Author: alissachristensen

This is my unfinished project. But its perfect for a Vday present. All your going to need is a permanent marker/pen, a deck of card, some protective finish spray, and a little bit of imagination. I made mine for my mom for her birthday in a couple weeks. But since she flies through here tonight I needed it ready early. And since I’ve also been cleaning like mad! haha its my mom after all. Since Ive been busy I havent completely put it together but you will get the idea.

A pack of cards has 52 cards, 52 reminders of love. I wrote down one reason in each card why I love my mom. Funny ones, silly ones, real ones, little ones, big ones. A special little reminder someone can carry with them and pull out on a down moment. Its a great way to make a mini album for someone as a gift. I plan on adding some pictures to the back of some of the cards too. Then put them all on a jump ring and tada you have the perfect gift for someone you care about.

Happy Saturday everyone!

So as most of these crafts surrounding Valentines Day are themed with pink and hearts they dont scream manly. But you can still make handmade gift for him. Over the years I have made Brandon quite a few from the heart gifts. He doesn’t care to spend money on himself but I like to have a little something wrapped up for special occasions.

The first gift he ever received was definitely a homemade item. I was visiting him and had no extra money as mine was tied up with a “going to make my own in Europe”(that ended little over a month later, but for the better as he came to get me, maybe it was all because of the amazing gift I made him!) So I got creative and told him he couldn’t come into the living room for an hour. We had just watched Fever Pitch, as he is a die hard Red Sox fan. And I knew where my inspiration was taking me. I already had two permanent markers, and I snuck into his bathroom and stole a roll of toilet paper. Yes toilet paper. See in the movie he has an apartment dedicated to everything Red Sox, except his toilet paper. As every true Red Sox fan wants to wipe his behind with the Yankee’s. So I gave him that gift and seeing his smile and surprise was completely worth the time it took. So draw inspiration from something that is special to your other half, even if it is super silly!

My second handmade for him is a little easier. A coupon book. You’ve seen them everywhere in the stores, but isn’t is better to have one customized. You only need some spare paper and a pen. I also suggest stamps and ink to jazz it up a little. From hugs and kisses to more just for him items, like sitting through an entire football game. (sometimes its painful to fulfill those coupons, I didn’t quite realize how long a football game is.) So have fun with this one!

Basically anything from the heart counts. So make something special for your sweetie. Because its not always about us!

I recently was shopping, by that I mean looking at all the pretty things I cant afford to buy. I came across this big frame divided with a cork board, white board and a small corner with three clothes pins to hang messages from. I thought it was such a cute idea, I also thought no sense paying for that when I can make my own! I do this often as shopping is the best inspiration. So I found a frame in the clearance section of the same store for 3 dollars, had some more cute paper laying around and got a huge pack of clothes pins for 1.50 at the grocery store. (I have another project with them in mind too)

So as you guessed this is super easy, cheap and cute! This seems to be the theme of the 14 days of Valentines. Which is good or else my hubby might put a stop to how many crafts are being put together! Anyways here it is. Take your frame, remove the glass cut a section of paper to match the size. Put only the paper back in as you wont need the glass anymore. Take your clothes pins now, if you want you can choose to paint yours as I did to match the frame. When they are dry, glue them to the paper. Tada! your done. Seriously. My best advice would be the bigger the frame the better. I also found that vertical vs horizontal is better, you have just a little more room to hang bigger items.

And if you find you love clothes pin displays so much you may want to head down to Michaels dollar isle this week. I found fun giant clothes pin displays in a range of bright colors. I choose black because its for my bedroom but if you have a bright room or a teenager in the house this would be a cheap and unique display to brighten the room. I love mine!

If you don’t feel like making something but still like the clothes pin look, you can swing down to pier one and pick up there display frame. My mom bought one, when when it wouldn’t fit in her suitcase going home I inherited it! Don’t worry I’m a good daughter and when she got home there was a surprise waiting for her, I had my dad pick one up in Canada and it was waiting for her. What I like best about it is leaving little messages for company when they come to stay, as its in my spare room. Like my photo? Its my only one so “Hi Mom!”

So today like most people, we settled in around the tv  with way too many bad snacks and the volume way up. It was my first ever Superbowl. Needless to say I don’t feel like I missed anything all those years. I really was only watching for the commercials. So in my mind it was the Doritos that won : )

Anyways because of this there was not much time for creative crafting. But have no fear! I have something for you anyways. It wouldn’t be 14 Days of Valentines if I missed a day! So tonight after all the celebrating (thank goodness the team we were cheering for won) I hit print and now I have something to share with you!

Again over at Martha I found some super cute and again easy templates for you. The first is a folding heart card. It was originally a “save the date” But I think the idea is too cute to only use once a lifetime. So why not use it as a card. Ignore how plain mine is, like I said not much time left over today. But you can spice yours up a million different ways. I will definitely be making another when I’m not pressed for time.

The second is a Valentine Message Wheel. Really anyone can do this. Do you have a printer, a brad and scissors? Good then your set. Just print the linked template and cut along the edge of the circles and the dotted line. Then overlap them and fill in the blanks ( I choose to fill in my own but they also include some pictures to use instead.) Push a brad through the center and voila your done. That simple, and what a cute little token of love to share with your someone special!

So Happy Superbowl Sunday to everyone! Keep watching us this week we have lots more very cute stuff for the 14 Days of Valentines! And with that I have to go work on some of the upcoming projects!

Edit: We had slight technical problems last night so this post is a day behind but I still had to share it or it wouldnt be 14 days of Valentines! And by technical I mean the craft itself wasnt working. But after 24 hours I got it!

February 3rd 2011 post

So maybe you don’t have a boy buying you something special for Valentines day, or you already know he’s not getting jewelry. Maybe your even looking for something to make for a friend. Well here is the simple craft for you! I keep seeing these pop up everywhere online. The ones to buy are usually 20$ plus shipping. But some smart girls out there outsmarted the retail world. And because I don’t like to share a craft without also trying it, I searched my closet for a shirt that was lets say a few chip bags back 🙂

Your going to need a jersey feeling shirt or you can buy the fabric too. But I like to try to keep the craft spending down or else you could really go nuts. And here’s how easy this one was. Cut the shirt into 1 inch strips. Stretch until each ring is formed into tubes.(This was where I ran into trouble, I  stretched mine overnight but the strips didn’t stay in the tube look, So I cut the seams off mine, tied them in a knot and re-stretched them by hand.) Then use another strip to gather them all together. I tied mine off with a knot, but you can sew or glue yours together as well. I’ve also seen them with jewels added and other embellishments. I added a white flower to mine to keep it in Valentines themed colors. I didn’t love the way mine turned out but I feel like giving it another shot with better material next time. But the idea is yours now so see what you can come up with!

Today (February 4th 2011) Post

Today’s craft is A paper topiary. Easy but time consuming. But once its done you forget that and think “I just have to make another of these cute things!” All you will need is 3-4 different pattern papers, scissors, ribbon, paint, miniature pots, and pvc pipe.

You need to cut out 20 circles and make a pattern for a triangle to fit inside. See picture (Mine wasnt perfect but it was close enough and worked great) Next your going to want to fold each flap up.

Glue 5 circles together to form top, repeat for bottom. Glue all left overs side by side. Now take your three parts and glue them all together. I left one of my bottom flaps unglued and pushed the pipe up through that. Wrap the pipe in ribbon. Paint the pot. Use something to keep your topiary upright, foam, rocks, or your other imaginative solids. And Voila! You have a paper topiary. You can make them is so many colors that you can make a new one for each season/holiday!

Ignore my unfinished project. I have all the materials but I have been chasing kids around all week. I will post it finished but you get the how to of the part I was showing off. So hope you guys enjoy your weekend! I am going to be going crazy making crafts the whole time. Just for you!

Today’s Valentines are 3 frames of Love. I just adore the way they turned out. I ran to the dollar store yesterday and within an hour I had 3 pieces of Valentines art displayed. And best part the whole project including the three frames cost me only 4$ That’s right, so how can you say no? Your just gonna have to run out and make your own!

To start I rounded up all my scrap paper in my color theme, everything pink and silver. I started my first frame with a solid background and started cutting out hearts in as many patterns as I could find. Make sure they are all the same size, I used my cricut and George and basic shapes cartridge.  I put the solid cardstock underneath the glass and I popped the hearts up with pop ups on the outside of the glass. I like the idea of 3-d elements in frames.

The second frame is easy as well. I choose a subtle pattern for the background. Used some left over strips to make my tic tac toe grid. Cut out some X’s and O’s and made the game into a hugs and kisses display. Again I wanted to do the 3-d effect so the pattern and grid is underneath the frame and the X’s & O’s are popped up on the outside.

The last frame is my favorite and the easiest. It is also the inspiration for the whole set. I was in Target’s scrapbooking isle and they always have a section of 99 cent items. The word love is part of that, how can you turn down such a cute item at 99 cents! So I found another cute subtle pattern paper. (music sheets are always my favorite) I put the pattern behind the glass like always and positioned the letters on the outside again. These ones even had pop dots on them. The great part of this one is they always have different four letter words through out the year. So you can make this frame for any season. I even saw the word baby, you could make one for a new baby room or even as a gift at a baby shower!

I just love the way they all turned out. And how fast and cheap they were to make. There is endless possibilities with these as you can fill them with anything in your imagination!