Photo Valentine

The idea for this photo valentine comes from none other than The Queen of Crafting (Martha of course). I'm pretty sure it was under ideas for kids. It's perfect for grown-ups too! I made it for my honey last year.

 All you need is three posterboards, some pink and red construction paper, and heart doilies. I like it because it's a little squirrely, just like me.

Fold it up and add a ribbon (is it just me or does ribbon make everything prettier?)!

Valentine's Subway Art

Here goes nothing...I'm going to make my first piece of "Subway Art." I don't have a Cricut or Silhouette (only in my dreams), so I'm going old school.

 First I painted my board white. Afterwards I gathered up leftover alphabet stickers from other projects. I started to spell out the street names on the board using the alphabet stickers. Then I just painted over them in black.

 You can't see it that well (grr to my cruddy camera)....

 One section I painted red. It has the cheesy phrase "my heart" instead of a street name. Once my paint was pretty much dry, I peeled off the stickers using tweezers.

I thought I would be frustrated by the imperfections...but surprisingly I really like that every last letter isn't straight and perfect. This guy is for my sister for Valentine's Day. I put a few street addresses around town and then "my heart" to remind her that no matter where she lives she is always there. Cheesy, huh? It's okay my sister and I are too. :)

Hmm...I sorta want one in our guest bath, over the toilet that says all the different names for potty. That's sorta weird of me, isn't it?

Valentine's Mantel

Here's the drawing:

 That explains what all this stuff is for...

 It's the prep for my "love stories" mantel I'm putting up this Valentine's Day.  A couple topiaries, wedding pictures (true love stories!), my favorite fictional love stories (Painted Veil, Emma, etc.) and a little banner...

on library borrowers' cards. Hopefully it will turn out as cute as what I'm picturing. We'll see!

Crayon Hearts

Bet you were wondering when I was actually going to do a Martha project! Well, here it is! A few years ago I saw this project on Martha's website. Whaddaya know: I looked today to get you guys the link and it was featured on the home page!

 First I had to collect some broken/half-used crayons. It wasn't hard, since I'm a teacher. The next step is why Martha Has Minions! You have to sharpen the crayons to get shavings. This was not the most thrilling thing I've ever done. I just used a handheld sharpener. Next you need wax paper and craft paper. I tore off a fairly good size (about 2 feet) of wax paper. I scattered my crayon shavings over one half and then folded the other half over. Fold about 1/2 inch of the edges to hold your shavings inside.

 Then, I started heating up my iron. While you're waiting on that, grab a sheet of craft paper a little larger than the sheet of wax paper you tore off. I put my wax paper full of crayon shavings on one side of the craft paper and folded the other half over the top. After that, I was ready to iron. It just takes a couple swipes of the iron over the craft paper to melt the crayons. Once it dries, you're ready to cut out hearts:

 They have such a nice stained-glass effect. I'm pretty sure my sister did something like this in grade school though...

Isn't the purple/pink one fun? Now I need to string them up on fishing line and hang them in front of a window!