Take Heart ... Valentine's Day will soon be here!

I love Valentine's Day for so many reasons! I am married to a wonderful man (love you, Baby), red is my favorite color, I love Valentine's candy and I also love to draw/doodle hearts, etc. So, to get in the spirit of things, lately I've been making several red burlap hearts to hang on your door for Valentine's Day. Working with burlap is so easy and it comes in so many colors. I used some leftover red burlap from Christmas to make several designs.

To make the large heart decorations:

1. Make a large heart pattern out of paper. Mine measured 24 in. wide by 21 in. long. Fold burlap so that it is double thickness, then you can cut both the front side and back side of the heart out at the same time. Trace the heart onto your burlap with chalk, which can easily be wiped off.

2. Cut out both layers of burlap at the same time. This will insure that the edges of both sides of your hearts will line up and make it easier when it comes time to join the two sides together.

3. Next, paint a design on your heart. I used acrylic paints. Because the red burlap is so dark in color, it tended to bleed through the white paint, turning it more of a pink color. But, since pink is a Valentine color, too, I didn't mind. I started off by painting white polka dots on all the hearts. In this example, I also added black dashes around the edges.

In this example I painted "Be Mine" free hand with black. I then realized that it was really off center, so I decided to make various swirl designs around the edges to make it less noticeable. This design turned out to be one of my favorites! So, don't get frustrated if you make mistakes, just turn it into something else!

In this design, I painted the wording, then decided to make a black and white check border. I started with painting a one inch wide black border around the heart. Then I let it dry.

Once it was dry, I went back with my white paint and painted one inch white squares on the black border. I think this really makes the borders "pop."

4. Once you have finished painting your designs and they have dried thoroughly, you can begin to join the front and back pieces together. I simply use staples to join them together. It's quick and easy. I stapled about every one inch. I found that if I stapled where it had been painted, it seemed to hold better. Staple a little more than 3 quarters of the way around, leaving an opening to stuff the heart.

5. Stuff the heart with waded up plastic grocery sacks until the heart is fairy firm. Then finish closing up the edges.

6. Next you need to add a way to hang the heart. I used both ribbons and wires. On the hearts with the painted edges, I used wire to make a hanger and then added ribbons to the top of the wire. For hearts without the painted edge, I make a hanger with ribbon and then tied extra ribbons in the center of the ribbon hanger.

Here are a few more examples of some of the hearts I designed. Because I work in a Christian school, I had requests for designs that spoke of God's love for us. I love the way they turned out!

(Sorry for the blurry picture!)

I am taking orders for hearts in the Little Rock area. If you would like for me to design a heart for you, please contact me via this blog, email (cleverlycreative@gmail.com) or by phone (501) 223-9515. The hearts are $25 each. Please contact me soon, as only a limited number are available. Thanks!

Melony
(aka Cleverly Creative Girl)

Easy Giant Flower Door Decor

For my first official post, I thought I would share a super easy way to make something fun for your front door. I love having decorations on my front door and I love to change them out regularly for all the various holidays/seasons. In order to do that, it has to be something relatively quick and inexpensive to make. This project uses very little supplies and doesn't require special tools or extensive crafting ability. I originally got this idea from my wonderfully artistic friend, Stacy, who shared how to make a giant pumpkin door decoration in this post.

I made this fun giant flower last week when I wanted something bright and summery to go on my door. Here is what you will need to make this project:

brown package mailing paper
acrylic paint
black sharpie
stapler
something to stuff it with (grocery bags, newspaper, etc)
ribbon

1. First, start by lightly drawing your design onto your paper. I actually used the lid of a cookie jar to make the center of my circle. Then I took a piece of computer paper and cut out a shape for a petal. Then I simply traced the petal shape around the center circle, making sure that they petals overlapped quite a bit.
   
2. Now the fun begins! Paint your flower in your favorite summertime colors. I chose a bright yellow for the center and hot pink for the petals. Make sure the colors you choose are bright and contrast with your door color. That way, your pretty flower will show up great from the street. (Note: My front door is protected with a glass storm door, so my flower will be protected from the weather. However, if your flower will not be protected, you should probably put a couple coats of Mod Podge or a spray on sealer on the front and back sides of your flower to protect all your hard work.)
   
3. After the paint has dried, take a black sharpie and outline your flower. I tend to use a series of "dots" and "dashes" to outline my drawings, instead of one continuous line. Do whatever makes you happy. After all, this is your creation and there are no rules here! I also decided to add a scripture verse around the center of my flower.
4. Next, take a second piece of brown paper that is the same size as the one with the flower on it, and place it underneath that page, making sure to line up the edges. Next, go around the edges of your paper and staple the two sheets together in a few places on each side. This will keep your two pages together and you can cut both pages out at the same time. This will insure that the front and back sides of your decoration are the same size and match up perfectly.
5. Cut out your flower. (Cutting both pieces out at the same time)
   
6. Now you are ready to begin stapling around the edges of your flower. It takes a lot of staples. I tend to put a staple every 1 1/2 to 2 inches. You want to it to stay together and you don't want your stuffing to come out or to have big gaps around your flower. For this particular project, I stapled 2-3 petals, then stuffed those petals with plastic grocery sacks, then stapled a couple more petals and stuffed some more. Continue doing this until you get all the way around your flower. Do not over stuff your flower or it will be hard to staple the edges together.
   
7. Finally, attach some festive ribbon to the top 2 petals of your flower and you're done! Hang your beautiful creation on your front door.
   

Over the past year, I have made several of these easy door decor designs. Here are a few more that made an appearance on my front door this year. Both of the designs below were made out of leftover Christmas wrapping paper, so there was no painting involved! Super easy!

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

Thank you for joining me on my first official post! I hope you find this project to be fun and easy. The possibilities are endless!

Have a blessed day!