some serious dedication. There's rolling and cutting and baking and decorating involved. But the end result is so cute it's worth it. And there are so many cookie cutter shapes out there and a wide variety of sprinkles so it's easy to be creative.

As for the sugar cookie recipe my personal favorite is from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (the one with the red plaid cover which is a MUST have in my mind). Anyone else have a favorite sugar cookie recipe?

Heart Craft Day #6: Heart Pins

This is another easy craft that comes out super cute. After our emergency trip to the craft store we came home with a giant bag of wooden hearts and some tacky glue. I had some acrylic craft paint lying around in pink, red and white. We had a great time painting them (Kira and my mom participated in this craft). Once they dried we put varnish on them to protect them. Once that dried, we glued them together (or just use one) and glued a pinback on. These will make great gifts for a co-worker or family member for Valentine's Day.

Heart Craft Day 5: Inspiration

Ok everyone... I'm flaking on day 5. I participated in the Fashion Senior Review at Lasell College, then drove to CT, and am currently celebrating my Dad's big 6-0.

So I am leaving you today with some inspiration. My mom bought this great (and incredibly unique) yo yo wall hanging from a craft fair. And yes, my mother shares my great love of hearts. I'm pretty sure it's hereditary actually.


I will be taking an emergency trip to the craft store tomorrow and will be back with plenty of projects... I have some good ideas!

Heart Craft Day #4: Beaded Ornaments

I'd like to start off by telling everyone that I experienced my first heart related craft injury on this project. I had my wire curling tool thing on my couch and was moving around excitedly about these ornaments and the edge jabbed into my foot. All for the sake of crafting!

This is another great project to use up some odds and ends lying around the house. Pipe cleaners, wire, leftover beads from a project gone wrong... String them on, bend into heart shape, secure at the point of the heart and attach some lovely trim to hang. I made one with a leftover pipe cleaner and pony beads and another with 20g wire and some sparkly fake crystal beads I had taking up space in my craft nook.

Heart Craft Day 3: PomPom Garland

I always thought this pattern was too cute for words. So I set out to make it last night and it dawned on me that maybe I could just use the heart shapes for something instead of sewing them up and stuffing them. I strung them together using a darning needle and a long piece of yarn. And added some pompoms for good measure. This is a great stash buster idea... I know I have an endless supply of pink and red yarn.

Heart Craft Day 1: Paper Clip Earrings

Paper clip earrings are a quick and easy way to make a unique piece of jewelry. My local Michaels had a few different sets of paper clips in the dollar section. And since they had heart shapes I of course bought them.

All you need are earring wires and some needle nose pliers and you can make them. Simple and cheap. And very cute.