Valentine's Day is gone, but will you still be mine?

Like I have said before, winter around here is brutal in the sense of constant clouds and rain and drizzle and clouds, well you see where I'm going with this.

I guess I need to give myself an excuse for not completing these Valentines in time for Valentine's Day 2012. What I'm saying is that I was too lazy and hibernatey to get them done. Okay? I choose to look at it this way, I will have lots of great gifts for Valentine's Day 2013! The way we look at things determines so much in our lives, don't you think?

In my last blog I hinted that I would share the projects I made from the hearts I bought at Target's Christmas clearance sale.

They were 90 percent off! I bought them for 10 cents each. 3 felt hearts for 10 cents. That makes them 3.33 cents per heart.  Unfathomable!

So, I finally got down to business. I decided to use only supplies I already had on hand. Like most crafters, over the years, I have collected lots of odds and ends. Since these hearts were so economical, it is fitting that the projects remain very cheap to make. Here are some things I have been working on.

First,I thought I would try a classic Valentine project. I just used baker's twine and added some white felt hearts I cut out and glued to the string. Pretty standard crafting techniques. Forgive my photography.  I took these photos at night in my craft room.  It wouldn't have mattered much if I had waited for daylight. It has been pretty dark around here during daylight hours! But alas, spring is coming!

So, next I thought of making some garlands out of multiple hearts.

I started out tying the hearts together with baker's twine.  I love that stuff. It is so trendy right now. To connect the hearts together I looped a long piece of baker's twine through one of the decorative spaces. I cut a separate piece of twine and wound it around and around...

 until I had wound it all. I used a very small amount of hot glue at the ends.

 Then I cut the short end of the connecting twine off. Voila!

I used crepe paper streamer roses in the middle where the original hole is in each heart. If you don't know how to make crepe paper  flowers, you can find many tutorials. Google crepe paper rose tutorial. Or if you choose, use a different search engine. On Pinterest, searching for paper roses will bring up some interesting and varied examples.

 Tada. The final garland. Other ideas? I added more roses in between the hearts on another garland I made for my cousin. But you get the idea. 

The next one is my favorite. At least today it is my favorite. I used some great ribbon I bought for a wedding shower I threw for a friend last spring.  The words love, cherish, joy are sewn into the ribbon.

I chose the word love to connect the hearts and glued long pieces of the ribbon to the sides of the hearts for hanging. 

 I just looped the ribbon through the decorative spaces on the outer edges and glued the end of the ribbon to the ribbon on the back. I added a black bead I had in my bead stash by gluing it onto the hangy hole at the top. I think I just invented the word hangy.

Another idea? I used some old cotton lace that my mom had in her stash.  I just tied the lace into bows to connect the hearts and glued the ends to long pieces of the lace at either end of the garland. I glued three little pearly beads into the hangy hole space. With any of these ideas, you could just keep adding hearts to make the garland longer. I picture these garlands being hung over windows, on bulletin boards, above doors or on walls.

This next one was kind of out there. I call it My Edgy Valentine. It is put together with wire that I looped around a pen.  I added large pearly beads to connect the hearts together. I think thicker wire would have been more effective. See what you can come up with. 

Last but not least, a Valentine of a different color.  I used pink crepe paper ribbon to make two roses, sandwiched together so this can spin and be the same on both sides. I am thinking about hanging it in a window. I used embroidery floss for the tassel and hanging loop. I used my curling iron to iron out the embroidery floss so it would hang straight. A hair straightening iron would work well also. This one doesn't scream Valentine's day to me so I am going to use it all year around.  I think it would look great sewn or glued to a heart shaped sachet and hung on a hanger in the closet to make clothes smell good.

Thousands of people must have bought these hearts at Target, but even if you didn't get in on this deal, you can build on my ideas or come up with your own ideas. I am thinking it would be great to use felt star shapes to make a 4th of July banner.  I saw some four  leaf clovers made of foam at the Dollar Tree and I am thinking of making a garland out of those for my fireplace. You might see it on my next post. Other possibilities include buttons, ribbon flowers, origami etc. etc.

Please share all of the projects you come up with.  I would love to see them.  Or just stop by to chat. I love comments and will answer them. I would like to join in on other blogs.  I am new to the wide, wide world of blogging and I'm excited to see where this whole experience will take me.