Crushing on Valentine's

This is Imani's last year in elementary school, so it will likely be the last time her class has a Valentine's party.  We have always made homemade Valentine's and this year I was looking for something extra special, since it might be the last year she actually hands out Valentine's cards to her friends.

I am obsessed with Pinterest and found the cutest idea on there the other day for Valentine's.  Do you follow my pins yet? If not, click the button on the top right of my blog!  I've been pinning for each room in my home, every holiday, and every craft I hope to do in my lifetime.

Source: designaglow.com via Stephenie on Pinterest



 Isn't it super cute?  The only problem is that Imani's school would never allow glass bottles in school and I'd feel terrible if a kid accidentally broke it and cut himself so we had to settle for cans. 

Admittedly, cans are not as visually appealing- but the idea is still cute nonetheless.

So we bought two twelve-packs of Cherry Crush in cans.

Then I edited Imani's photo using Picnik. 

And then we printed them off on regular paper.  I didn't have any cute polka dotted paper like the one on Pinterest but I did have an abundance of red card stock from homemade Valentines in the past, so we decided to use that instead of spending more money.

We glued the pictures to the red background.

Next, we hole-punched the photos and tied them onto the can tabs using a ribbon.

And Imani carried a big box to school today.  I'm sure her teacher will be thrilled with kids drinking soda along with all of the candy they receive!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Valentines

With a baby shower this weekend, making curtains for the nursery (I'll share soon; I promise!) and going to see the Justin Bieber movie "Never Say Never" in 3D, making Valentines for Imani's friends was pushed until the last minute this year.

Needless to say, at 8 months pregnant, I was entirely beat on Sunday afternoon and I suggested to Imani that we just buy Valentines from Target this year if she wanted.

But buying Valentine's didn't sound fun to her, and even though I was exhausted, part of me was happy that she'd rather take the time to make her own personalized cards.

So after a trip to Rite Aid and CVS to fulfill Jason's couponing addiction, we headed home and busted out the glue, fabric scraps, scissors, stamps and scrap paper.

Remember the fleece and felted sweater Valentine' Wreath?  Well, I had saved the left over fleece from that project and Imani cut out these little hearts.

And she went to work making a unique design for each of her friends using the materials we had on hand.

I tried to teach her that sometimes less is more


. . .   especially with glue


. . .  and simple is often better.

It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.



We even used a piece of mail that had beautiful flowers on it.

And I actually had to make her stop creating for every teacher, teacher's aid, principal, secretary and friend in school so that she could get to bed at a reasonable hour.

She found these bendable hearts that her Grandmother had purchased for her two years ago from Oriental Trading and we glued them to the outside of the cards.

I'm so happy she didn't take me up on my offer to buy Valentines.

Upcycled Valentine's Day Wreath

After I made my winter wreath, I knew I was going to do the same thing for Valentine's day using

red and burgundy sweaters.

In case you missed it, here is the winter wreath.

And you can find the tutorial on how to make one for yourself here.

When I made the winter wreath, I used four different sweaters and I ended up having plenty of fabric left over so this time, I wanted to try to use fewer sweaters.

I found a perfect burgandy sweater at the Salvation Army for 2.99 on half off day, so I paid about $1.50.  Then I found a red fleece for the same price.  I was hoping that two women's sweaters (size medium) would be enough fabric to complete the wreath but I wasn't sure if two would be quite enough.

I followed the exact same steps to make this wreath as I did the winter wreath except this time I made all of the flowers first because I wanted to make sure I had enough to cover the wreath form.

I do need to emphasize how important it is if you do this project to felt the sweaters first before making your flowers.  To felt a sweater, it must be 100 percent wool.  You need to put it in the washing machine on HOT water and then dry it at the highest setting.  When it comes out, it will be a shrunken up version of
its older self.

If you don't felt the sweater, your flowers could come unraveled and will look sloppy.

I ended up having a bunch of little flowers left over, so two women's sweaters (size medium) were more then enough.

Any suggestions as to what I should do with all the left over flowers?

Linking up with

Sweet Tooth

I've done a good job throughout my pregnancy of keeping my weight in check.

But I have a feeling these last seven weeks are going to be harder.

Not because I'm hungrier, but because I decided to put this little Valentine's display on my dining room table.

I can't seem to walk by it without grabbing some candy from one of the jars!

This was really easy to put together.

I found the tray at the Salvation Army last month for $1.99.  It looked like this:

After I removed all of the magazine pictures from it and used some "Goo Gone," Jason hit it with a fresh coat of white spray paint.

The apothecary jars I've found thrifting over the years (and a couple on clearance at AC Moore), so I just filled them with a variety of Valentine's candy.

The rose ball was originally created for Imani's birthday mantel.  I found the "Love" heart at Hobby Lobby for 67 cents and just stuck it in the top.

I got out my stamps and made the XO tags along with the Happy Valentine's Day card.

And there you have it . . . a little Valentine's display that's tempting everyone in the house!

Simple (and cheap) Valentine's Mantel

I decided to put together a very simple Valentine's Mantel on the cheap, since we've been working toward our New Year's Resolution.

It wasn't easy because I keep seeing cute Valentine's displays all over the Internet and tons of cool Valentine's decor in stores.

But it is possible to decorate inexpensively.

Here's what I came up with.

Most of the items were found throughout my house, like the white pitcher and creamer (which were thrifted last year).  It wouldn't be a Decorating Addiction Mantel without some white pitchers!  I just tied a little ribbon left over from Christmas around the pitcher and left the little creamer alone.

The chippy window has been in our basement since we bought this house five years ago.  I put it in the background to add some dimension.

Imani came home from school and said,

"Oh I love the mantel mom . . . but I'm just not sure why that junky window is behind everything!"

I think I need to take her to Anthropologie some time.

The large apothecary jar was a TJ Maxx purchase last year for $7.  We've had it sitting around in a corner collecting dust not sure what to do with it and we had the cherries that we purchased at Target last year.

The red plate is actually one of those cheapy plastic chargers that are sold around Christmas time.  I have a ton of them in red and gold so I pulled one out and put some vinyl on it.

The plate stand was purchased at a thrift store for 79 cents a while back, but I think they also sell them at the dollar store.

The two little plaques (I don't know what they are called) were a purchase at Hobby Lobby, specifically for this display.   They were on clearance for $2.49 each and I bought some scrapbooking stickers with quotes about love to put on them.

Did I mention that I won a Silhouette machine from Beneath My Heart last week?!  I cannot wait to get it so I can use it for projects like this instead of buying stickers!

And finally, the milk glass plate was a purchase from Hub's Place over the summer (it was less than $5).  I put a ribbon through it and placed it on another one of my 79 cent plate holders. 

I found the candlestick at the Salvation Army about a month ago for 99 cents and I just put a candle I had from my house on it.  I might have to give that candlestick a coat of a darker red spray paint eventually, because I'm not really feeling that color but for now, it'll have to do.

And there you have it . . . a simple (and cheap!!) Valentine's mantel.

Can you believe I've already got a plan for next year's Valentine's Mantel?  But it's not going to be cheap so I have to start planning now!

Follow my blog with bloglovin


Linking up to: