How to Make Music-Covered Hearts for Valentine's Day: A Tutorial

Yesterday for our Tablescape Thursday, I shared a Valentine's Day table setting with a sweet, romantic easy-to-make centerpiece.  I had been plotting thinking for some time about creating a willowy little "tree" with the River Birch branches I'm always picking up from my front yard.  

I decided to decorate my little birch tree with hearts so I checked several places online.  During my search I came across some cute, papier-machéd, music covered hearts and I loved the look, but not so much the price, especially since  I knew I would need a good many to fill my tree.    

So, I began thinking about how I could make hearts similar to those I had seen online.  I really didn't want to  papier-maché the hearts so I decided to shop the discount stores for inexpensive, small hearts for decoupaging.  I'm still sort of new to this decoupaging thing, having just tried it out for the first time back around Halloween when I decoupaged a couple of pumpkins in THIS post and THIS post.  But I figured, if you can decoupage pumpkins, why not little hearts.

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Christmas Mice Ornaments or Present Toppers: A Tutorial

Looking for an ornament or present topper? Christmas mice with candy cane tails make cute ornaments for the tree.   They are also great little present toppers.  This is a great craft for all ages.  I have a faux candy cane tucked inside my little mouse below, but you'll probably want to use a real candy cane if you attach these to a Christmas present.  The faux candy canes work great when making these to use as ornaments.

Here's how Mr. Mouse looks with a real candy cane tail.

Tutorial for Candy Cane Mice:

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A Blue and White Pumpkin for the Guest Room

There were so many wonderful tablescapes posted for yesterday's Tablescape Thursday!  I got a kick out of all the Halloween table settings--so whimsical and fun!

French Bleu Vintage Giveaway:
The Shopping Spree giveaway from French Bleu Vintage is still underway.  Click HERE to leave your comment to be entered.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about these wonderful découpaged pumpkins I found in the October issue of Country Living.

That post (HERE) also contained a little tutorial showing how you could découpage a "craft" pumpkin.

You may remember the pattern I chose for my pumpkin was the floral fabric on this cute pillow.

Here's how it looked when finished.  I had so much fun with this one, I really wanted to découpage at least one more pumpkin before Halloween was all gone for another year.

I chose a fabric pattern from the guest room this time.

Can you guess which one?

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Halloween Decorating and Pumpkin Carving

Sharing a few links from past Halloweens here at BNOTP and a new use for those manly power tools.  I love what he did with the Dremel!

Just click on the links to view each post.

Power Tools and Pumpkins:   Power tools make any job easier...even pumpkin carving!

Rat Infestation!  I saw these again this year at Michael's.  They may be my favorite Halloween decorating idea, ever.  I know the real ones aren't cute...but these totally make me smile each time I go up the stairs.
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Country Living Inspired: Découpage a Pumpkin

There is sooo much inspiration to be found in Blogland these days, the cover of a magazine has to REALLY grab me to convince me to buy the magazine.   The October issue of Country Living did just that. I loved the toile covered pumpkin on the cover. I glanced inside and saw there were directions with the "how to."  I couldn't wait to give it a try.

Another pumpkin inside was decorated using images from Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities

I was stunned to see this pumpkin in Country Living because this was one of the books I purchased right after I added a small library to my office, HERE.  I would love to make this one, too.  Isn't it awesome?

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Decorate Your Pumpkin with Ribbon: Welcome to the 142nd Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Met Monday! How was your weekend? I've had a busy one. Saturday, I drove down to Macon, Georgia and attended a class for "extreme couponing" with my sister and niece. I watch so little TV, I didn't even know what extreme couponing was. It was really interesting. If you have a good size family, I can see how the savings could really add up. I'll share some of what I learned in a post sometime soon. I had no idea using coupons had become such a big thing...practically a sport!

So, there I was the other night, lying in bed and trying to envision a way I could decorate a pumpkin without cutting into it or painting it, when suddenly I had an idea.

Ribbon!

Here's a pic of my finished pumpkin out on the porch where the lighting is a bit better.  This may be the easiest pumpkin decorating idea in the history of the world of pumpkin decorating.  Seriously!  If you like easy, you're gonna love this.

I used the pumpkin I already had...the one that's visible in the background in this fall setting on the porch.

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How to Make a Pottery Barn Inspired Flag! Welcome to the 129th Metamorphosis Monday!

Whenever the Pottery Barn catalog shows up in my mailbox, I know I'm going to be inspired. There's almost always something in there that grabs my attention and gets those creaky wheels in the brain turning. The challenge is always how to get "the look" without the cost. Right? :)

One of my last Pottery Barn inspired projects was Christmas garland for the columns of my front porch. (You'll find the full tutorial for the Pottery Barn Christmas Garland hack, HERE.)

Recently, I decided to do a complete a make-over of my screened-in porch for the 4th of July.

I had seen an awesome flag in a Pottery Barn catalog but the $129 price tag was way more than I wanted to spend. Also, the PB flag was 50" x 27", too large for what I had in mind. (Doesn't that light fixture look like a giant spider?)

So, what to do? I decided to try making my own. Before heading off to The Home Depot for supplies, I measured the area where I wanted to display the flag. I envisioned hanging it above the hutch for my 4th of July porch redo, replacing the large platter that normally lives there.
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4th of July Napkin Ring Tutorial

While we continue enjoying all the wonderful tablescapes linked yesterday for Tablescape Thursday, here's a little tutorial for the napkin ring I used in the 4th of July tablescape I shared.

This is a super easy napkin ring to make. It reminds me of beautiful patriotic bunting.

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4th of July Craft or Party Favor

A Flag Day and 4th of July Inspired Craft:

Today is Flag Day! With today being Flag Day and the 4th of July just a few weeks away, I thought I'd share a fun little craft/party favor you could create to use as a centerpiece for your 4th of July table or as a gift for your friends.

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Valentine's Day Gift or Craft Centerpiece

The Valentine's Day table setting I posted for TT this week had a yummy centerpiece that is also great to make and give as a cute gift. This centerpiece was created in colors of red, pink and silver for Valentine's Day, but you can create the same centerpiece/gift with candy bars in pastel colors for Easter or Mother's Day or for a birthday gift. This also makes a great end-of-year gift for a favorite teacher.



Years ago, I bought one of these "sundaes" for my son. When I was moving everything out of his room to make way for a home office, I came across it again. He had never taken it apart to eat it...what was wrong with that boy?! ☺

I thought it would make a fun centerpiece for a Valentine's table, so I took it apart to see exactly how it was made and then recreated it with new candy. I've put together a little tutorial...you are going to love how easy this is to make.




To make this "sundae" you'll need:
Hot glue gun
1 parfait glass
50-55 small snack size candy bars (in whatever color is appropriate for your needs)
1 four-inch styrofoam ball (cut in half)
50-55 Floral U-pins (available in craft stores)
1 bendy straw (any grocery store should have these)
1 or 2 pieces of white tulle (around 6-8 inches in size) to represent the whipped topping
1 round red candy or truffle to represent the cherry on top
Time needed to make: Around 15 minutes




Here's a little close up of the floral U-pins. Before you get started, cut the 4" styrofoam ball in half.




Start by filling your parfait glass up with candy bars. Next, run a bead of hot glue around the top rim of the parfait glass. (The hot glue is visible in the pic below.)




Press the halved styrofoam ball onto the hot glue. Give that a minute to dry, then you're all set to start adding the tiny candy bars.




Take a floral U-pin and poke it through the edge of the paper on one end of the candy bar. You have to push pretty hard to get the floral pins to pierce the strong wrapper on the candy bar, so I worked atop a thick piece of foam board. A plastic cutting board would work well, also.




Starting at the bottom, stick the candy bars into the styrofoam ball all the way around as shown below. Repeat this process for two more rows. I got so carried away with adding the candy bars, I forgot to take pictures again until I had them all on.




I just went around and around layering them close enough to each other to hide the white of the styrofoam underneath. Three rows did the job, but I added 3-4 candy bars on top to finish it off and to make sure none of the styrofoam would be visible. I ended up using around 46 candy bars. Buy a few more just to be safe. You don't want to run out...plus, there's nothing wrong with a few leftovers for the creator of the sundae. ☺




Once all the candy bars are in place, take your bendy straw and bend/crimp it about 1/3 up from the bottom of the straw. Add a drop of hot glue to where you crimped the straw, then just push the straw down into the styrofoam ball.




Gather your tulle into kind of a poof and add some hot glue to the bottom where it's gathered together. I used two small pieces of tulle. That was easier than trying to keep one larger piece gathered together. Then just stick it onto the center/top of the styrofoam ball. You could probably use the floral pins to attach it, but hot glue worked better for keeping the tulle in the poofy shape I had created.




You're almost done. Just take your truffle or round piece of red candy and hot glue it in the center of the tulle, to represent the cherry on the top of your sundae.




That's it...all done!




When the pastel colored candy bars begin appearing in the stores any day now, you could make one of these for Easter. A candy-bar sundae would make a cute end-of-year gift for a teacher or a birthday gift for a friend or co-worker. Happy sundae making! ☺



You'll find additional Valentine's Day tablescapes, HERE. After you click, just scroll down to the header topic: "Valentines."