Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By General Crafts Contributor Mina, from the blog Mina’s Journal.

Home is where the heart is! Why not make these Heart Houses this Valentine’s Day? All you need is paper or cardstock, scissors and glue. A quick, cute and funky project for Valentine cheer.

How to make the Heart House:

Trim around the outer lines of the house and the roof. Fold the roof in half widthwise to make the peak. Fold along the tab ends and sides of house as shown in the template.

Glue where indicated on the model. I found it better to glue the house together first, before putting on the roof. Line up the peak fold to match the top of the triangular top of the house.

Glue the roof to the tabs of one side of the Heart House. Glue the other side of the roof to the remaining side of the Heart House.

You’re done!

Ideas for Heart Houses

Make a few houses for a table centerpiece, or a shelf display.

Cut out windows, cover the inside window spaces with lunch paper. Pop the finished house over a LED light source, for night time illumination.

Download Blue Heart House

To use as a gift box glue the house onto a card base. Make it a little larger than the house and paint it green or use green card. Pop a gift inside the house before joining the roof.

Download Pink Heart House

To use the house to play with, cut along the top and bottom lines of the windows and down the middle. Fold open for shutter type windows.Cut along the top and down one side of the door. Fold door open and make paper dolls for your Heart House.

To make your own house, trace the template and design your own windows and doors, then make them up.

Have Fun! Happy Crafting!

*Design by Mina Keenan

By Paper Crafts Contributor, Lauren Romano.

I have such a love for Valentine’s Day simply because I adore hearts. Making a hanging piece of heart decor is ideal whether you’re putting it up outside or on a plain, boring wall. This heart craft is comprised of connecting hearts, similar to the look of a four leaf clover, and requires only a handful of materials.

What you’ll need:

• Red felt
• Red or pink patterned paper
• Double-sided tape
• Mod Podge
• Scissors
• Wide ribbon

Step 1. Choose a piece of red or pink patterned scrapbook paper. I picked one that’s white on one side, but if you so choose, use one that’s double-sided.

Step 2. Cut a piece of scrapbook paper into four even strips. If you’re using a standard size piece of scrapbook paper, each strip will be 3″ x 12″.

Step 3. Fold each strip in half, then bend in the ends so it forms a heart shape. Use a double-sided piece of tape to hold the heart shape in place. Make four in total.

Step 4. Use double-sided tape to attach the hearts to each other so their points meet in the center.

Step 5. Cut a piece of wide ribbon that’s long enough so it can hang the decor from wherever you’d like it placed.

Step 6. Put a dot of Mod Podge on each end of the ribbon. If you’re working with the hearts in a clockwise pattern, slide one end in between the top heart and the second heart, then slide the other end in between the top heart and the fourth heart. Press the paper down over the ribbon so it sticks.

Step 7. Cut two hearts out of red felt, then use a piece of double-sided tape or the Mod Podge to stick one on each side over the center where the points meet.

By Guest Bloggers Melissa + Kellie, from the blog Icing Designs.

Here is a fun way to dress up your Valentine’s Day cupcakes! This is also a great treat for your little munchkins to help with! What could be better than getting to eat your cupcake and the topper!?!

Just make a regular batch of Rice Krispie treats. Then use a mini heart cookie cutter to cut out little hearts. Stick a lollipop stick into the center of them and leave the hearts out for a few hours to let them harden a bit. 

(If you dip them in the chocolate right away they will fall apart.) Melt some chocolate candy melts in the color of your choice and simply dip your mini hearts in and cover completely! Gently shake off the excess chocolate and set them on a piece of parchment paper…add some sprinkles to dress them up a bit. Let them dry and then stick them into your cupcakes!

 

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

I am often blowing kisses and sending hugs to my wonderful husband so when I saw the Hot Lips paper by Bo Bunny it just seemed perfect for me to use to make a card.  No matter if it’s Valentine’s Day or just a normal day you, too, can throw the one you love a hug and blow them a kiss with this fun card that surely says, “I love you”. 

Supplies used on this project:

• Purple, Pink and Green Cardstock
• Bo Bunny 6 x 6 Smoochable Paper Pad- Hot Lips and Lovin You X’s & O’s  were used from the pad for this project
• Base Camp Cricut Cartridge
• Cricut Die Cutting Machine
• Martha Stewart Deckle Blade Rotary Tool
• Xyron Create A Sticker
• Heart Punch
• 1/8″ 3D Mini Adhesive Dots
• Martha Stewart Travel Trimmer
• Favorite Tape Runner

Begin by cutting a 5″ wide by 10″ long card base from the purple cardstock and fold in half to create a 5″ x 5″ card.

Cut a 4 ½” x 4 ½” piece of the Hot Lips paper from the Bo Bunny Paper Pad and using the Deckle Blade Rotary Tool trim off approximately ¼” of the top and bottom of the paper.  Next, adhere it to the cardstock with the tape runner.  

Put a piece of the Bo Bunny X’s and O’s paper from the Smoochable Paper Pad on your Cricut cutting mat. Place the Base Camp Cricut cart in the machine and set the cut size to ¾”.  Press the “Shift Lock” key as shown in the picture below.  Press the corresponding keys to spell the word, “SWAK” and press “cut” to begin cutting.  You will need to cut this out twice.  The easiest way to do this is to use the “Quantity” key on the Cricut.  Press is and use the “+” key to set the number of times to cut each letter to “2″. 

Next, using the same steps above and pressing the “Shadow” key as shown in the picture below cut the word two more times-once from purple cardstock and once from pink cardstock.  Make sure to turn off the “quantity” feature before cutting since you will be cutting these from different colors of cardstock.  Notice how the “Shadow” feature has made each letter fatter than the first time it was cut? 

 

Now run the letters cut from the X’s and O’s paper from the Bo Bunny Pad through the Xyron Create A Sticker and adhere them to the purple and pink cardstock letters. 

Punch several hearts from the green and pink cardstock using the heart punch.  Adhere them and the words to the front of the card with the Mini Adhesive Dots.  You can stack 2 of the dots on top of each other and place them on the hearts so they stand off the card further than the letters to create another layer on the card.  Tuck 3 hearts behind the patterned paper on the top for more fun using the tape runner to adhere them. 

You now have a card that will allow you to send hugs and kisses to the one you love!

By General Crafts Contributor Mina, from the blog Mina’s Journal.

Here’s something for the little ones – cute wee Mini Valentine Postcards for the kids to give out at school or preschool. Not too lovey-dovey. Just print onto paper or a card and trim along the outer lines.

Write who it’s to, who it’s from and the year on the back. There is room for a message too.

You Will Need:

• paper or card
• scissors
• glue

Optional

• double sided adhesive,  foam dots or tape
• ribbons
• coloured craft paper
• card blanks
• cardboard

Valentine’s Day Card Ideas

Use these Mini Valentine Postcards as a card topper for larger cards by sticking them onto card blanks. You can make your own card blanks by just folding a piece of card in half.

Paste rectangular pieces of colored craft paper to use as mats. Paste them onto the card blank before the topper.

Print out the page of extra Valentine Day images to make a range of other cards. Cut loosely around them and position them on your cards. Use double sided foam dots or tape to make the images pop out. If you don’t have any – just use small bits of thick cardboard.

Add embellishments like ribbon, beads or buttons.

Click on photo to view Kid’s Mini Valentine Postcards image

Click on photo to view Extra Valentine Images

All of the cards you see in this post was made with two card downloads and one extra images to print. There are plenty of images left over.

Valentine’s Day History

There are two popular stories about how Valentine’s Day came about. One says that Valentine was a priest in the time of the great Emperor Claudius the Second during the third century. Claudius, wanting his army to grow better and larger decreed that young men could not marry. Valentine did not agree with this and performed marriage ceremonies in secret. He was found out and put to death. The other story says that Valentine was a prisoner who fell in love with his jailor’s daughter and wrote a note to her signed ‘Your Valentine’.

Happy crafting!

By Craft Celebrity Mark Montano, from the blog Mark Montano’s Big Ass Blog.

How many sweaters do you have in your drawer that you really should toss but don’t because you think you might wear them again? My guess is at least three. Well, I’ve got a way to make more room in your dresser and put those sweaters to use. I guarantee these Sweeter Sweater Gloves, when made with girly sweaters in pretty colors and matching knit gloves, will not only be warm, but also very glamorous.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Sweater you’re about to toss
• Scissors (Fiskars are the BEST!)
• One pair of knit gloves
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine with matching thread (I love my BERNINA)

HERE’S HOW

Evenly cut off the sleeves of the sweater in a length you like. If you want your gloves to end at the elbow, then cut them off at the elbow. Pull the cutoff sleeves up your arms by the cuffs. The cuffs of the sweater should be tight enough to keep them in place on your upper arms. But, if they’re not, pinch them and see how much you will need to take in. Also see how much, if any, you will have to take in the sweater sleeves at the wrist. If you do need to take in the sleeves, do so by gathering the extra material along the seam of the sweater and stitching, and then cut off the excess.

Turn the sleeves inside out and place the gloves in the end that you cut off, matching up the openings (the fingers of the gloves should be pointed toward the sweater cuff end).

Place a couple of straight pins in the openings to hold the gloves in place.

Sew the raw edge of the sleeve to the opening of the glove using a 1/2″ seam allowance.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you stretch the fabric while you’re sewing so that the glove opening stretches when you put them on. Turn the sleeves right side out.

By Guest Bloggers Melissa + Kellie, from the blog Icing Designs.

Not sure what it is, maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is near, but we are loving all things wedding right now! Of course we love when brides incorporate DIY projects into their weddings, it makes things seem so personalized and special. We are just loving the idea of a fabric corsages! They are just as beautiful, if not more, than using real flowers. What a fashionable gift/keepsake to give your bridesmaids or flowergirl! If you are not a corsage person, wear it as a bracelet!

Here’s a tutorial to make your own Fabric Corsage!