Our New Valentine Tradition

Paul is in the theatre department as a grad student and has a show that opens up next week, which means for the next two weeks we will hardly see him. So Valentine dinner was moved to the following week at lunch time and we decorated cookies instead of making a big fancy meal.Now that we have finally had our Valentine lunch I can share it with you all.

"I Love You Because..." I love this saying for so many reasons. It causes people to think about why they love someone, suddenly the word 'Love' can not be thrown around but causes you to think about what you 'Love' about the other person.....and it is always nice to hear what it is about you that your partner loves.

Here is our little lunch time Valentine bar.

The wall of mismatch picture frames with photos from while we were dating, anniversary trips, family, holidays and other meaningful events {we share this wall with our neighbors and their staircase is on this wall, the picture frames are constantly crooked, it drives me crazy.} My new sign along with our garland to hang our hearts on. And of course, a bunch of sweet treats. Paul wanted chocolate covered strawberries but it seems everywhere stops selling them the day after Valentines, so I got him his next favorite, raspberry fill donuts.

For our new Valentine tradition I made the burlap sign and cut out some hearts. While Lady A played in the sprinkles and we decorated cookies, trying to keep her out of the frosting, we also wrote on the hearts what it is about the other, or our little girl, that we love. Then I bound them together for a little keepsake that will become part of our Valentine Decor over the coming years. When Lady A and Lady #2 are old enough they will join in the fun too and can look back at what mom and dad wrote about why we love them so much.

The tutorial for the burlap sign can be found here.

 

Check out some of my other simple Valentine crafts:

Burlap Sign

Tissue Paper Heart

Love is the tie ..... chalk board printable

I Love You Because....Burlap Panel Tutorial

Have you seen these fun new Burlap Panels from Michaels? As soon as I walked past them I was in love and wanted to try them out right away. This package had three 8" x 10" flat panels and with a 40% off coupon, super reasonable in price.

This is the year of starting new traditions and this panel will go along perfectly with a new tradition I want to start. More on that later.....first lets talk about how I created this project.

Design your sign in Silhouette Studio {unfortunately I do not have the designer edition so I can not create a .SVG file to share with you all. Instead I have a .Studio file you can download from here. If you use my file on another project I would love to see it so be sure to link back and give me credit for my design. This is the first time I am trying to share a file so PLEASE let me know if it does not work.}

As you can see I did not center mine very well but this was a first time cutting on vinyl too! A lot of firsts in this post...YEA! Get you vinyl cut and gather you other items for your project.

I used:

Black and Red Liquitex Acrylic Color

Sponge Brushes

Burlap Panel

Silhouette Portrait

Cutting File

Weed out the vinyl sign after cutting it and place it on the burlap panel. As with a lot of firsts there is some trial and error. I was able to line the sides up but then used a clear ruler to help me center my saying from top to bottom.

Note: When lifting off the transfer paper from the vinyl take your time. The little pieces for the letter will lift with the transfer paper. Also be sure to take your finger or something else and trace all the edges of your cutout.

Put a bit of paint on the sponge brush and dab onto the burlap.

Note: The burlap has loose fibers so the vinyl won't always create a perfect 'seal' this is why dabbing instead of brushing is the way to go. If you brush the paint will push under the vinyl a bit and will not give you such a crisp line, but that might be what you are going for. Dabbing will also allow more paint to sink into the burlap so that your image will be more saturated.

If you find yourself in the same situation as me {the cutout is super close to one edge} you can use masking tape to extend the edge then you will not have to worry so much about your paint going over.

Pill the vinyl off once the paint is mostly dry. The reason to pull it up while it is still a bit tacky is so that when the vinyl is lifted the paint will separate easier and not come up with vinyl, making you design look choppy.

See how I used my burlap panel for our new Valentine tradition here.

Project Crochet-a-Long for February

I noticed that a few of the ladies I follow are doing a crochet-a-long for the month of February and I thought this would be great to get in on. There are a couple of projects that I am wanting to get done {and soon} before Lady #2 gets here.

Hosted by Kim from 733blog

Heather from Twin Dragonfly Designs

and Mandy from Sugar Bee Crafts

These ladies have all chosen some great projects to work on and I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Here are some of my past crochet projects and designs.

Star Burst Blankie

Cowl Scarf

For the #ProjectCrochet this month I need to do a blankie for Lady #2. I think I have finally decided on colors and a pattern, now to just buckle down and do it. I am going to make a floor pouf, boot cuffs and little booties ~ maybe a matching ones for big and little sister. I'll be making up these patterns as I go, if they work out I will be sharing them later when all the projects are done.

You can follow my progress on Facebook and Instagram.

Twin Dragonfly Designs

Twin Dragonfly Designs

A Weekend of Crafting

This past weekend an email was sent out from our Relief Society President asking for donations. A family {not members of our church but within our ward boundaries} were at the hospital welcoming their second baby boy into their family while at the same time, the house they had just rented and moved into, was on fire. They lost everything! Could you even imagine the highs and lows they experienced in one day.

Lady A is the right age that we could have donated some items for their older boy but her stuff is girly and pink. A lot of the new born items we have are items we will be using in just a few months when Lady #2 gets here. So, I went to my scrap pile and decided to spend the weekend sewing.

Luckily I had one blankie left and plenty of scraps that could be used to make other items.

I love these self-binding blankies, they come together so fast, are the perfect size and handmade items are so nice to receive. 

These pouf squares are fun little sensory toys. Colorful patterns, soft fabric and ribbons with different textures. I like to leave the ribbons as loops and let moms decide if they want to cut them, they would simply cut then singe the edges to keep them from fraying. 

This is our nephew thoroughly enjoying his square. It puts a smile on my face when I hear about my handmade items being loved.

 

And finally...burp cloths. These cloth diapers from Gerber make such great burp cloths, they soak up everything. They are not much to look at so I simply dress them up a bit.

 

Everything was not too matchy-matchy but they all turned out great. There is something about being able to serve others, I always get so excited. Knowing/hoping that I was able to help lift someones burdens is makes the late nights worth it!

At Church on Sunday there was a corner of the Relief Society room with stacks of bins. Families donated tons of items, clothes that their boys had grown out of, diapers and items for the new born, toys for the older brother and on and on. How wonderful that everyone was able to come together and help out. It will never replace everything they lost but hopefully all this will help take some of the sting away. All the best to this family as they mover forward.

In the coming few weeks I will work on getting up the simple tutorials for all these items so you can make and share your own.