DIY / Valentine's Day Brunch Heart Bunting Decor

This past weekend I had some lovely ladies over for a crafting brunch (which I, without them knowing turned into a Valentine's Day brunch so I can share some V-Day tips for y'all). The day was filled with spray paint, carbs, laughs, champagne and hearts. Two of us sat and watched (a-hem Claire and Amy) and the other 3 got our hands dirty and made some beautiful things. There were a few awkward moments which LizHo I am sure will share this week, but all in all it was quite the success. 

The table was covered with heart plates, pound cake heart diecut sandwiches (recipe coming this Friday), and some very modern candy hearts.

We whipped out our new waffle maker, made some muffin frittatas (with english muffin baked on the bottom!) and of course there were bagels (we are in NY!).

But we have this HUGE white space above the TV that drives me absolutely crazy. For Christmas I made some snowflakes to fill the void, so why not some simple heart bunting for Valentine's Day. This is so easy and so cheap it was a quick fix to the lack of decor.

Supply List / Heart Hole Punch (or you could really just cut them out freehand, you can do it!), heart doilies (or again just cut them out of white paper!), black yarn (from the dollar store), 1 sheet of red felt, 1 sheet of pink paper, scissors and tape.

1 / Fold a crease about 1.5 inches in from the edge of the red felt and cut a half heart along the crease so when you unfold it its a whole heart! Repeat this step until you use up all the felt, I used 6 felt hearts.

2 / Using the heart hole punch, punch a bunch of hearts out of the pink paper.

3 / Tape the pink hearts to the center of the doilies.

4 / Cut two small slits in the felt heart, one in each peak. Thread the yarn from the front into the hole, then across the back of the heart and from back to front through the hole on the opposite side.

5 / Thread the doily in the same way on the string next to the felt heart.

Continue along until you have no hearts left, alternating from felt to paper.

And there you have it, we are all decorated for the holiday. My Valentines are my two roommates this year, but I love them more than i love most people so they will do just fine. Come back on Friday for an awesome recipe, using homemade pound cake, bananas and peanut butter! SO GOOD. (I may be snacking on the leftover ones as I write this, I also may have gotten some peanut butter on my keyboard that I may lick off when I hit save).

Do you have any simple Valentine's tricks up your sleeve?

DIY Adorable Bunting Birthday Card

Everyone loves a hand written letter. A piece of snail mail delivered by little elves (or the USPS, whatever, they are elves to me!) into the mailbox. An envelope with a stamp on it that isn't a bill. And Cards. Cards are ACE, but what about a HANDMADE CARD (with BUNTING). BOOM! Nailed it. The thought & time & love that goes into a handmade card doesn't go unnoticed and will put a smile on even the Grinches face. 

What will you need? Easy-Peasy-Lemon-Squezy!

• No. 2 Pencils

• X-Acto Knife

• Scissors 

• String (or ribbon)

• Glue

• Stamp Pads

• Small hole punch

• Decorative paper

• White (or solid) paper

• An envelope

1 / Cut the paper to size. Any piece of heavy-er white (or whatever solid color you'd like to use, just make sure your stamp colors will show on it!) will do. Line your envelope with the edge of your chosen paper. Cut along the other edge of the envelope. I use a ruler and X-Acto (be careful your fingers!) but if you're more comfortable, trace a light line with a pencil and use a scissor. 

2 / Fold the paper. Using the edge of the envelope as a guide, fold the paper along the edge of the envelope and trim off  the extra to make sure the folded slice of paper fits in the envelope.

3 / Let's make a damn bunting stamp! I saw this pin and needed to give it a try because it is super cute. UBER EASY! Hold your No. 2 pencil in one hand and let's get to cutting. We are aiming for the shape of a bunting flag, so if you want to draw it on first like the pin shows, go for it. I just went for it (but I mess up often, so draw the damn thing first). Cut the eraser straight down towards the pencil, stopping about half way to the bottom of the eraser for stability. From the outside of the eraser in, take a cut until the piece you want to remove pops right out. Repeat those steps at about a 45 degree angle to form a "V" shape. Repeat the steps one more time joining the top two corners of the "V" and you should have a little-bitty-adorable flag shaped stamp!

4 / Stampin' time! I cut 4 different stamps because I wanted to use 4 different colors, but you can really just wipe 'em off and use just one. Across the front of the card, stamp-stamp-stamp away. Look how cute! You'll see in the next step that the straighter the better (of you want to string it.

5 / Let's hang the flags! Punch a hole at each end of the stamping you just did with your hole punch. Start behind the hole on your left and come through and across the card and into the hole on the right. If you stamped in a straight line across the front, the string will lay flat with the flags! (If you did not get it quite straight, don't worry I didn't either, you can apply a bit of glue in the center to hold it in place.)

6 / String it inside! Open the card so its at a 90 degree angle with the bottom. Cross the string on the right across at an angle towards the lowed left corner of the base of the card. Take the string coming through the top left and cross it down towards the bottom right corner of the base.

7 / Tie the ends.  Punch a hole where you want the string to be secured. Tie a cute 'lil knot to hold the string in place (lower left shown)...

... then tie the lower right.

Yes! You did it! Great job! Now for more bunting!

8 / Cut some baby flags! Take whatever pretty paper you chose and cut out some flags. Fold part of the paper over and make your cuts so that the top, wide part of the flag is at the fold, by dong this, as you cut the flags out you get a double sided flag with a fold so it hangs over the string. You will need a few different sizes because the closer you get to where the string meets the base of the card the smaller they will need to be to fit. 

9 / Hang the flags. Hang the flags along the string inside the card, using the smaller ones you cut out towards the base. Apply a bit of glue so they stay in place.

10 / Write your message. My metallic stamps didn't like the marker I chose very much, so you should do a test first. I decided to center the words "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" on the outside of the card...

...and the birthday boys name "VINCE" on the flags in the inside. (btw- everyone say HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCE!)

Why not add some bunting to the envelope also!

11 / Wrap it up! Write whatever message you want on the outside and use the same string as you did inside to make a cute bow to complete the card!

This card took under 20 minutes but leaves the recipient knowing someone cares enough to make it (I hope, Vince, do you like it?). Handmade with love.

This type of card could work for any occasion, what are you celebrating this month?