Two Free Valentine's Day Printables

My oldest is currently obsessed with fish.  He loves to fish and loves his pet fish.  So naturally, for Valentine's Day he wanted to do something with fish.  

There's tons of fish sayings out there, "you're o-fish-ally the best" "you're a great catch" ... I could go on.  But I saw this saying and really liked it "Glad we're in the same school."

I found a little fishbowl online and dragged it over to edit.  I added the saying and a cute little fish.  Then a heart right in front of those big fishy lips.  My son wrote each student's name in the top of the fishbowl and then wrote his name in the actual fish!

We grabbed the sandwich baggies from Wal-Mart and a big bag of Swedish Fish (you could do individual bags of Swedish Fish, I just couldn't find them locally) and plopped them in with the card.

I love how they turned out.  He loves them too.  So I thought I'd share them with you. 

Click here to get the printable.  I bought some blue card stock in a pack and chose the lightest one to print on.   You could print on white and have your child color them or leave them white or whatever you want.

And if you didn't see these I did a couple years ago, here's another quick and pretty cheap Valentine idea.  And this one is sugar free!  At the beginning of every school year I stock up on wooden rulers (I usually have them on display for August & September) and then use them for Valentines that year.

These were the first ones I did, I just printed "You Rule" on some red card stock)

Here is are a couple printables for ya. One is black and one is red.  They are super easy and fun.  And I like that they are not a sweet treat, but a fun tool kids can use for practically anything!

  

 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day.  Know you are loved and appreciated and special!

Jenn:)

Easy Envelope Pillow Shams

I made a couple of these shams a few years ago, but have since bought another pillow...thus I needed to make another sham.  I searched my old posts to see where my tutorial was...low and behold I never made one.  So I decided to now.  I've seen a few online, but I don't like to cut or sew more than necessary and all the tutorials I saw started with three pieces.  Mine starts with one.

My pillows are 20" x 20" so I cut my fabric 21" x 50" 21" (one side) + 21" (the other side) + 8" (fold over portion)

After this I created a 1/2" hem by folding it twice over on both of the long sides

Then I sewed all the way down these on both sides

Once I did this, I made that same hem on the short ends & sewed them down

Alright, now I had a piece of fabric that was long and all hemmed.  Then I folded it in half (hotdog)

Now I unfolded one side up 10" (to 30")

Then I folded the other end down 10" (to 10")

So now I had my sham the size it needed to be with the fold over fabric centered on the back.

I don't use pins very often when I sew, but I did pin the points of intersection for two reasons.   One-so I knew where they were to keep it even on both sides and Two-so I could make sure to sew carefully over them as they were much thicker than the rest.  

Next I sewed just down those two edges of the hemmed portion, not along the folded edges.

Now, you can flip it and be done, or you can add one extra embellishment, which is what I did.  I flipped the whole thing (right sides out), ironed it and then did a quick little 1/4" hem around the entire thing.  

Now you can put your pillow in and add ribbon or leave them plain.

I added some wired ribbon I found at Jo-Ann.  I really love how they turned out.  I'm kind of obsessed with the ticking fabric (if you haven't seen my Stocking tutorial, I used the tan ticking).

I'm kinda loving how they turned out.  I love the simplicity of the ticking, but added the red ribbon for just a little more color and accent.  I love that they bring just enough red against the Christmas tree.  I love that I can use them for other holidays throughout the year.  And, I love that I got to make them.

Total Time: 1 hour

Total Cost: $23

Fabric: (2 yards with coupon, even though I have tons of extra) $15

Ribbon: $8 (didn't have a coupon)

Faux Shiplap Wall DIY Tutorial

 Shiplap.

It's all the rage and I love it. I wanted to put some in my home.  My husband dry walled the shed...then we decided to paint...then we decided to try out the shiplap for fun!  I love how it turned out!  We used this tutorial as a guideline and it worked pretty well.

What you'll need:
1/8" MDF panel boards
Nickels
Paint, paint brushes, rollers, etc.
Level
Nail Gun & nails
Sander & sand paper
Saw

1.  We went to The Home Depot, bought the MDF boards and had them cut it there.  When we told him what size we needed, he said, "you must be doin' shiplap."  They'll probably know what you're too:)

We had ours cut into 8" wide pieces.

2.  We came home and sanded the edges and corners.  I used anywhere between 60 and 120 grit sandpaper.  It took maybe an hour to sand all of them.

3.  We started with the first board, making sure it was level and nailed it in place.

[the freshly painted wall about to get covered up:/]

4.  Then (this step is optional and we stopped doing it about a third of the way through) we painted the tops of the boards as we went.

5.  We placed nickels in between the boards for spacing.  You can also use tile spacers, but we had nickels on hand:)

6.  We kept going.  Sadly, we had originally painted all the walls in the shed so we were covering up our nicely fresh painted wall, but I'm glad we did...

7.  Once all the shiplap was on the wall, we filled the holes in with wood putty and mudded the seams.

[you can see how we stopped painting the tops of the boards as we went on]

8.  Then we painted...a couple coats.

[I used a spackling knife to remove any paint left between the boards]

9.  And there you have it!  I just loved how it turned out.

We added this storage/work table as well.  Originally we were going to just use 2x4s for the legs, but once again the husband decided to splurge and do metal legs (which I again l.o.v.e!).  They cost about $50 and again they cut them at The Home Depot (do y'all love that place as much as I do?!).

Happy Crafting!

Total Time: a weekend
Total Cost: $95 (paint and shiplap), $50 (for legs, including brackets for top & bottom of each leg)

Holiday Hearts

I have these pillow shams I made for Christmas time, but I also use them for Valentine's (or any holiday that has red).

I decided I wanted them to be different for various holidays, but didn't want to do anything too drastic, difficult or time consuming.

So I got out some felt and made these cute hearts.

Super Simple.  

Items Needed:

Felt

Scissors

Needle

Embroidery Thread/Floss

Safety Pins

1. Cut out your hearts to whatever size you'd like.

2. Grab your embroidery floss, cut it (mine were about 2-3') and divide it into 2 sections (3 strands per section).

3. Thread your needle

4.Start on the back and bring the thread from back to front:

5. Now take the thread and go front to back, pulling almost all the way through

 6.  Now take the needle and place it through the loop, gently tugging until it's tight, but not pulling on the heart

7.  Now take the thread front to back again, evenly spacing them apart

8.  Repeat until you've done the entire heart

9.  Tie off ends on the back and cut excess thread.

10.  Safety pin them wherever you'd like on your pillows

Simple, easy and temporary.  And now I'm thinking I can really add anything to these shams to simply change them for the holidays throughout the year!

Happy Crafting!

Total Cost: Free (I had all supplies on hand0
Total Time: 30 minutes