Happy Valentine's Day Readers! I loooove Valentine's Day! I don't love it because LEGO-Man showers me with presents, because that's not really how we roll. We usually just go out to eat and give each other a couple of LEGO mini-figures. This year however we are on a strict budget. Going out to eat is kind of a thing of the past for us until LEGO-Man is done with College Round-2.
This year we decided to stay at home and do it up in a special way. I have a lot of craft supplies laying around and I've been moderately embracing the Magic of Tidying Up. I haven't actually read it... but I've read several blogs about people's tidying experiences. One big idea I've embraced is that you should evaluate your crafting supplies and use it or lose it. I looked at my craft area I decided to use some of the card stock I’ve been collecting for years. I also had a lot of Kabob skewers leftover from our Wedding Escort Cards on a Stick, and thought hearts on a stick would be just as cute!
I started by breaking out my Sizzix Die Cutting Machine, and heart die. I bought this craft machine to complete a bunch of wedding projects and it is ideal for cutting the same shape dozens of times (which came in handy during this heart-heavy craft project).
In case you’re curious how a Sizzix Machine works here’s the quick rundown. You need the machine, the cutting plates, a die, and some paper.
I started by folding the paper in half so it would fit into the machine which is about 7 inches wide.
Put one plate on the machine and put your die on top of it. This die will cut three hearts at one time.
Add your paper on the die and put your second cutting plate on top and push it into the slot in the machine. Turn the crank until the entire stack comes out the other side.
Pull the stack off of the other side of the machine and carefully remove the top plate.
Lift off the large piece of paper and you will be left with the hearts all cut out and beautiful!
Because the paper was folded over, I was able to get 6 hearts in one pass of the machine. Usually I put two pieces of paper through at a time, for a total of 12 hearts in one pass. Before you know it you will have dozens, if not hundred of hearts to begin craft with!
I gathered up a bunch of kabob skewers, hearts in various prints of red, pink, and glitter, and I high heat hot glue gun.
Put two or three globs of hot glue in the middle of the heart.
Place the skewer pointy side up in the glue and add a few more globs of hot glue to the sides of the hearts.
Carefully place the a second heart on top of the glue and hold together
Repeat a few dozen times! (All of these took me less than 40 minutes to assemble while watching Jane the Virgin)
The finished products were placed in dollar store vases that I had from a previous party, filled with yummy and cute M&Ms as filler. (vases were cleaned first so I can still eat the candy, very important!)
I also wanted a Dramatic backdrop to our little stay-at-home dinner date. So I took several of the hearts I had cut and set up my sewing machine. I started with a long tail on my thread holding it tight.
I put a heart into the machine and ran it through while still holding the tail.
Once it was sewn from top to bottom I raised my presser foot and pulled the hear back to create a gap. I did not cut the string.
While still holding the first heart tight, I sewed through the next one. I repeated this 9 times until I had a length I liked for each strand of hearts.
Eventually I had enough strands to fill the wall behind our dining room table, and hung them using Washi-Tape. I will confess that the Washi Tape, while very cute, did not work great. If I could do it again I would reinforce it with some kind of sticky tack or other no-damage adhesive.
I painted some Kraft Paper, leftover from our wedding table, with a quick heart chain (aka the only thing I ever doodle during staff meetings)
I tried my hand at flooding royal icing for sugar cookies. I didn’t get the consistency quite right for a smooth finish, but they were still super cute and very yummy! “Snug Bug” is currently my favorite pet name for LEGO-Man, his favorite for me is still “Samantha.” He’s a regular shakespeare.
We both wore something other than sweatpants and played with our digital camera remote. I used to loooove the photobooth app on my macbook, but this is really some next level at home photobooth action. Hubs played along like a champ, even though he does not love being in pictures. He sure married the wrong person! Oops!
We had a lot of fun staying at home, playing with our camera, and eating Lasagna! You don't have to spend a lot of money to show your valentine you care! The only thing I spent money on was the M&Ms! I'd love to see how you celebrate Valentines at home, Tag me on Instagram @samrhymeswithham !
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