Valentine’s is right around the corner

So why not kick it off with a Massive Valentine’s Day Blog hop

Here is the Valentines day blog hop tour. You will be able to find some great tutorials and also sign up for some awesome giveaways.

February 1 – Melissa from Happy Quilting – Fat Quarter Shop  – Grand Prize $200.00 Giveaway

February 2 – Heather from Quilt Story – Burgundy Buttons – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 3 – Melissa from Lilac Lane – Green Fairy Quilts – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 6 – Angela from Cut to Pieces – Intrepid Thread – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 7 – Amy from Diary of a Quilter – Burgundy Buttons – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 8 – Natalia from Piece N Quilt – Green Fairy Quilts – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 9 – Jessica from Twin Fibers – Intrepid Thread – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 10 – Katie from Swim, Bike, Quilt – Burgundy Buttons – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 11 – Jane from Want It, Need It, Quilt – Green Fairy Quilts – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

February 13 – Corey from Little Miss Shabby – Intrepid Thread – $25.00 Gift Certificate Giveaway

Good Luck to everyone!!

Very First Quilting Square

Thats right, its official I have a new love. QUILTING!!!!!! I had picked up a Fat Quarter Bundle at Wal-Mart the day after Christmas. Seeing how I just LOVE Owl Print,  I knew exactly what I wanted it for. I just had to learn how to cut fabric and sew. After weeks of practicing on some old shirts I had cut up, I decided to try out my new skills and attempt to make my first quilting square.

I just love this fabric and I found an online store that was selling it, however I believe that they stopped carrying it. Here is the site link if you wanted to see more fabric of hers.

 The site is called Diaper Fabric Fanatic

One more thing…..  I’m going to be linking to Quilt Story, see the sidebar  for their Fabric Tuesday Button!!! Take a peek. There are other fabulous projects to see too. You will also be able find this on Red Pepper Quilts  the Patchwork and Quilting Blog List. 

Happy Quilting!!

Beaded Flower

Recently I acquired a bunch of seed beads. For a couple of days I sat there sorting out the colors and just couldn’t decided what to do with them. After searching through some of my books I came across a beaded flower and tried it out for myself. I just wanted to show you the results. I thought it turned out pretty nicely. The little flowers are easy to make and they probably only take about 5-10 min a piece.  They are small and can be used for many different types of crafting projects.

If you are interested in learning how to make these cute little embellishments leave a comment with your email address and I will send you a tutorial.

 

Happy Crafting

Valentine’s Day Charms

Week 1 of the 5 Weeks of Love Challenge

I have recently started working with beads again. It really started by me going through all my stuff after christmas this year and organizing it. I came across this huge bag of glass beads that I have collected over the years. I sat down and organized them by color and realized that I had some really cool looking beads. So as the ideas started rushing into my head the next thing I knew I had 5 Charms/Keychains done. After finishing them I sat back and realized they would make great gift topper or just a great side gift if you are giving a a lot of small items for valentine’s day. These would also make great valentine’s for your kids to give to their friends as they make great charms for backpacks and other accessories.

Small little trinkets like these are things that your loved ones can carry around all the time, to remind them that you were thinking about them and that you loved them. These are quick to make and they don’t cost a lot to make either. These are great projects for you and your children to work on together. There are plenty of pretty plastic beads for the younger children to be able to string together and wear.

The only supplies I used were a handful of glass and Tibetan silver beads, embroidery floss, clear bead string, and a plastic circle of some kind. I use the plastic reminder pieces for knitting/crocheting. I look forward to making some more of these in the future. I would like to make one for myself using Swarovski Crystal Elements. I think that would really sparkle.

Beading can be a very expensive hobby so its best to look on Craigslist, Garage sales, or even your auction sites like Ebay and Listia can have some great deals on bead lots. You don’t need a lot of beads to make something small and beautiful like this. Just enough to give it some color and class.

Valentine’s day doesn’t just have to be about the celebration of love between a couple. This can be a holiday about celebrating the love of everyone around you. Here are some other great charms or key chain ideas that you can make for your loved ones that celebrate the love of a life. As much as we know that Valentine’s Day is just one of those made up Hallmark type of Holidays why not take the time to tell all the people who you care about that you love and appreciate them. It never hurts to take the time to show someone you care or that you were thinking about them.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them. I look forward to another great week. I am still looking into finding a blog for our Featured Friday spot. I do have a couple of blogs in mind I am just not sure on how to contact them to ask them permission to feature them on this site. Untill next time…..

Happy Crafting!

This was the bead project I worked on with my little guy and an idea for the younger kids to give as gifts or to make for themselves.

Family Hand Wreath

This was a project that even my Husband got into working on with us. So on one of his nights off we all sat down tracing hands and cutting them out. I still have not let my little one use a scissors yet, however he is showing great signs that he is ready for his first pair of safty scissors. Im sure this will be another proud moment is this crafting moms life. The layers in the wreath im sure are obvious as they go my little boy, myself, and then my husband.

Christmas Family Hand Wreath

Supplies:

• Average amount of sheets of paper per adult 6-10
• Average amount of sheets of paper per child 2-6
• 1 sheet of white paper
• glue
• clear tap
• glitter (red or silver)
• scissors

Instructions:

1. Trace your child’s hand onto the piece of construction paper. ( It is best if you trace one and cut it out and then use that as a template for the rest) Make sure you try to utilize as much space as to fit as many hands on the paper as you can. My son is 4 yrs old and I was able to get 4 hands on a piece of paper and my husband was able to get 5 so try to sqeeze as many as you can to save on paper. I used 12 in my wreath. Do the same for every member in your family. For the adults you wont need as many hands because they will cover more space.
2. After you have traced all your hands then cut them all out.
3. After you are finished cutting out your hands be sure to place them all so that the ink side is facing you. If you wish to have your child color the wreath let them color the hands at this point then when they are done place them all so that the coloring side is face down.
4. Now it is time to form your wreath. Start by working from the front to the back (securing each layer before moving on to the next.(steps 5 and 6)) Place your hands in a circle making sure you leave an empty space in the middle. Try and get the hands around the circle as evenly as possible.
5. Now use your clear tap and place little pieces of tap around the inner edge to keep the hand wreath in position.
6. Then take your glue and glue down the hands to each other.
7. When you are finished gluing turn the wreath over and glue any other parts of the palms of the hands that are flopping around.

Thats it for the wreath. If you would like to add a paper bow the instructions for the bow are below

Bow Instructions:

1. On your white piece of paper draw the shape of a bow and cut it out
2. brush on a coat of glue on the entire bow
3. sprinkle your glitter to cover the whole bow
4. set aside and allow ample amount of drying time.
5. When dry glue your bow onto the bottom of your wreath

Thats it!! Please comment back and I would love to see your Christmas Family Hand Wreaths