Happy Valentine's Day!

What a great Valentine's Day today!  We've had heart shaped, pink pancakes, lots of Valentine's cards, heart shaped pizzas, and plenty of hugs and kisses all around.  This evening, my handsome hubby and I got to go on a great date to a very nice Mexican restaurant in downtown Austin (not Taco-Bell kinda nice, but uh-I-have-no-idea-what-half-this-menu-is nice). 

Here are a couple of Valentine's Day dish towels I made to help celebrate this special day.  My 4 year old, who has been super excited this year about Vday, helped me make them.  He even assisted in the design process by insisting that I add a rhinestone to the top of the heart.  He also wanted to glue cardstock arms and legs onto the heart, but I said no.  I had to draw the line somewhere.  

Happy Valentine's Day to all!  I hope that whether or not you have a sweetie today, that you remember that you are loved.  

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ...

Ephesians 3:17b-18

Valentine's Cupcake Liner Wreath

I'm so grateful for really cool craft blogs like Tatertots and Jello and all her cool ideas...like the cupcake liner wreath!  How cool is this?!?  I'll admit, it took me two episodes of House plus a significant part of the Superbowl to make this, but I really like how it turned out.  It reminds me of the way carnations look when they are arranged all together.

 

I was really excited to take the opportunity to make a few different flowers to embellish the wreath.  Since I took up sewing, I haven't crocheted much, so I decided I had to make at least one crocheted flower.  The other flowers are rolled fabric and felt. 

Can you see me in the pic below?  In front of the house...early this morning...in my pajamas...ugh...

My 4 year old buddy decided he wanted to jump in on the Valentine's decorating as well.  He took my left over ribbon and twisted and tied it to the stove to make a pretty little piece of Vday decor.  I think he's the next Nate Berkus, don't ya think?

Here's what he has to say about his design style:

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Happy Valentine's Day to all...and to all a good night!

Free Valentine Card Printable!

I have a incredibly cool 4 year old that is a total rock star.  He tells me this often.  Recently, I asked him if he'd like to take guitar lessons, but he told me he couldn't because his guitar is out of batteries.  :)  Guess it's time to upgrade to a real guitar.

In his honor, I created these little Rock Star Treat Bag Toppers...and I'm sharing them with you!

Here's what you do:

1) Download and print out the cool printable on cardstock.  

Download the pink one HERE.

Download the blue one HERE.

b) Buy little plastic treat bags from your local craft store.

Next) Fold treat bag toppers in half at the dotted line.

Fourth) Use double sided tape to adhere the topper to the treat bag.

V) Send me a pic of your loverly Valentine!

These are a 8.5x11 inch (letter size) with two treat bag toppers on each page.

Don't let the color of the treat bag toppers in these pics fool you.  The blue was a little dark when I printed it out, so I adjusted the colors a bit.

I filled my little example here with Pop Rocks.  Another option would be rock candy.  Yum.

Let me know if you have any questions.  And be sure to send me a pic if you use these!

Enjoy...and ROCK ON!

Pirate Valentine Decor

My first ever Valentine's decoration!

Also, my first ever rolled fabric flowers.  Not sure they turned out exactly as they are supposed to, but I had a blast making them.  That's the most important thing, right?  (not really, but it makes me feel better...)

We had a couple of friends over the other night.  I may have shrilled a little with excitement when I showed them my very simple, very inexpensive Valentine's decor.  They responded very kindly, first by ignoring my shrills, and then second by saying, "Wow.  You are so incredibly creative and ridicously good looking."  OK...I made up the "good looking" part, but they really did say the part about me being creative. 

With as much humility as a good looking person like myself could muster, I said, "I'm not really all that creative.  I just copy other creative peoples' creative ideas."  This frame, for example, is using this free printable here from The Bonjour Family and the rolled flower frame idea from my creative departure. 

When he learned this frame was not my original idea, my handsome hubby chimed in, "Leslie is a craft pirate, not a craft pioneer."  To that I could only respond, "Arrrrrrrgh, matey."

Stay tuned, blog friends.  Hopefully by tomorrow, I will have a little treat for you.  I don't want to give it away, but....well, it's a free printable.  OK.  I just gave it away.

Happy Almost Valentine's Day!

Gel Image Transfer

I'm so excited right now I could pee my pants.  For the past few years, I've scoured the web for techniques on how to transfer images onto canvas.  Finally, after trying various methods with no success, I stumbled across this YouTube video explaing gel image transfers. 

I am hoping to use this technique to make a mixed media painting for above my daughter's crib.  If it looks anything like the painting above, I'd be in heaven (of course, my daughter doesn't have a cool 'fro...shame).  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The Queen of Image Transfer is Michelle Caplan.  Michelle is a mixed media collage artist who layers images over vintage papers.  I'm not sure what her transfer method is, but I'm thinking it includes some crazy art magic.  Here is one of my favorite images from her Etsy store:

Lola print by mcaplan

I've taped down my image and covered it in a layer of soft gel.  It'll take 2 to 3 days to dry.  In the meantime, I'm going to buckle down and work on some Valentine's Day decor.  Time to go roll some fabric flowers...

Crazy About Color

I have finally almost finished a project!  Woo-hoo!  

Several months ago, I spied a painting at World Market that I thought was too cool.  Of course, I was too cheap to actually buy the thing.  Instead, I decided to make a copy cat version of it myself.

I've been really into geometric patterns lately, and have always been crazy about color.  This painting was a great combination of those things.

  

It's a super simple painting in appearance.  However, making perfect circles, connecting perfect circles, and then overlapping perfect circles is a lot harder than it appears.

Here's the almost finished painting above my sewing table.  

Several months ago, I painted the walls of my craft room Fairy Wren by Ralph Lauren.  It's a soft grey with green undertones.  A very warm grey.  I love the way the grey looks behind the colors.  It makes me so stinkin' happy to look at it.  

The best part about painting is how my 4 year old wants to participate.  After I finished painting, he asked for his own palette (aka paper plate) and some paint.  Here's his first real abstract painting:

My buddy's got talent, right?  :)