Thursday, February 5, 2009

I love easy and cheap.

I've had a couple people tell me they don't have much (or anything) in the way of Valentine's Day decor. That simply won't do! So I thought I'd suggest some ideas. As for my decorative dish towels (actually a gift from my friend, Lori)--yes Joan, those are from Target (no big surprise there. Count on Targ to deliver the darling). Most of my other stuff is of the homemade variety.


Taylor designed these for me a few years ago, when my second-grade classroom had a little window that was just begging for a snazzy seasonal display each month. They're super easy and cheap to make. Paint terracotta pots white with acrylic paint. Obviously the only other things you need are some fake flowers and conversation hearts (these ones are going strong since 2005). Here's the only trick:
Put the stem through a disc of cardboard so that you only actually have to fill the top inch with conversation hearts.

Next. My craft with my nieces the other day were these little wax paper & crayon hearts. These are always a hit. Martha's instructions are here.
Some of my suggestions from trial and error:
1. Get your shavings as small as possible for quick meltage (definitely a word).
2. Use some old rags (Martha says craft paper) to protect your iron and ironing board. I would use 2 rags between the ironing board and first sheet of wax paper, and 1 rag between the top wax paper and your iron.
3. After years of melting the wax and then cutting out the heart, this year we tried cutting out the heart first. I thought it worked much better because it seemed to seal in the melted wax.
4. I tend to be a pushover and let the girls dump in a ton of wax. I don't recommend this. It is messy and hard to work with!
They are super dar and fun to hang in the windows. Here are Soph and Liz showing their handiwork off...

More ideas? Please share!

6 comments:

Vicky said...

I really like those hearts! And I love getting great craft ideas! Thanks!

Katie said...

Those are great ideas! I love your flower pots with hearts, they're adorable.

Emily Anne said...

love the wax hearts idea (wink!)

i went totally cheap on the V-day decor this year (ie free).

conversation hearts are darling no matter how you use them (and cheap!)

one idea i'll share: i was also planning to make a LOVE garland to hang across my mantle -- just attaching some paper letters to a piece of twine with some red clothes pins, or tying them on with cute ribbon. Maybe I'll still get around to it (have a few days 'til the 14th) or maybe i'll stash the idea for next year.

Oh and one more: we make Valetines for each other and we exchange them with my family and hang them up on our designated "wall of love." It's kind of fun to have geeky paper hearts taped up on the wall for a few days (or weeks if you're sentimental and can't take them down.)


I love Valentine's Day!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you've ever seen this website but this idea I thought was really cute. I was able to make three of them out of scraps I had from other projects. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

It helps if I leave the website doesn't it?

http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/02/hang-your-heart-on-garland.html

Jill said...

I would truly like my little girls to give you a REAL SMILE for blog postings. They are darlin's but come on, they are a lot cuter in real life! Loved this post.