Valentines

We don't really do Valentines day around here. Usually a fun dessert is all but I love the decorating part, it goes up when I take down Christmas  This year I added the architectural LOVE letters. I decided to save the roughly $20 and make them completely from supplies around the house. It was actually super easy and fun. I did splurge on sparkly Modge Podge (totally worth it!) 

(please pretend I dusted and straightened... or don't lol) 

oh and I found some Red and Pink lights for the Tee Pee- the kids love having lights in there! 

 Last night I made another Hopscotch top for Isabella out of an old GAP tshirt that I had laying around. It took an hour from first cut to finish. I reused the hems to save time. This shirt is so much fun to make and is just so cute! 

 I wanted to get a cute picture of the kids together but instead I got a bunch of them being goofy. But there my kids so I don't know why I would expect anything else. I love these two crazy faces!

 Bella is growing up so fast. 

Who does she think she is?!?

PS Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the beautiful hand knit scarf. I am totally jealous of all of you who are getting a chance to win it! 

Happy Valentines Day

We had a lovely Valentines day hope you did too!

 I made a GIANT cake the idea is from here - but I saw it featured on a lot of different blogs.... I didn't really follow the directions... or read them... it was so close to an epic fail with the amount of things I did wrong... but somehow it all worked out in the end!

 My mom keeps telling me that I need to read directions... but so far I don't see a reason to... She also says that I can do these things because when I was little she told me I could do anything I set my mind to ... she just didn't realize how far I would take it... Sounds like she can now take credit for anything I do : P

I tortured Micah this morning with a quick photo session... Uber totally is not jazzed about this one--

HAHA! Isn't it awesome?

Micah is all get me out here... blast my legs!!

Box of Chocolates Garland Giveaway *and the winner is*

 I want to thank everyone for participating in my giveaway and welcome everyone who is new- I hope you continue to visit because I have a lot of fun things planned! 


So without further ado the winner of the garland is~

The winner has 5 days to contact me or a new winner will be selected.

I really hate that I can't give everyone who entered a garland so I put together this tutorial for you and I hope you will make one for yourself! If you do please add it to my flicker group so we can all see!


Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only. 

Materials and Supplies

dark and light red felt*

white felt*

dark and light brown felt*

DMC Embroidery floss: (2) red, (2)brown, cream

4 feet brown grosgrain ribbon

1/8" wide brown ribbon - length of garland

scissors

pinking shears

hot glue gun

printed heart templates

*wool felt or a wool blend felt work best for this project. If using acrylic it's best to use felt by the yard as opposed to the small sheets of the felt. Felt by the yard is a thicker product and will hold up better with the embroidering. 

Instructions

Each heart will need two base hearts in addition to the top layer (if top layer is desired). Use one of the templates to cut out all three layers

 Use your scissors (or pinking shears) take the top layer and cut the heart smaller. Be sure to keep the shape of the heart consistant.

 Use your scissors to do the same to one of the base hearts. The heart you cut down will be used as your backing heart.

 When you layer your two base hearts they should look like this.

 The three hearts should now look like this.

 Take the top heart pair (on the left) and embroider as desired

Below are some ideas for decorating. 

*Helpful hints*

My personal preference is to use all 6 strands of the embroidery floss.

On the undecorated cream hearts  I use 3 layers since the cream felt is slightly see through

 When you have finished decorating all of the hearts, lay them out making sure the garland will look well balanced when its completed.
To prepare the ribbon. Sew 1/8" ribbon through the grosgrain and tie it off.

 Using your hot glue gun pipe a line across the top of the heart. Make sure to put the knotted ribbon far enough into your heart that the backing will cover it.

 Pipe hot glue onto the backing heart and let cool for just a second,

 then sandwich your ribbon so all of your thread and ribbon is covered.

 Continue adding hearts to the ribbon until the garland reaches the desired length. Repeat the ribbon tie off on the opposite side of the garland.

Start decorating!

And please don't forget to add your project to insanely crafty's flickr group so we can all see!

Box of Chocolates Garland Giveaway

*this giveaway is closed*

Finally a little giveaway for you! This garland might look familiar to some of you since I made a similar one for myself last year. (And I don't want to talk about it but I like this new version better) I thought that since I was nearing my 250th post (what?!) and Valentines day is just around the corner one of you might like to have it!
So up for grabs is this yummy (roughly) 8 foot long wool blend felt garland with hand embroidered detailing.

If you would like to enter please leave a comment.

For extra entry's you can

1. Follow me

2. subscribe

3. blog about my giveaway

Just leave me an additional comment for each one (if you're already a follower or subscribe it still counts as an additional entry so leave a comment!)

The giveaway will be open until next Friday (the 28th). When I will use random.org to pick a winner (If the winner does not respond within 5 days, a new winner will be chosen)

This giveaway is open to everyone anywhere!