Valentine's DIY: Embroidered Felt Hearts

Embroidered felt has such a sentimental, vintage vibe, which makes these sweet little hearts perfect for Valentine's Day. As I've said before, I'm not much of a crafter and even less of a seamstress, so if I can make these, you definitely can.

My mom, who is something of a felt genius, learned to embroider from her grandma and kindly agreed to help me on my first-ever sewing project. I chose a monochromatic pink color scheme for mine, but you could obviously switch out the thread and felt for whatever color combination you like (cream and gold would be really cute). We got these done in just a few hours and for less than $5.

Valentine's Sequin Wreath

We have about a month until Valentine's day. This is great news for people like me who are already going through holiday withdrawal. As soon as I take down my Christmas decorations, I'm itching to find cute decorations to put up around my newly empty-looking home. And since I always love a little bling, I decided to make this cute and sparkly heart wreath to hang up this year. It honestly takes less than ten minutes to make and is so easy, a child could do it! 

What you'll need:

• Heart shaped wreath form
• 3 yards of two inch red sequin elastic
• Silver flat headed pins
• Pen or screwdriver

My craft store only had 2 2/3 yards left of the sequin elastic so I stretched mine out a little more but having some extra buffer will be helpful.

Mark the spot on the back of your wreath form where you'll hang the finished product. Push in and move around a little until you have a hole that goes about a half inch deep.

Use two pins to tack the start of your elastic directly above the hole you've created.

Let the elastic hook onto the bottom of the heart's pinch. Pull to the left of the hole you've created. You can use push pins as you work to secure the elastic where you'd like it to sit.

Continue wrapping the elastic around the form, slightly overlapping each time. You can increase/decrease your pull on the elastic to be sure no white shows through the sequins.

Wrap the elastic around right down the middle of the heart's point. I put a pin right at the top of the point to hold the elastic in place.

Keep wrapping until you get back to the top. Pin to finish right at the bottom of the hole. I like to keep an open spot so it's easy to find the hole fro hanging purposes.

Do another check along the entire shape to make sure the wraps are even and that there aren't any bare spots.

When done correctly, the sequins should start overlapping to look pretty seamless.

Then it's ready to be hung! I love the look right over an antique window or frame. You can also use command hooks to hang on a door or wall. Happy crafting!

DIY: Wire Advent Calendar

There's snow on the ground. In November. What a way to get the message that Christmas is already headed our way quickly. And I love knowing just how quickly it's creeping up with a good advent calendar. Sadly, most of the paper ones available have waxy gross chocolates each day that aren't much to look forward to and the paper package is somewhat lacking. So this year, I decided to try my hand at a new advent that's pretty and holds treats that are worth opening each day.

What You'll Need:
- Wood cut and glued into a triangle shape (33"x33"x22")
- Sheet of chicken wire (18"x 36")
- 25 2"x2" paper bags (color of choice)
- 2 sheets of number stickers
- Star Ornament
- White Paint (and brush)
- Treats for baggies
- Strand of 30 Firefly Lights
- Mini clothespins
- Staple Gun
- Scrap Wood for trunk
- Hot Glue Gun
Not pictured: Cinnamon Bears. A must for snacking on while crafting.



Once you have your wood triangle set up, you'll need to paint it white. I like to add white paint to a cup of about half an inch of water. It gives the wood a more white-washed effect rather than the really thick painted look. Whitewashing always reminds me of that movie Tom and Huck. Remember? JTT is painting whitewashing the fence and Brad Renfro comes and gets him to ditch his punishment? That movie came out almost 20 years ago. How is that possible? ...And what ever happened to JTT? Anyway, back on track. Whitewash your wood or paint it whatever color you want. You may need to do a couple of coats to get it just the way you want it. And be sure to get the outside and inside edges as well. Don't worry about painting the back. Nobody'll see it.


While you're waiting for that to dry, go ahead and get your bags ready. You'll need (13) 1's and (12) 2's so make sure that your two sheets of numbers has you covered. Stuff your envelopes with your treat of choice. Pretzels, fruit snacks, leftover Halloween candy...there's no judgement here. Grab what works and toss it in. The ones I used are pretty transparent so if you don't want your treats to show, make sure you pick an opaque paper instead.

Your wood should be mildly dry enough now to get your chicken wire attached. I used a pre-painted white wire netting but use whatever you can find. Lay the sheet across the back of your triangle and cut a little over 1 cm overhang on the interior. You'll staple gun the wire onto the back from here. The wire should be semi-flexible so stretch it a bit where you need to. You can always trim little excess at the end.

Now string your lights throughout your wire. I like to hide my battery pack behind the stem so I start on the bottom left of my tree. Loop the lights in a zig-zag pattern throughout. One reason I love these lights is the timer function. You can turn them on/off as normal OR you can use the timer function that keeps the lights on for eight hours once on, then turns them off for sixteen hours. Then they come back on for another eight and so on. I love it.

Pin your envelopes in place. You may want to try spreading them out on the tree before pinning them in place just to be sure you have the spacing right. Once they're on there, hot glue your star on the top, glue the stem on the bottom and the battery pack to the back of the stem. Voila! A super-cute christmas tree advent calendar! You could even make a larger version to pin christmas cards to if you wanted to. And it even looks cute without the lights on.

Give it a try! I'd love to see pictures of your finished products and hear how it goes.

P.I.R.L.: Leaf Mason Jars

I can't tell you how many times I have pinned incredibly "easy" DIY projects on Pinterest only to have the process and the project itself turn out nothing like I had imagined. This brings us to P.I.R.L. Pinterest In Real Life. We'll bring you a few examples of cute projects we've found along with the good, the bad and the ugly of actually getting it done.

This first project, decoupage leaf mason jars, seemed like the perfect project this week. They would look great on the thanksgiving table or as hostess gifts if you let somebody else cook the turkey. In my mind I pictured how much fun my kids would have going on a "leaf hunt" for my decorative supplies and decided to venture out.

First item to note: my kids do not like hunting for leaves. They would much rather race on the trails and my tireless asking "who can find a red leaf?" starts to get exhausting for everyone. If your kids are like mine, be prepared to find your own leaves. Even still, it's good for everyone to get outside and run around. I did manage to throw one of my carefully selected leaves on the ground for Blake to pose in this picture and get some scavenger credit.

Once we (I) gathered up the leaves, I rounded up my mason jars and Mod Podge.

I painted the jars entirely with the paste and began applying the leaves.

Here is where I should note, I'm not great at reading the instructions for projects like this. I see the finished product picture and think, "oh I know how to do that." I should have read these instructions. I failed to notice that the pictures I had pinned were made from...fabric leaves. There was a small note that people could try real leaves if they were so inclined. The reason they use the fabric alternative is because leaves DO NOT want to stick to anything. they curl and don't absorb the paste very well. Which is how I ended up with this:

A hot mess of leaves and mod podge. I was so frustrated I went upstairs to join my kids during nap time. A few hours later when we came back downstairs, I was shocked to see how well the mess had dried. I tied some twine around the rims, lit some candles and voila! A pretty decent DIY.

If you decide to tackle this project in time for Thanksgiving, here are some key takeaways:

1. Use the fabric leaves.
2. If you still really want to use natural leaves, find the thinnest ones possible. They'll have a greater chance of absorbing your adhesive.
3. Paste is your friend. Keep using layers of it to keep everything stuck together. 

Happy crafting! 

Child's Play: Turkey Handprint Place Cards

Every Christmas Eve, I’d make place cards for dinner. They would usually feature a very artistically drawn holly leaf (you know, three berries, two leaves...a holiday classic). Even though my extended family would probably have sat in the exact same configuration with or without the cards, I loved feeling like I had a part in a grown-up affair.

I decided to start my two-year-old early in the place card making tradition. Using a fantastic idea from Kaitlin, my fellow TJB blogger, we made turkey handprint place cards. For a kid who usually isn’t very into art projects, dipping his hand in the paint was messy enough to keep his attention for the three minutes it took to do this.

But before I go any further, you must know something: I am not crafty. At all. So anytime I write about a crafty idea, you can be guaranteed it’s very easy, very straightforward, and requires almost no supplies.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what you need to know to make these charming little place cards for your Turkey Day feast.

You’ll need:
Gold acrylic paint (like this)
White card stock, cut into the size of your choice
Gold sharpie marker (like this)

To make the place cards:

1. Squirt some paint onto a paper plate. (Depending on the type of paint you use, be careful to not get it on clothes and surfaces.)
2. Have your kids dip one hand in the paint and press onto the cardstock.
3. Let dry.
4. Once dry, add a beak, gobble thing, and feet to the turkey handprint.
5. Write each person’s name on a card.

Done! I love how the gold paint keeps these from looking too preschool project-y (not that I have anything against preschool projects).



We’ll be bringing you more fun things to do with kids every week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, what are your favorite Thanksgiving crafts to do with your little ones?