Valentine-y Jello Cookies

Last year I posted my St. Patrick's Day Jello cookie recipe. This year we used the same recipe to make pink cookies for Valentine's Day.

Just sub in cherry flavored Jello for the lime flavored Jello. Easy peasy! Enjoy :)

Valentine Gingerbread Houses

Every time I see Cheryl's (a pretty cool life) gingerbread houses that she makes with her kids, I think "I should really do that", but I never have... until now! Cheryl and her kids make gingerbread houses for every holiday, and when she posted a little photo how-to on her blog last week, I decided it was high time we tried it out. So, Friday afternoon we got down to business...

I ran into the little grocery store that's between our house and my oldest's preschool to pick up supplies. Apparently I should have been more prepared and bought supplies earlier in the week at the big grocery store because the selection of Valentine's Day candy was pretty poor. I had to improvise...

Mini marshmallows, conversation hearts, Teddy Grahams, animal crackers, and Pez. And, just like Cheryl, I hot glued my graham crackers together. Best. Idea. Ever. They were sturdy and worked great!

The girls had a blast and spent the better part of an hour decorating their houses. Every time I asked if they were done or started to clean up, they insisted that they still had room to add another cracker or another piece of candy. We will definitely be doing this again.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Flag Bunting Tutorial

This tutorial was a guest post that I did over at At Home With K a few weeks ago as part of Kindra's 2nd Annual Be Mine Bonanza...

This year I have a Valentine's Flag Bunting tutorial for you...

I've made similar buntings over the past few years, one for Halloween and one for Thanksgiving. I decided it was time to add a Valentine's bunting to the list, too. And since I've never shared a tutorial for how I make these, this is the perfect time :)

Materials:

• felt (I used gray for the flags and white for the hearts)
• cotton fabric (I used two different fabrics)
• 3 buttons (I used 3/4" diameter)
• embroidery floss
• ribbon or twill tape - about 2.25 yds (I used 1/2" wide white twill tape)
• disappearing or water soluble marking pen or pencil
• pinking shears
• scissors or rotary cutter
• ruler
• coordinating thread
• needle

Instructions:

Step 1: Click HERE to print out the template for the flags. Print at 100%, no scaling. Cut out around the larger triangle.

Step 2: Trace your template from Step 1 onto your felt. Do this five times. Cut out your five felt triangles.

Step 3: Take your template from Step 1 and cut it down to the smaller triangle size. Trace this triangle onto your cotton fabric. You will need five of these triangles. I used three solid red triangles and two red and white striped triangles. You could make all five the same or all five different, too. Cut out these five triangles using pinking shears on the angled sides.

Step 4: Take one of your felt triangles and set it in front of you with the point toward you. Lay one of your cotton triangles on top of it, lining up the top edges of the triangles and centering the cotton triangle horizontally on the felt triangle.

Sew from the top edge to the point of the cotton triangle, about 1/8 - 1/4" from the edge.

Leaving the needle down, lift your presser foot and turn the triangles so that you can sew up the other side of the cotton triangle from the point to the top edge. Lower your presser foot and sew.

Repeat this step for all five felt/cotton triangle combinations.

Step 5: Now for some decorating. I drew a heart on a piece of paper and cut it out, but you could also do a Google Images search for a heart outline to use. My hearts are about 2.5" square. Trace your heart template onto your felt. You will need three hearts if you are adding them to every other flag like I did. Cut out each felt heart. Choose which flags you are adding your hearts to. Place your hearts about 1.5" down from the top of each flag and pin in place. Carefully sew around the edge of each heart, about 1/8" from the edge.

Step 6: More embellishment... Use embroidery floss to attach a button to the center of each heart. I just knotted mine on the front to hold them in place.

Step 7: Take your ribbon or twill tape and leave an 18" tail at one end. Line up the top edge of your ribbon over the top edge of your first flag. Pin in place.

Leave a 3" gap and pin your second flag in place. Repeat this for each flag, leaving a 3" gap between them and an 18" tail of ribbon at either end of the bunting.

Sew over each flag along the top edge of your ribbon, remembering to backstitch at the beginning and end of each flag. If you are using a wide ribbon, you may want to add a row of stitching along the bottom edge of the ribbon as well.

You're finished! Now hang it up :)

Don't sew? Use glue to hold all of your layers together :)

I'm linking up...

Point of View Feature and Theme for February

Thanks to everyone who linked up their love-themed projects at the Point of View Love Link Party last Friday. If you haven't taken a few minutes to check out all of the great "love" projects that were linked up, be sure to take a look.

This month's feature is these Valentine's Watercolors from Laura of Beauty and the Beard...

Aren't these gorgeous?!? Laura shares three other little painting that she did using watercolors and a Sharpie. They are adorable, so make sure you check them out!

The Point of View theme for February is... GREEN! Point of View is all about your interpretation of the theme. We can't wait to see what you come up with. The next reveal and link party will be Friday, February 24th. Hope to see you there!

Valentine's Flag Bunting

I'm guest posting over at At Home With K today as part of Kindra's 2nd Annual Be Mine Bonanza. Today I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make a Valentine's Flag Bunting...

Head on over to At Home With K for my tutorial, and while you're there check out the other great Valentine's Day ideas that have been a part of this series.


And don't forget to link up your "love" themed projects at the Point of View Love Link Party going on now! Have a great weekend :)

Point of View and Love Link Party!

Point of View is back for 2012! The theme for January is "love", and this month's projects are really beautiful. Take a look...

Jonie from Just Between Friends
Amy from Ameroonie Designs
Meg and Steph from Do It Yourself Divas (Our guests this month... Thanks for joining us, ladies!)
Camilla from Rosy Red Buttons

Michelle from A Little Tipsy
Gwen from Gwenny Penny (Click HERE to find a mini tutorial on my Mixed Media Song Lyric Hoop)

As always, you can check out each of the projects by visiting each of the blogs listed above.

My project this month is a Mixed Media Song Lyric Hoop...

This is the first line of the first song my husband and I danced to at our wedding ten years ago. It's a Valentine's Day gift for my husband. Click HERE for a mini tutorial on how I put my mixed media hoops together.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a love-themed project that you would like to share? We would like to invite you to join the Point of View Love Link Party right here on Gwenny Penny! Any idea that you feel relates to the theme is welcome at the link party (love, hearts, Valentine's Day, etc). It doesn't have to be a new project... If you have something in your archives that's love-related, link it up! We want to see any and all love ideas. Add the Point of View button to your post so that others can join the party. And remember, by linking up you have the chance to be featured by one of the members of Point of View next week!


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Mixed Media Song Lyric Hoop (A Mini Tutorial)

The first song my husband and I danced to at our wedding ten years ago was the Led Zeppelin song "Thank You". This is the first line from that song...

When I was trying to come up with a project for this month's Point of View theme ("love"), this idea popped into my head, and I decided that it would make a nice Valentine's Day gift for my husband, too. I'm in the process of redecorating our bedroom, so this will find a home on one of the walls in our room. This type of project would make a great gift for anyone who has a favorite song that has special meaning to them. It would also make a great wedding gift, if you know what song the bride and groom will be dancing to.

Since these particular song lyrics probably mean nothing to 99.9% of you, this is just a mini tutorial that kind of walks you through my thought process when I make these kind of hoops (like my Spring Embroidery Hoop Art or my Birth Announcement Embroidery Hoops).

The whole thing started with a basic idea. This sketch sat on my desk for a few weeks...

I originally wanted to embroider the entire thing, but time is always a big factor in how I go about doing things, and I ran out of it, so this transformed into a mixed media project.

I gathered up some materials and got to work...

I decided to use yellow fabric backed with fusible web to create the sun. I used a ruler to figure out what size I wanted it to be, then I went into Microsoft Word and drew a semicircle to create a template...

Embroidering the entire song lyric would have taken me forever, but stamping looks nice and is a lot faster. When I do fabric stamping, I like to use a pen on my stamps instead of an ink pad. It gives me more control over where the ink goes so I don't end up with stray marks. This is the pen that I use...

I just draw right on the stamp...

and stamp it onto the fabric...

I chose to embroider one word from the lyric. I used a pencil to lightly draw the word on the fabric...

At this point I put the fabric in the hoop and started embroidering...

For the sunbeams, I just started embroidering without drawing any lines first...

And that's it, in a nutshell :) Have fun and get creative!

Now it's your turn... Check out this month's Point of View collage and link up your past or present love-themed projects at the Point of View Love Link Party!



I'm linking up...