Happy Birthday to my Blog! and My take on a Valentine's Banner

It just dawned on me today that I have been blogging for just over 2 years!  My first post was December 27, 2008 (and it was B-O-R-I-N-G).  WOW!  I can't believe it's been that long.  Time flies, huh?  I laugh when I look at my first few posts.  I had no idea what to say!

  In honor of my blog Birthday, I think I shall have a giveaway next week.  I am going to gather some AWESOME scrapbook stuff together for my readers to win!  I also have something special to give away as well!  It's a secret....but if you have a blog your gonna LOVE it!


This is off topic (I am all about off topic!), but I have to share with you my take on a Valentine Banner I made last weekend.  I love the way it turned out.  For some reason I could not get decent pictures of it though, so you will have to use your imagination.  It really does look cute! 

See what I mean about crappy pictures?  The lighting was terrible!

I used Basic Grey Blush fabric by MODA.  Luuurve that fabric!  Of course the backing was Burlap.  Then I used my Cricut to cut out the music paper.  I inked the edges with my brown chalk ink pad (my FAV!). 

Then I cut out my letters with the Cricut and inked the edges with the chalk ink again.  I just used good ol' Elmers glue to glue the letters to the music paper and then glued the music paper to the fabric. 

For the fabric, I used Heat 'n' Bond to adhere the fabric to the burlap.  It worked GREAT!   I found some pink ribbon in my stash and I sewed it to the burlap (a little tricky). DONE!  It's simple, but I love how it turned out.  Again, sorry the pictures aren't the greatest.  I am taking photography class online right now, so hopefully my pictures will begin to look better!

I have a few more goodies to show you this week.  I am so excited!  I now have plenty of Valentine Decorations.  Yay! 

I Heart You Valentine Flower Pot decor Tutorial

 I couldn't wait any longer!  I had to come up with a cute Valentine decoration for my house.  I really like how it turned out.  I especially like the fact that I only used stuff that I had around my house and I didn't spend ANY moolah on it! 

Isn't it lovely?  I love how it turned out!  It took me about 2 hours to make.  It's hard to tell, I would do some, then go do something else.  It didn't seem very long though!

Wanna know how to make it?  Here are the directions:

 Supplies:

1/8-1/4 yd of 2 coordinating fabrics

same amount of cotton batting

flower pot

3 sticks cut in different sizes

buttons- I used 6

ric rack

glue gun

Burlap- just enough for 3 small circles

white tissue paper

sewing machine (or you can sew it by hand)

paint- I used Americana and mixed Spa Blue and Salem Blue together

Green floral foam- just a little square block

First, you have to pick some cute material.  I chose MODA Basic Grey's Blush Fabric.  Super cute!  I love the colors.  For the heart shapes I googled heart templates and got tons of different sizes of hearts.  I chose 3 different sizes and printed them out, cut them out and used them to cut out my fabric hearts.

Here is what my flower pot looked like before.  Not too bad, but I have had it stored away for a long time and it was scratched. I wanted to paint it Robin egg blue to match with the fabric!

I didn't do this, but I should have painted the pot first, so it would have plenty of time to dry while you sew your 3 hearts.  I put 3 coats of paint on my pot.  Oh, and paint your 3 sticks! 

Now, sew your hearts.  I cut out the batting a bit larger than the fabric hearts, so it stuck out a little from the edges, then I used pink and red thread to sew around the hearts. 

Next, I cut short strips of large and small rick rack and got glued them on.  Then I glued 1 button on the end of 1 of the pieces of rick rack.  Don't burn your fingers!  That stuff is SUPER hot.

Now, here's where I kinda stopped taking pictures.  Sorry, I got really excited about posting this, I forgot to take the dang pictures!  

When you get the hearts all done.  Hot glue the hearts onto the sticks. I also cut out a piece of fabric and glued it on the back to cover up the stick. 

Cut out 3 small shapes of burlap, and fabric to glue on the pot.  I just randomly cut out my shapes to look kinda like posies (I know, they don't really look like posies). 

After I cut out the shapes, I frayed the burlap a little, meaning pull out some of the burlap so it looks frayed on the edges (I hope that makes sense!).  Now glue the fabric shape on top of the burlap, then a cute little button on top of the fabric.  Glue each shape onto the pot.  I glued on 3. 

Here is a close up of the burlap and fabric flowers.  I also sanded the flower pot a little around the edges and I like how the red came out from underneath, don't you?

Lastly, put the green floral foam in the pot.  I had to cut mine quite a bit to get it to fit.  Then I stuck my cute little hearts in randomly.  To cover the nice green foam, I cut strips of white tissue paper and wadded it up, then set it in the pot.  

Here is a close up of the hearts.  Can you see the very small amount of snow we got overnight?  Yea, neither can I.  But it's there, promise:)

Now, display it so your friends and neighbors can see it and be jealous that you are so crafty!  Enjoy.

I am linking up to these parties: