DIY ~ Valentine Origami Ball Full of Love Coupons & Sweet Nothings

My oldest son Kaleb use to make these origami paper balls all the time when he was younger. One year I had him make one for my mom for mothers day & we filled it with words of love for her instead of giving her a card. I thought this would be a fun gift for your significant other for Valentines Day.

To make it totally sexy/ way awesomer I'm using animal print paper! Animal print that you can feel- seriously the print is raised & really soft! Cheesy? You bet!

Items Needed
paper
1 lightish weight paper for the origami ball
1-4 pieces of fun paper- I ended up using super sparkly red & super sparkly gold
hole punch {I used a tiny heart & star hole punch}
pen

I'm going to make this easy on me & send you to origami-instructions.com to make the ball or as they call it the balloon.

here's a step by step collage of the origami ball I made- 

animal print makes it a little hard to see some of the steps so seriously refer to this...

So fun to make right? 

Now grab your fun paper & start hole punching away- 

they're so sparkly!

write your love coupons & your words describing your man on the back of your 

teeny tiny hearts & stars or whatever you end up using- 

no pervs- I didn't write anything too sexy for you readers to see

fill your ball & you're finished-
now go set it on his pillow next to some sexy lingerie or
his favorite candy bar- if lingerie is not your thing

* check out some of my other Valentines Day diy's here, here, here, here, here

DIY ~ Love on a Wire

Remember this & this? Well I wanted to do something along those lines but a little different for Valentines Day. I really did liked using flower wire better for this project - but if you are doing letters like they did here with your kids- I think pipe cleaner is the way to go. I also used Michael Millers heart fabric instead of yarn to spread the love just a little more. Yep super cheesy...

Supplies

cutting board

craft glue

paper

pliers {I used cheap jewelry ones I had on hand}

pencil

ruler

flower wire

fabric

rotary cutter or scissors {mine had the pinking blade 

on it from another project so I just left it on}

fyi-pinking sheers help with fraying

1 ~ write out what you want your project to say - I wrote I Love Us

{you can print out a font from your computer if you don't have as lovely of 

handwriting as I do- haha- or write it if you are lazy like me}

2 ~ I wanted my ends curly so I started with this 

{you won't see the ends- so this part isn't necessary}

3 ~ use the writing on your paper as a guide for your letters 

{yes I'm fully aware the "L" looks more like an "S"- I fixed this at the end}

I accidentally bent the end of the "e" so much that it broke so I

 ended up wrapping it around the "U"

which ended up as a happy accident - I ended up bringing 

the "Us" down to be below the "Love"

4 ~ cut your fabric into 1/2 inch strips 

{mine were about 18 inches long- but the length doesn't matter 

the glue will cover the parts you piece together}

I cut a little too many! I think I ended up using about 7 strips

5 ~ squeeze some glue onto your fabric about half way down the 

length of your strip

I just used my finger to spread it around

6 ~ start wrapping! here's were I needed to put more glue on 

{when you get to where the wire crosses another wire make sure you wrap the fabric 

around both wires to connect them together}

like this! 

{this is me connecting the "e" wires}

7 ~ trim any parts that look more like a mummy than a letter by cutting a little slit 

{I cut slits on both sides of the "L"}

8 ~ add a little glue 

9 ~ smooth the fabric out with your finger

 10 ~ the best part of the base of this being wire is being able to 

manipulate the way you want your words to look- so manipulate away! Hopefully 

the "L" looks more like an L now

ps. I'll be doing a Valentines tutorial all week long so stay tuned!
* check out some of my other Valentines Day diy's here, here, here, here, here

DIY ~ How to Sew a Heart on Your Sweater

You know how you sometimes buy that sweater because it's on super sale & it's hot pink & it's really cute & it's hot pink & it kind of looks vintage-y & it's got the perfect v-neck & it's hot pink!!! Then 2 years later you're looking through your closet & you see said sweater & it still has the tags on it. What!  Now the only problem is- besides the pretty color- it's seems kind of boring... So with Valentines around the corner why not put a ♥ on It!

    What you will need

     sweater

     scissors 

     paper

     pencil

     fusible interfacing

     scrap of fun fabric- preferably cotton weight

    {not pictured- seam ripper}

 1~ cut out your heart- I cheated & used a paper heart stamp cut out 

{if you are going to draw your heart, it's a good idea to fold your paper in half & draw half a 

heart then cut the half heart out & open the paper to get two even sides to your heart- although an uneven 

heart would also be pretty cute}

 2 ~ trace your heart onto your fun fabric. you won't see the marker so use 

black sharpie if you want- then cut it out

3 ~ set the heart on top of your fusible interfacing & cut out duplicate heart 

{make sure shiny side of fusible interfacing is touching wrong side of your fabric- use directions that 

come with your fusible interfacing if you need to}

4 ~ Iron together- using medium heat- this will keep your edges from fraying as 

well as keeping your heart from from wrinkling

5 ~ pin it to your sweater - one pin in the center will work

{go look in a mirror to see where you like it best- yes this is a different paper heart. 

I had my friend Amy take this picture while she was over for a play date}

6 ~ turn your sweater inside out & push on the heart so you can see the 

outline of your heart

7 ~ place your fused heart fabric side down using the outline of the heart on the 

other side as reference for where to put it

8 ~ use a pencil & draw little dots around the heart

9 ~ unpin the heart on the other side 

{pencil mark doesn't need to be too dark}

 10 ~ pin your heart on starting with a center pin- using the 

pencil marks as a guide 

11 ~ sew it on! 

{I sewed my seam close to the edge of the heart & sewed around the heart twice}

12 ~ turn your sweater right side out. take your seam ripper & carefully 

put a hole in your sweater 

{being careful not to go through your cotton heart}

can you see the yellow polka dots peeking through- now you have a hole 

ready for your scissors to start cutting away

13 ~ cut as close to the seam as possible going around the entire heart 

wha la-  cute eh? 

 here's a mirror pic so you can see the cute polka dots a little better- I flipped the pic so 

you all didn't get confused by the heart being on the wrong side- 

{no I don't think you are dumb- I just didn't want you to be confused}

* check out some of my other Valentines Day diy's here, here, here, here, here

Valentines Love/ the Dreadful Day is Here

Just kidding! Valentines is really pretty fun when you have some kiddo's involved. We had to bring Valentines to Elsa & Ida's nursery class yesterday at church- so being the kind of person that hates spending money on things I created the valentines below. I used the same illustration I used for Elsa's birthday invite- I just took out a few balloons to make it smaller & changed the coloring & added a back which I wish I had now done with the invite. {who doesn't like a cute robot butt} I had fun adding some Japanese masking tape. I think it adds such cuteness to everything. {remember last years elsa so cute}

We stuffed them with sweetheart candies {read the history of the sweetheart candy here- ♻ say yes to hoboken} & closed them off with japanese masking tape

* sorry about the terrible iphone pics- why am i so lazy...

** last image from kim creative star

Love Letters 101

1) Get invited to a birthday/ valentine card making party-
2) let go & be the cheese ball you know you can be

We don't really give into the whole Valentines day flower giving/ chocolates/ gift giving, (wait a minute- I must be a fool) Although last year we decided to make it our annual giving of a love letter to each other. (which in anyone else's eyes is called a valentine!) shhh don't tell us that.

this year whilst at Emily & Michelle's joint birthday party I made a card for husband.

let's dive into this thing called love!

Husband wrote me this amazing love letter. I've already read it 5 times. We exchanged them today cause we celebrated february birthdays yesterday- little pookie- her twin cousins, born 3 days before her & her big brother born the day after & 10 years before her. Super fun party. I'll post pics from that another time. My sister in law made the most amazing birthday crown for elsa. I can't wait to show it off.