Peanut & Purls and decorating for Valentine's Day!

The only part of Valentine's Day that I've ever given a crap about was in elementary school when we would get to decorate some brown paper lunch bag with constructions paper, doilies, and glitter. We would tape these pink and red glitter heart bombs to our desk with much anticipation. The next day all the kids would deliver valentines to our desks. Usually the paper bags (Valentine mailboxes...?) would tear and fall off the desk before the day was over but that was just a sign that you were gifted a lot of valentine loot! 

Made and found: Christmas decorations!

As soon as December hit, I swapped out my fall decorations for a little indoor winter wonderland. We're experiencing some abnormally chilly weather in the Pacific Northwest. It's going to be in the 20's for a few days (believe me, that's cold for here). I've done enough crafting in past few winters, that I have a pretty solid base of decorations to start with. Take a peek!

Handmade Home: November Banner

I love to celebrate the seasons, and bring a little life in to my environment every couple months. especially here when sometimes the weather doesn't lend itself to reinforcing that it's fall or winter. So this weekend I made a 'November' banner. 

I figured that monograms are so popular, and they make days of the week underwear, so why shouldn't I have months of the year banners...?

Make: Spring Pennants

There have been high levels of crafting in our household as of late, which are just going to be amplified now that we have an extra hour of daylight to work with! I don't know about you, but I feel my creative motivation seem to deflate when the sun sets. Like I am a reverse vampire (No. That doesn't make any sense.). Like I am a flower closing up for the night (Ugh. No. Why would I even think that?). How about that as soon as the sun goes down my brain starts craving a blanket and some good ol' fashioned Agatha Christie. That. That sounds like a better depiction of why my motivation shifts in the evening.

Although I am loving some Death on the Nile, I still find so many reasons to celebrate the new daylight and put up some (more) spring decorations...

DIY: Spring Garland

I'm trying to gear up for some massive egg painting, spring pastels, nature coming alive and more time in the day. So I have decided to make a garland to keep spring on my mind...

2012 in Review: Part 4

1. DIY Skeleton Garland 2. Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox Costumes 3. DIY Skeletor Skin 4. DIY Spirit Animal Masks 

5. DIY Cat Toys 6. Make a $5 Dress 7. Black Beauty Bookends 8. DIY Holiday Garland 

9. Glitter Pinecone Garland 10. Knitted Coffee Cozy 11. DIY House Silhouette Wrapping Paper 12. DIY Rorschach Prints 

Thanks for the wonderful year, everyone!

DIY: Glitter pine cone garland

Confession...I don't LOOOOVVVEEEE Christmas. I mean, sure I like it ok, but I don't like that after December 25th, all the Christmas stuff has to come down. I'm much more inclined to lump my decorating together into more of an appreciation for winter. Which is why this DIY pine cone garland is the perfect home decoration before, during, and after Christmas!

Make: A Merry Garland

So it's mid November now and if you are like us sisters, and love to put those handmade majesties under the Christmas tree, then the clock is starting to tick. Lucky for me I can pull out last years decorations and not spend all that precious time selfishly making adornments. I will, however, encourage you to take the time to make a handy construction paper Christmas garland to bring some holiday cheer into your home.

I'd advise you get your garland ready now, because you'll need all of December to make your lists of projects that you have every intention of completing. So get garlanding...

Make: Halloween Banner

Like my sisters I enjoy going to the dollar store to find goodies, this trip not only did I pick up some little cardboard letters, but I also grabbed some creepy crawlies (as seen on a spooky wreath or scary garland), and I rushed home to make a Halloween banner...

DIY: Skeleton garlands!

This fancy pants skeleton garland was very easy to make; it cost next to nothing, and is really quite creepy. You can make one too--check out how...

Let's go fly a kite!

Yes, a kite garland. The perfect combination of paper and string, geometric shapes, and primary colors. It's just suddenly so spring-like, I was compelled to create something cheery...

Take to the skies!

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Tutorial on Wednesday...

I heart garlands!

Peanut is going to kick things off by showing off her love of paper heart garlands. Christine made this one last year.

Garlands much? Like every other crafty gal blogger, I am in love with garlands. If I had to pick one decoratation for any season or event it would be a garland. I understand no one is going to point a gun to my head and be like, You can only decorate with one thing! But if they did, I would be all like, Fine--I choose garlands!

What better (one) way to decorate for St. Valentine's Day than to bust out some garlands. These are some of my favorites.

Knitted hearts found here.

Paper heart chain via tinywhitedaisies

Paper origami hearts via howaboutorange

On My Honor's very own pom garland (made specifically for St. V's day)
found here

These little felted hearts are dainty and perfect for subtle decorating. Found here.

Who says that hearts have to be pink and red. I really adore this yellow and gray garland.

This is such a good idea! This might win the garland ingenuity award. These hearts are merely magazine clippings strung up.
The light hits them and they illuminate pretty St. Valentine's day hues...they can also be strung up in more of a chain format too.
Found here.

I hope you're slightly inspired to go make a garland...or to let your cat gnaw on one!

Throw your diamonds in the sky!

I've been extra excited about glitter and sparkles lately. Those recent shiny cravings inspired this cheap, but satisfying craft project. I made some glitter diamond garlands that are good for decorating on special occasions or (in my case) every single day of the week.

First off you buy some glitter paper at the local craft store. 

I picked these three different shades of sparkle at Michael's for $1.99 each. Next step, grab your fiskars.

I cut all the paper into strips about two inches in length.

Then you cut the strips into squares (I eyeballed it). From there I made the squares into diamonds.

You could do any shapes. Circles, ovals, squares, diamonds, clubs, spades, hearts, etc.

I saved my scraps because the little triangles would also work well for this project.

After you have them all cut...

and separated into colors,

You sew them together! I used clear thread so that it won't show. Using clear thread is kind of a pain because it jams all the time (at least it does for me). My sewing machine had no problem drilling through these card stock diamonds, but as you may recall from my basket tutorial, my machine is a champ.

This is what it looks like on the other side. I chose to alternate my sparkle shades,

but you can certainly use the same color sparkles for the whole garland. Whatevs, it's up to you.

Ta-da! I went ahead and strung them up on our dining room light fixture which, let's be honest, needed a little pizzaz. 

It catches the light during the day and ever-so-slightly moves around like a little mobile. 

Definitely worth it and oh-so-satisfying.

Pom-pom mania!

I had a craving for some pom-poms today, so I went ahead and fixed myself a whole heap load of poms.

This is the container I used to collect all the scraps, but it kind of looks like a delicious yarn drink.

Peanut was helping me take inventory.

If you don't know how to make pom-poms, don't fret, I'll show you!

First you get out your yarn, scissors, and some thread.

Next you wrap the yarn around your fingers a bunch of times.

(Note the nail polish has lasted exactly one week from when my nails were originally painted.)

Then you take off the wrapped yarn and tie some thread around the middle real tight. 

You can also use the same yarn to tie around the middle. Depending on the yarn's strength, it might break.

Next, you use your scissors and cut through the ends on both sides.

Almost done.

Now you just need to trim up the ends so that it's extra fluffy.

Congrats, you've finished one pom!

Now all you have to do is make a gazillion more and you can do something awesome with them.

I decided I would string all my poms together. I went with a St. Valentine's Day color scheme so they could be left up for a few months.

After they were all strung together, this is what I had to work with.

I decided to drape it over a picture frame and call it good.

Good.

Or if you're really feeling festive, you could always decorate your wrought-iron gate with some poms.

Happy pom making.