Search Results for: valentines

Duck Tape Mailbox

February 12, 2014 by Carolina 1 Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand provided by ShurTech Brands, LLC for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of my favorite parts of Valentine's Day has always been making the Valentine's Mailboxes. I remember being in gradeschool and transforming shoeboxes into lace-trimmed masterpieces. The reason I'm a crafter today probably has a lot to do with making those Valentine's boxes.

So, when I was asked to make a Valentine’s Day craft out of Duck Tape, and was tossing around ideas with a friend, when she mentioned a mailbox, I was all over it. Duck Tape is so fun to work with, and you can really make just about anything with it… including a mailbox! To make the mailbox you need: 3 rolls silver duck tape 1 roll heart duck tape 1 roll red duck tape 1 roll glitter duck tape Self-healing mat (the kind quilters use) 1 sheet cardstock scissors and a craft knife marking pen brad (paper fastener) Start by making two large sheets of Duck Tape. One will be 11"x16". The other 6"x11". These sheets are easy to make. Cut strips about 1-2 inches longer than you need, and lay them sticky-side-down on a self-healing mat. These are the mats often used by quilters for cutting fabric. You can purchase one at most craft stores. Overlap the strips about 1/4", and keep laying down more strips until you get the required width. Peel up the strips, lay them sticky-side up, then cover with strips of Duck Tape so the two sticky sides are touching. Use a ruler and a craft knife to cut the piece down to size. Line up the two 11" edges, about 1/4" apart. Tape with a piece of tape. Flip and tape with a second piece of tape. Repeat with the other side to create the body of the Duck Tape Mailbox. Create two more sheets of Duck tape, each 6" by about 8.5". Tape the bottoms and sides in place on one side of the mailbox, leaving the curve untaped. Use a pen to draw the curve, then trim and tape. Cut the adhesive into tabs along the curve so that the curve lies smooth. Trace the back end onto a piece of cardstock. Cut the cardstock, smoothing out the top curve. Cover both sides of the cardstock with the silver tape, trimming the edges. Cut a long strip, and fold almost in half, leaving about 1/2" of the adhesive showing. Wrap that around the edge of the front piece, clipping the adhesive at the curve into tabs so that the curve is smooth. Attach the base of the door to the front of the mailbox body with tape on both sides. If you like you can add a piece of tape at the top to secure the door. To make the flag, cut a flag shape out of the remaining cardstock, cover in the heart duck tape on both sides. You can decorate it further with a heart cut out of glitter Duck Tape. Secure the flag to the side of the mailbox with a brad. You can add additional embellishments with colored Duck Tape. Put several strips together, cut out heart shapes, and attach to the front or sides of the mailbox. Add as few or as many as you like. Just like that, you have a Duck Tape Mailbox!

Have you made a Valentine’s Day craft out of Duck Tape?

Oh… and go check out Duck Tape on Twitter to keep up with all the great holiday Duck Tape Crafts!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sunday Shares

February 9, 2014 by Carolina Leave a Comment

One of my goals in starting this site was to feature other bloggers. There are so many amazing bloggers of all sizes, and there is no way that we can read them all. I love it when other bloggers share their favorites with me… and I’d like to share some of my favorite quick crafts with you!

This week is a busy one with my birthday on Wednesday, and Valentine’s Day on Friday. Plus, I have a nephew turning one on Saturday. Lots of reasons to celebrate!

If you’re busy, but still need a quick (yet personalized) Valentine, check out this Paper Pieced Valentine’s Postcard by Nancy Zieman. This is also a great paper-piecing pattern for a beginner… check it out! But, if you’re looking for something simple, I made some stitched Valentines for Sew Mama Sew earlier this week. Just print, poke, and stitch.

If you need some fun Valentine’s Decor, check out this fun Valentine’s burlap banner from Just Us Four. Simple to make with just a few supplies.

Last night my oldest wanted to make a Valentine’s Card and had trouble drawing a heart – I wish I would have thought of this idea – using a cookie cutter as a stencil! Elise from Grow Creative is a genius.

I don’t have any little girls in this house, but I’m thinking of making a cute ombre heart hairpin like this one from Pretty Prismatic anyway. You know, for me. I’m going to be spending Valentine’s in my son’s classroom… so I might as well get dressed up, right?

I have some Valentine’s Jewelry that I’ll be sharing tomorrow… but when it comes to jewelry, Mich L in LA is my idol. Seriously, I need to hang out with her sometime. If creativity is contagious, I’d love to catch some of whatever bug she’s got going on. I’ve featured her here before, but this jewelry made out of kitty toys!! Who would have thought? Mich, that’s who.

Speaking of people with the creative bug, have you checked out any of Mark Montano’s posts or videos lately? I’m loving the simple ribbon zipper pouch from his book “The Big Ass Book of Crafts”. He whipped up a blog post and video showing how you can make this simple lined zippered pouch, that you can create to match your style, using ribbons that you love.

And speaking of fun bags, here is a fun no-sew tote bag you can make using fabric, Duck Tape, and… staples! If you have a fear of the sewing machine, make this bag. Then get over your fear of sewing. Because while there are some great no-sew options, there is a lot more you can make with a simple sewing machine and a straight stitch.

Speaking of Duck Tape – I started a couple new Pinterest boards this week. If you’re not already following me on Pinterest, make sure to follow my Duck Tape Pinterest Board, and the new 30 Minute Sewing and 30 Minute Jewelry boards.

And while you’re pinning… pin some of these featured projects to your favorite Pinterest boards. But be sure to click on the link and pin from the original post!

Filed Under: 30 minute crafts, feature Tagged With: 15 minutes, 30 minutes

Googly Eye Valentine

February 8, 2014 by Carolina Leave a Comment

I couldn’t help myself! I had to slip in one more printable classroom Valentine. It is my weakness for Googly eyes.

In all fairness, I’m not the only one in my household who has a passion for google eyes. My not-quite-2-year-old son pulled all the google eye rings off of these cards shortly after the photos were taken. I can’t really blame him. Google eyes are awesome.

To make these fun Valentines you need some Wiggle Eye Rings. I found mine at Michaels. Grab some ribbon, print out the file, and punch some holes. If you want to make your life a little easier, and you have a Silhouette machine, use the printable cutable Silhouette file to do all the cutting and hole-punching for you.

Fast, easy, and best of all… googly. The best kind of Valentine.

Get all of our free Valentine’s Printables, including this one and the Silhouette cut file, when you sign up for our email list:

Filed Under: 15 minute crafts, easy, google eyes, paper, printable, silhouette, simple, valentine Tagged With: 15 minutes, fast, handmade, kids, Valentine's

Straw Valentine: Without You Today Would Suck

February 8, 2014 by Carolina Leave a Comment

I like my Valentines, and my puns, with a side of snark. For those of you who want to spice up your romance with a little humor, I’ve got a fun Valentine Printable for you. Print up these hearts, cut them out, punch holes, and thread through a straw (or use the Silhouette file to print and cut them for you).

Use these straw printables at the breakfast table, in your child’s lunch, at Valentine’s dinner, or a fun way to share a snack.

Get both the PDF and Silhouette cut files for this valentine when you join our email list below:

Filed Under: 15 minute crafts, easy, paper, silhouette, valentine Tagged With: fast, handmade, Valentine's

Heart-Inspired Crafting

January 31, 2014 by Carolina 2 Comments

Angie from the Country Chic Cottage and I love to hang out together online and do some crafting. We actually have a whole site dedicated to crafting videos that we run with our crafting friends – you should go check it out: Crafty Hangouts.

This month’s hangouts are sponsored by American Crafts. They make all kinds of awesome scrapbooking and other essential crafting supplies. A huge thank you to them for sending crafty goodies to the Crafty Hangouts team!

Here is what Angie and I came up with: Two fun heart-inspired Valentine’s Day Crafts:

Filed Under: 10 minute crafts, craft lightning, fast and cheap, valentine Tagged With: diy, easy, fast, Valentine's

Mini Duck Tape Valentine Printable

January 28, 2014 by Carolina 1 Comment

Valentine’s Day is all about reaching out to your crush and letting them know that you have feelings for them, right? Well, I have a couple crafty crushes. That is to say – craft products that I totally crush on. And Duck Tape is one of them. It sticks to anything, is super durable, and comes in tons of yummy colors and patterns. Plus, now it comes in cute mini rolls (called “ducklings”) as well.

These mini rolls were my inspiration for this fun Printable Valentine, though you could use the Duck Washi as well (yup, they make Duck Washi… you’re crushing pretty hard, too… right?). See how cute this Duck Tape Duckling is… that’s a penny right next to it so you can get an idea of the size of the roll.

Just print out the PDF and cut it, or use the Silhouette file to print and cut your Duck Tape Valentines. Then give out little bits of Crafty Duck Tape Love to all your craftin’ Valentine’s peeps.

To get this file, as well as all our other Valentine’s files, sign up for the email list here:

Filed Under: 15 minute crafts, easy, valentine Tagged With: duck tape, fast, Valentine's

Valentine’s Day Crafty Hangouts

January 27, 2014 by Carolina Leave a Comment

For me, one of the fun parts of being a blogger is getting to work with other bloggers. Last year, I worked with an amazing team of bloggers over on the Crafty Hangouts site, creating fun crafts videos to share. We had so much fun last year, that we’re bringing back a whole new season of Crafty Hangouts this year! Each month, we’ll be doing a week-long series of videos, and you’re in luck because the first set of videos starts this week! Here is a sneak-peek of what you’re in store for at Crafty Hangouts this week – this is a video that I did with my crafty buddy, Angie from The Country Chic Cottage.

Be sure to check out Crafty Hangouts all week long for amazing Valentine’s Day Craft Tutorial videos from all of our Blog-Stars. And if you’re on Google+, you can follow along using the #ValentinesHOA hashtag.

Filed Under: 10 minute crafts, craft lightning, easy, fast and cheap, paper, valentine, video Tagged With: 15 minutes, handmade, Valentine's

Printable Valentine: Bubble Valentine

January 24, 2014 by Carolina 3 Comments

Bubbles are probably one of my favorite non-candy Valentine’s treats. Mostly because I’ve never seen a child look at a bottle of bubbles and say, “No thanks.” Usually, the response is “BUBBLES!!” … and they can’t wait to open up the bubbles and start spreading around the bubbly goodness. And then the kids around them are happy, too. It is a contagious, happy thing. Bubbles are awesome. Which is why these bubble valentines are awesome.

If you have a Silhouette machine, you can print out the Silhouette file and use it to cut out your bubble valentines It will also punch the holes. If not, grab the PDF file and cut them out.

I made all my printable Valentines in both formats. Check out the Wand Valentine, Squirt Gun Valentine, Whistle Valentine, and Glow Stick Valentine.

Once you’re printed, cut, and punched, you need to add a little double-stick tape. These bubble wands are a little heavy, and we want to make sure they stay in place.

Then just tie the bubble tube in place with a little Valentine’s Day ribbon, and you’ve got yourself a valentine that all the kids will love!

Filed Under: 30 minute crafts, fast and cheap, kids, silhouette, valentine Tagged With: 15 minutes, fast, kids, quick, Valentine

Printable Valentine: Glow Stick Valentine

January 23, 2014 by Carolina 1 Comment

When I was shopping for fun non-candy Valentine ideas, I saw these glow sticks by the checkout counter and thought: YES! My kids love glowsticks. And honestly, so do I. Because I’m just a big kid, and all kids love to snap things and watch them light up. Which, completely non-coincidentally, is exactly what glowsticks do. Plus, they are super cheap. Which makes these Glowstick Valentines crazy inexpensive.

Just like with the Wand Valentine, Whistle Valentine, and Squirt Gun Valentine, I have created both a PDF version of the file (which you can print and then cut by hand with a paper cutter), and a Silhouette version (which the Silhouette will cut out for you).

The Silhouette version has 4 holes, 2 on each side. I couldn’t get my hole punch to punch two holes on each side in a way that made me happy, so I just stuck with one hole on each side. It works fine.

And by cutting it out with some fun ziggety-zaggety scissors, it gives it a fun shape.

Filed Under: 15 minute crafts, easy, fast and cheap, kids, paper, silhouette, valentine Tagged With: easy, fast, quick, Valentine

Printable Valentine: Whistle

January 23, 2014 by Carolina Leave a Comment

I’m doing a fun series of printable and printable/cut-able (with the Silhouette) Valentines. So, if you like to pass out Valentines on Valentine’s Day, you’ll want to stick around. And go check out my Wand Valentine and Squirt Gun Valentine.

This super sweet (or should I say “tweet”) Printable Valentine sticks to a whistle with a little adhesive. Fast, fun, and easy, the way a Valentine should be. And, since this is another candy-free Valentine, the other parents might forgive you for all the noise the whistle makes. Or you might want to send earplugs home for the parents. Up to you. You are saving money on this Free Printable Valentine, after all.

To make this guy, all you need is the print-out, scissors or a Silhouette machine, a bag of whistles, and some double-stick tape. I used some great (affiliate link) High Tack Double-Sided Adhesive from Xyron.
.