Felt Garland: A New Obsession

I've seen a few different felt garlands around Pinterest and Etsy, and decided that I wanted to make one for my daughter's upcoming 1st birthday.  I debated whether or not to cut the felt shapes out myself, but when I found an adorable little Etsy shop that had a ton of different shapes in an amazing variety of colors for super, duper cheap; I decided that route would be much easier.  And then, I decided that I needed not one but three different types of garland.  And to be perfectly honest, I will probably decide I need even more.

(Btw, the Etsy shop?  {Paper4u}. I got 3 different themed packages of felt shapes for less than $20.  Yes, they are in Latvia, but I still got my order in less than 3 weeks.  I highly recommend them should you want to make felt garland the super easy way!)

The first garland I put together was in brightly colored, whimsical hearts.

This one I plan on using for my daughter's birthday.  I also plan on using it for Valentine's Day decor.

  All you do is decide which order you want your shapes in and then sew them together!  I just sewed super slow and fed each individual shape as my machine was still running, which gave me the spacing I wanted between each heart.

This was super fun for my kids to help with as well; they enjoyed picking out which color to put on next (great practice for learning patterns!).

And fyi?  The foam boards I used to to store fabric (you can read about that here) are also perfect for storing garland.

 A total of $5.00 and 10 minutes later, I have a garland of hearts that I love.  Not too shabby!

After the hearts came plain circles for Halloween.

And as soon as I get caught up with my other projects, I'll also have a garland using these cute leaves for autumn/Thanksgiving.

So.   What occasion are you going to use as an excuse to make some super cute garland?

Valentine's Day Banner

Word to the wise:

Don't ever think out loud in front of your 4 year old.

Especially if it's about something that sounds kinda fun and exciting; 

let's say maybe something about a possible party?

I made the mistake the other day of saying,

"Wouldn't it be fun if we had a little Valentine's Day Party?"

And now my son is obsessed.

So now, I guess we are definitely having a Valentine's Day party.

Which means I need to get crackin' on the decorations now, otherwise they'll never get done!

 So today, I made a Valentine's Day Banner for our mantel.

(I'll be adding to the mantel a little bit at a time over the next month, and will share as I go)

 Everything I needed, I already had at home.  Sheet music, cardstock, paint and twine or hemp.

Luckily, my sheet music was already yellowed and aged, seeing as it is probably 30+ years old.

 I cut 7 pieces that were approximately 5" wide and 4" long.

I simply made a heart template out of paper, and centered it on top of my sheet music.

And then carefully painted it in 

(very carefully; you don't want to bleed out the sides of your template)

So then, I had all these cute little squares.

I then quickly glued them on cardstock and distressed the edges with black ink.

And, voila!  A quick, simple addition for my mantel.

And a closer look:

(I know the hearts don't show up very well in the photos, 

but I promise that they do look better in person!)

There you go!  

Super fast (less than an hour), super easy (basic cut & paste) and super cheap (free!!).  

Can't beat that!