As the weather starts to warm, and we near the end of the month, it’s time for me to say goodbye to the white Winter-themed displays around my house, and hello to the fabulous reds and pinks of Valentine’s day! This year, I might even keep them up through March, as I LOVE V-Day (as previously mentioned) and I’m not really feeling the Irish Green this year.
I’m happy to show off some of the crafty things I did last year, before the birth of The Craft Fairy, and also a project I did WAY back in December but never blogged about. Here we go on our tour!
Because January is such a long, dull month, I like to change from the Christmas displays, yet still keep things cool and crisp. This year, the mantels and front door featured flakes and foxes:
I made this framed skate-art last year and I absolutely adore it. I think the whole thing cost me $3 ($2.50 for the skates). I got the foliage from a free bin at the church bazaar, and the frame I painted up a cheery yellow to go with my living room accents.
Downstairs was a little more subdued, with these fabulous vintage honeycomb snowflakes, a decoupaged gold succulent from Krista and a beautifully framed zoological fox print from Brittney. The “snow” blocks I made as little gifts for my crafty lady friends. I used leftover blocks from my baby block project and painted them with a mixture of black craft paint, plaster of paris and a little water to get the right consistency. You can chalk them up for any event or season, classic black – perfect for any colour scheme too!
I was super happy with this adorable wreath that took my all of 1 minute to make. I found Mr and Mrs Fox ornaments on clearance at Target when I was travelling in California, along with the sparkly grape-vine wreath. I merely attached the little figures and moved the R from my December frame and basket wreath. They were warm ambassadors for my front door.
Now for the big reveal of the February displays…… (Drum Roll Please)
I made this adorable pink, white and red felt heart & pearl garland last year. I took a long rectangle of felt, folded it, and sewed a seam parallel to the fold. I then sewed up a long tube of felt at one end, then, opened the seam, and placed the ends together, sewing another seam along the bottom. Then I cut at 2″ intervals, cutting many hearts out. I needed to string pearls between the top “lumps” of each heart, to keep them open so they would be heart shaped, rather than squishy felt shaped. This was a super easy project and I made a ton of garlands very quickly. Please see here for the Fox framed card. I love the tin mail box!
Last year when we were moving my Nana into Rainbow Gardens, I started to sort through some of her crafting supplies. She was a great pack rat, and I found bags upon bags of little balls of leftover yarn. I had fun making this wreath with all of those little balls. I love the slogan I ended up with (this was based solely on the left-over chip-board letters I had at my disposal) and the needles just pull it all together.
Last year, (shockingly) I made a few buntings.. one for my entry in the turquoise and burgundy colour scheme, and then one for the dining room in purples. The first I made using book pages, lovingly ripped out of an aging paperback, trimmed to a pennant shape, and a heart out of scrapbook paper on top. My friend, Brittney was so taken with them, that I made her a few more for her wedding.. check them out , and all of the vintage farmhouse glory over at Krista’s blog (scroll down a-ways through the fabulous pics!)
The second frilly version, is merely made of paint-chips, cut to shape, with a little lace glued on top.
And then came the issue of the living room. As you may have realized, the living room has a hip colour scheme – black and white, grey and .. yellow. Now, yellow does not scream “Valentine’s Day!” I was at a bit of a loss.
Stay tuned for how this got fixed.. and more!
