We go together like magnets and metal

Who wants these little magnet guys for their kitchen?

(click on the picture to enlarge)

DONE!....(ish)

I got my Wall o' Loooove up!!! (the one that I mentioned first here, then made this for, and this)

What is a Wall o' Loooove?! Well, it's a wall...dedicated to love. Because, you see, like my sister LoW, I LOVE love. I love romance. Or...woahmance, as I like to call it. ("Woah, this is romantic." Thus becoming "woahmantic".)

Those that know me know there was a time that I hated love. Mostly because I thought all guys were big fat jerks and that I'd never find it. But I did find love, and I did find woahmance and it's the best thing ever!

So you see, I had to devote a wall to love. Because love is great, and it deserves a wall.

The Wall o' Looooove

What's that? Oh, yes...there is an empty frame. (thus the DONE!...(ish) title)Because I still have one more quote I'm putting in the frame, but haven't been able to do it yet, but I was determined, DETERMINED I tell you, to get this up!

So, as you see, I got my wreath that I made, the framed quote that I made, my button hearts that I made, and the tree of love that I made.

Everything else? Antique stores, because that's how I roll!

I got these postcards a couple years ago antiquing with my sisters in my home town. Oh, how I love them. I love that they are now over 100 years old. And I still wish I knew what happened to the couples that sent them!

I thought this framed silhouette was so sweet. When I bought it, the woman asked if I collected silhouettes, and I said "No, romantic stuff." She may have looked at me like I was off my rocker.

This has got to be one of my most favorites EVER. Sleeping Cupid and Awake Cupid. So, so sweet!

And, I don't know about you, but Norman Rockwell rocks my world. I love this picture and when I saw it knew that I had to get it for the wall.

And this cute wittle cross stitched piece? How could I resist it for 50 cents?

I'm so excited that it's done. And as it usually happens, I got it all hung up, then looked at it and felt like it's "off". Like I didn't position things right, that there is "empty spaces", etc. But that just means I get to keep hunting for perfect things to add to it, which of course is a bonus.

One last hurrah!

Since I have almost everything I need for my Wall o' Looooove, I decided I needed to decorate for Valentine's one last time with some of the items before I put them up on the wall.

I absolutely looooove my antique mantel and I loooove decorating for the holidays on it. It's a little plain, but that's ok.

I still adore these old postcards, and wish I could find out if these people ended up together! I'm still pretty sure I was meant to live in the days when post card sending was a normal way for a man to ask a woman to a dance.

And I think these will always be a favorite! I simply painted canvases and glued buttons on to. I think simple and sweet should be my motto, and I think these fit perfectly.

Yep, I love my mantel!

And one of these days I'll actually have the whole house put together so I can post pictures!

Slowly but surely...

Ever so slowly my "Wall o' Loooooove" is coming together. I now have almost everything I need to put up on the wall (o' Loooooove).

Months and months (and months) ago, I was looking through pictures on facebook from my favorite antique spot. (A spot that is sadly too far away to frequent now that we have moved.) At any rate, there was a picture of something with this quote by Samuel Lover on it, and I absolutely loved it, and I knew I needed to do something with it.

I've had about 22.6 ideas, but this is what I ended up with.

Some of the ideas I had were grand, and some were simple. But I'm glad I went the simple route. I am a simple person, after all.

As with everything I do, I started with a specific idea in mind, and it kind of morphed as I went along and realized what would work and what wouldn't.

I started out with two colors of red scrapbook paper, and I went old school elementary school and weaved them together. I was going to cut the words out of that, but it was really hard to get the craft knife through the two layers of scrapbook paper, so on to the next idea.... I just cut the words out on plain white paper and put it over the weaved scrapbook paper.

I'm happy with how it turned out, with the two colors showing through. And in spite of my lack of skills using the craft knife, I guess I like that it looks like a 3rd grader wrote it :)

If my calculations are correct, I only have two more things to do, and then my Wall o' Looooove will be ready for display! So at the rate I've been going, I should be good to go in about 4 months.

For the Wall o' Looooooooove

You wouldn't know this by looking at my last few blog posts, but I seriously never much considered myself to be crafty, or had a whole lot of interest in being so. But thanks to the example of crafty friends, and a desire that started when I became a mother and felt like every mother needed to have some crafting abilities, I have delved into it a little more each year. I mentioned on my wreath post that I want to do a Wall O' Looooooove. And now that we are mostly settled into the new house, and I have almost everything I need for the Wall O' Looooooove, I'm determined to get it put up before this month is over. I know a lot of people are getting their Valentines crafts ready, but believe it or not, this wall is not just for Valentine's Day. This will be a year round display, because as my sister LoW, I LOVE love--and I feel like it should be celebrated all year long, with it's very own wall display.

With all that said, my latest craft to get ready for my Wall O' Looooooooove is this embroidery piece. I was inspired by this piece that I found by chance and absolutely loved. I'd never embroidered before, but basic embroidery looked simple enough. Determined to get everything I wanted for my wall done, I decided to give it a try.

I went to the store, bought all of the materials I needed for embroidery, and gave it a shot. It was a learn as I went experiment. And I have to say, I love the end product.

Now if I could just figure out why all of the washable pen isn't coming out, it would be perfect! Oh, and find the perfect frame. Something I probably should have done before I cut the fabric. But what else can be expected from a newbie?

So here's the thing...

A large majority of my family members (50% of my parents, brothers and sisters, AND nieces and nephews) are good at art. They draw and paint and do things that look amazing. This is, much to my dismay, a talent that was not bestowed upon me. Yes...it's very dramatic.

But nonetheless, I get ideas in my head. Yesterday involved an idea wherein 3 year old little jT would help me paint a most wonderful Christmas tree. In my head it was perfect. In 3 year old jT's head, it was something completely different. It was something a little like this....

Wonderful? Yes.

What I had in mind? No.

So, I took it upon myself to create the idea in my head. Then I realized that I couldn't even paint a Christmas tree the way I wanted to, that's how bad I am (in my head, the Christmas tree took up the whole canvas). So, step by step, I came up with ideas, until I ended up with this....

Wonderful? Hardly. But it's growing on me, ever so slowly

What I had in my mind? Not in the least.

Will it work for now? Yes, it'll do.

Does it give me tons more ideas that I probably won't be able to fulfill? Absolutely.

Apparently it's what I do

My last post was THREE months ago! So sad. I know all 2 of you have missed me, as always.

I come to you once again, with a wreath. This is probably my favorite. I love Santa belt decorations. I don't have nearly enough, so when I saw an idea to do a Santa belt wreath on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one of my own.

It was super simple.

All you need is:

wreath form (I know some people get the Styrofoam ones, but I prefer the straw ones that are wrapped in plastic. They are sturdier and cheaper)

red yarn

black felt

something to make the belt loop (I found some self-adhering shimmery stones)

hot glue gun

You just wrap the wreath form in the yarn, cut out a long strip of black felt for the belt and glue it on to the wreath. After that I figured out the center of the belt, and put on the stones in the shape of a belt buckle. BAM! Ya got yourself a Santa belt wreath!

I've thought about putting a "Ho Ho Ho" or something on there, but sick kids have drained all creative juices the last few days.

And maybe I'll post again in another 3 months with another wreath.

me...giving a tutorial...funny

I am absolutely not a very crafty person. So the fact that I am about to give a craft tutorial is absolutely hilarious to me.

So in just over a week we are moving in to our new house. Which would explain why I'm here, blogging a craft tutorial instead of packing and cleaning. It's called denial. But the thing is, I'm so excited to be in our new house and to decorate it. I have so many ideas that I know I won't be able to use them all. But one idea I am determined to do is have a "Wall o' Looooove" in our bedroom. It will be adorned with hearts, and flowers, and sweet antique romantic pictures and postcards. Although, I keep thinking that if it's our room, other people won't get to enjoy it, so maybe I should put it somewhere else. But then I wonder if people will just think that I keep my Valentine's decor up all year long. Oh, the decisions. But I digress...

I saw this super cute wreath a couple of weeks ago, and I just knew that I had to make it, or something like it. I went to Michaels last weekend for other things, and went ahead and got the materials I needed. They didn't exactly have the felt colors I wanted, so I ended up getting a huge sheet of red, and I'm so glad I did. Because now I know it will go perfectly on my "Wall o' Looooove".

And just so you know how not very crafty I am, so this must be easy to do...one of the things I had to buy while there was a hot glue gun!

So with all that said...here is how I made this here "Wall of Loooooove" wreath.

I have seen several felt flower tutorials, and finally figured out the best way for me, that is quick, doesn't require a lot of gluing, and I like how it turns out.

First cut a circle with your felt. Some people use something to get all their flowers an exact size, but I prefer to cut freely so I have different sizes and dimensions.

Then starting on an outside edge, cut in towards the center making it into a spiral. Make sure to leave a circle in the center. I like to cut it somewhat unevenly so that the top of the flower won't be flat.

Start rolling the felt starting with the outside piece.

Once I get the rolling started, I like to keep my thumb at the bottom of the flower to make sure the bottom stays flat and even. Some other tutorials will tell you that you need to give dots of glue every so often to hold it together. This killed my hand squeezing the glue and took forever. Turns out if you just hold it, it will stay together, then the last step will keep it all together.

You want the bottom of the flower to look flat like this. Then the top of the flower has more shape and character.
When you get to the end and just have the center circle left, use a hot glue gun to put a dab of glue on the last part of the outside of the flower to hold it in place.
Then put the glue all over the bottom of the flower.
Once it's covered, push the center circle over the back, thus holding the flower together. Seriously wish I would have figured out this way sooner, it would have saved me so much time!
And viola! Your felt flower.
The first one that I saw on the blog had a wreath covered in flowers that I loved. But I loved this wreath that I found at Michael's (for about 7.99 I think) and I didn't want to completely cover it. I made the flowers all different sizes instead of like the one I saw that had them the same size (mostly because doing different sizes helped use up smaller pieces of felt) and after gluing on the flowers, I added some leaves to some to add a little more color. And donezo!