Valentine's Day

 Looking for a cute DIY Valentine’s Day decoration you can make in no time? Check out this DIY Valentine’s Day Chalkboard!  It’s a super cute way to leave little love notes for anyone who might see your chalkboard!

Supplies Needed for a DIY Valentine’s Day Chalkboard

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• Craft wood heart cutout
• Red acrylic paint
• White paint pen
• Clear chalkboard coating
• Foam brushes
• Chalk
• Optional: white paint marker, scrapbook paper, scissors, and twine

How to Make a DIY Valentine’s Day Chalkboard

In just a short amount of time, you can turn pretty much ANY surface into ANY color chalkboard – just like this fun red Valentine’s Day chalkboard I made for my home!  

First you’ll paint your wooden heart with acrylic paint.  Once it’s dry, add any painted embellishments with a paint pen.  I used a white paint pen to make little dashes around the outer edge of the heart.

After everything was fully dried, I painted on two coats of clear chalkboard coating, making sure to follow the directions on the bottle for dry time, etc.  

This stuff is awesome because you can turn pretty much any painted surface into a chalkboard, without having to buy all different colors of chalkboard paint!

I let the chalkboard coating dry for several days, and then I “seasoned” my new chalkboard.  Seasoning a chalkboard is basically just rubbing a piece of chalk all over it and making a mess, which you promptly wipe off.  You do this to make sure the surface is ready to use and to prevent words/art from showing on the chalkboard even once they’ve been erased.

Next, I cut out a scrapbook paper “X” and “O,” and attached them to the top of my new chalkboard with twine.  Then I wrote a sweet little something on my chalkboard, tossed some chalk hearts on there, and washed my hands.  I actually despise chalk.  🙂  

So yeah, I might not be changing my chalkboard’s message anytime soon, but if I do, I’ll just wipe it off like a regular chalkboard!  The clear chalkboard coating really works.  

Not too long ago I had a dream that my husband and I were strolling through a magical-looking forest with a picnic basket – searching for the perfect romantic spot for lunch.  Once we found it,  we spotted a beautiful tree where we carved a heart and our initials, just like I’d imagine they do in those romance novels I’ve never read.  We decided it will be our special secret place forever.

Um . . . what was that about?

I’m lucky if I see a few trees a day where I live.  There is NO heart carving going on around here!  But I do think it’s a super sweet, romantic, and sentimental idea, so I decided to improvise!  And now I’m sharing the details on how to make a carved heart wood slice in case you like the idea, too.  Hey – Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so this could be a sweet gift for that!  Or even for an engagement, wedding, or anniversary!  

Supplies Needed to Make a Carved Heart Wood Slice

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• Medium wood slice
• Wood burning tool
• Pencil
• Metallic Lustre in Rose Gold
• Lint-free cloth
• Sawtooth picture hanger or small easel

How to Make a Carved Heart Wood Slice

First up, draw your design onto the wood slice with your pencil.  It doesn’t have to be perfect because I doubt you’d be able to carve a perfectly shaped heart if you were out there in the woods doing this.  Make it look sort of authentic, ok?

Next, go over the penciled design with your heated woodburning tool. (These tools are REALLY cheap and easy to use – seriously!)  You do not have to have any prior experience using a woodburning tool.  It is so simple!  
Gently erase any pencil lines that didn’t get burned and make sure all of the eraser shavings are removed from the wood slice.  If you erase too hard, you’ll leave white marks or discolorations on the wood slice, so be careful!

Then, using the lint-free cloth, fill in the heart with the Metallic Lustre to make it stand out a bit more.  Just rub it in there and give it some good shimmer!
And that’s it! Pop it onto a little easel or add a sawtooth picture hanger to the back if you want it on the wall.  

I showed this to my husband and he said, “aw.”  Then I asked him if he would take it to work and display it in his office.  He looked at me like I have three heads, so I pretended to be sad and offended.  He still hasn’t taken it to work. . .

-Bre

Being the mother of a two and four-year old, I consider myself an expert in things that preschoolers love.  Glitter glue is one of those things.  It is like the BEST.THING.EVER when you’re little.

So this year, my kids will be passing out glitter glue Valentines to their friends at school!  And I’m sharing these free printable Valentine cards with you, too!  You can download the PDF file later in this post and print out as many copies as you need!

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 I found ten packs of glitter glue at Dollar Tree, which makes these Valentines a total bargain!

You can also find washable glitter glue at Target, and check out these great glitter glue pens at Amazon!

Print these glitter glue Valentine’s cards at home, or send to your local print shop!

Then attach glitter glue tubes with bakers twine tied through the cards.

Just click to download these Glitter Glue Valentines!

If you’re not into the glitter glue idea, I shared a free printable Valentine last year that used mini stampers.  If you’re looking for that one, you can download it in this post.

If you use these, I hope you and your kids enjoy them!

– Bre

A lot of people hate Valentine’s Day.

I am not one of those people.  I love Valentine’s Day!

It is just so cute.  And it is a fun excuse to eat a lot of chocolate.  And wear pink.  And say cheesy things to special people.

So yeah, I dig it.

Part of my Valentine’s Day celebration this year involves this cute light up heart Valentine’s Day art that I made for my home.  It’s bold and fun, and my favorite part is that it SHINES, day or night!     [Read more…] about Light Up Heart Valentine’s Day Art

Hi, friends-

Hope you had a great weekend!  Mine went by in a flash.  I had the inaugural session of “crafts and cocktails” with a dear friend, accompanied my daughter to a birthday party, had a double date, did a ton of laundry, suffered through the Super Bowl, and bought myself some flowers!

I don’t usually buy myself flowers, but some hydrangeas from Trader Joe’s were too beautiful to pass up.  With the awful weather we’ve been having here, I thought I could spend $6 for a little pick-me-up.

And . . . I had the perfect Valentine’s Day vase to put them in – a vase made from a leftover Folgers coffee canister!

• Folgers coffee canister
• Burlap ribbon (mine was just under 6″ wide, and it was almost the perfect height for the canister), or fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Multi-surface acrylic paint
• Painters tape
• Pouncer or paint brush
• Decorative accents of your choice (I used felt heart stickers and bakers twine)

Do you use Folgers canisters for anything or am I just a lunatic?  (Be nice, please.)  

I just love Valentine’s Day because it is so cute.  It also adds some fun to a gray and dull time of year!

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In getting ready for Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t pass up these cute two-sided Valentine stampers.  I thought they’d be a darling addition to my preschooler’s Valentine cards for school.

One night while my husband was working late, I decided to create a Valentine card to accompany these cute stampers.  And, of course, I couldn’t resist a cheesy pun: “You get my stamp of approval, Valentine.”

To attach the stampers to the printed cards, I used a mini hole puncher to place two holes on each card – one higher than the other.  Then I placed some double-sided tape in between the holes and placed the stamper on top.  I then tied some bakers twine through the holes.  These stampers aren’t going anywhere.

Since I’m such a kind and generous person, I’m sharing these free printable valentines with you.  All you have to do is download them here and then print at home, or at your local print shop.

If you don’t want to order stampers online, you may be able to find some at Target or Dollar Tree!

If you use this Valentine stamp printable, I hope your kids (and the recipients) enjoy!

– Bre