heart paper chains {tutorial}

What do you do when all the decoration supplies you have are paper, scissors, and stapler?  Why... make heart paper chains, of course! :)

We were looking for a fun way to use our office cardstock supply to whip up some quick heart decorations, but the thought of just cutting out a bunch of little hearts seemed daunting to me (I had a long day :P), so instead I opted to make these heart paper chains.  I like them because they're quick and cute... and also because we have a paper slicer that did all the cutting for me. ;)

[again, I apologize for the terrible photos... I had to use a cellphone to snap the pictures.]

First step is to cut your paper into strips.  Mine are 6 inches x 1 inch wide.  I wanted to make my chains two-toned, so I used different colors.

Then start with 4 strips.  Sandwich them so that one of the colors is sandwiched between the other color (for example, mine is white, red, red, white).

 Line them up, and staple.  I stapled mine pretty close to the edge, but if you move it further away, it creates 'fatter' hearts. :)

 Bring down the two outside strips to make the heart shape.  Before you staple it down, add two more strips of the next color for the next heart.  This creates the "chain".

Then staple together. :)

Repeat the process, and make it as long as you'd like!

If you notice, I left a strip at the top that wasn't "heart-ed".  This was so I could join it with the last heart in my chain, and make a paper heart wreath, which ends up looking like this:

If you don't like the wreath look, you can start with just two strips of paper, and add on as you go. :)

I had a ton of fun making these in all different colors.  They look pretty nice hung up:

Enjoy! :)

at last

Why is it that when you're redecorating or upgrading something, it always has to look worse before it looks better?  My room currently looks like a tornado blew through it (or at least, I'm guessing it would look like this.  Not too many tornadoes in California. :P), and making my room better seems like a lost cause.  But fear not, I will keep fighting... because what else am I going to do?  Leave it looking like this? :P

It feels like I have been working on this "doggie quilt" forever {meaning over a week. I'm impatient. :)}... but I finally managed to finish it this past weekend.  Success!  I only had the binding to do, but I was dreading actually doing it (not sure why now, since it seems like it took the least amount of time. Oh Mindy... you are such a silly thing.)

yay!

It's a strip quilt, so it was honestly the easiest thing I could do.  I love the light blue fabric with the dog prints on it, and the white polka dot fabric was a last-minute purchase when I thought the quilt was lacking something. :)

But wait... that's not the only thing I finished this week!  I also made myself some lovely rolled paper flowers using the tutorial from jones design company (they are different shades of yellow/orange/peach, and will make a lovely addition to my new shelves... once I install the shelves that are currently lying on my bed).

terrible photo... hopefully I can snap a better one once it's on the shelf.

And I even sewed myself a cute little envelope pillow following the tutorial from feeling lovesome.  I appliqued a little tree and owl on it, and although it's not the best (I'm still quite a novice at the art of applique), I love how it turned out. :)

a little closeup of the owl so you can see he's smiling! :)

I will be making many more pillows in the following weeks, but for now I'm putting all of my energy into Valentines Day crafts.  Only a week left! Why is it that I always come up with these wonderful Valentines plans, and they always take triple the time I had planned to finish them?  :P

office daze

About a year ago while I was cleaning out some of the desks in our office, I discovered a package of construction paper.  It's almost sad how excited I got over this discovery.  Since then, I've been using it for various "projects" and decorations for different occasions.  It's always kind of a fun challenge to see what things I can make with just the supplies we have here.  

Every now and then, I'll whip up something quick while I'm waiting for documents to load or when I'm on hold during a call.  It's never anything spectacular, but it keeps me busy, and keeps me happy. :)

Today I got a small jump start on valentine's day decorations by making a small banner.  Unfortunately, one of the tools we don't have (but always need) is a ruler, so I always have to cut things by freehand.

And since you can't tell what the heck that is from far away, here it is a bit closer:

Just a quick "happy valentines day" banner using red and white paper and some string we had left over.

But my favorite part is what I did with the scraps of red and white paper I had:

One of the perks of having your girlfriend working at the same office is that she makes you pretty things :).  I love that you can see his reflection in the framed photo of us.  And I love how the flowers came out.  Better than I thought they would, especially considering I only had a glue stick to work with (note to self... keep hot glue gun in purse at all times!)

[sorry for the terrible photos.  I don't bring my camera to work, so I improvised with my phone.... it goes along with the whole use-what-you-can-find-in-the-office theme, I guess. ;) ]

works in progress..

Well... I can safely say that nothing is getting done around here.

I'm beginning to think I need a project board to keep all of my projects in line.  I keep coming across random knick knacks and saying to myself "ohhh yeah... I bought that to make (insert one of 30 craft ideas here)".  The only thing I've been working on consistently is my "doggy quilt", and well... let's just say I've come across a few obstacles.

...one furry white obstacle particularly comes to mind.

I'm not sure when Mocha started claiming everything as hers, but apparently I'm no longer entitled to the material I'm planning to use as the quilt binding.

In other news, I've decided to redecorate my room, because it's seriously starting to depress me how incredibly pathetic it looks.  The problem is that I agreed to take the smallest room in the house, and I have the biggest bed... so you can just imagine all the clutter I have to navigate through.  It's time I did something about it.  I'm in dire need of:

• Shelves (LOTS of shelves)
• A small desk lamp or a wall hanging lamp to replace the gigantic floor one I currently have (why do I have so much big furniture in such a small room?!)
• Cheerful decorative pillows (even my bed looks sad)
• Decorations that will make me want to be in my room

I'm gathering a bunch of ideas from various blogs, and I'm actually very excited about it.

....I'm guessing I won't get much done until after Valentine's Day, though... because Valentine's crafts are just simply too tempting. :)

birthday wishes

First of all... happy birthday to me. :)

I've discovered that birthdays are getting less and less enjoyable as the years go by (I can't even begin to think about the day I turn 30...), so I decided to spend a part of this year's birthday doing something productive and fun.  You know, to get my mind off of the fact that I'm aging every minute and there is nothing I can do to stop it. :P

I had been trying to finish a self binding blanket  like the one I saw at Piece N Quilt a little while ago, but I found that finishing projects can get really, really difficult when the little ones are out.

She loves soft things, and unfortunately, she believes everything belongs to her, so I had a little bit of trouble trying to cut and pin this thing.

I shooed her away, but I turned my back for one minute, and...

...she brings toys! Sigh.

Well anyways, I finally managed to finish it, and I think it turned out fantastic. :)  It was super easy, and took very little time.  I chose two fabrics I'd been kind of eyeing at Joann's for a while, so it felt nice to be able to make something out of it.

My blanket isn't square like the tutorial tells you to do (what can I say, I'm a rebel).  Instead, I made it a bit longer, since I knew it wouldn't be used as a baby blanket.  I don't know any babies, so my solution to baby blankets is to make them juuust a bit larger, and use them myself. :P

The inside fabric is just a pale pink with white whales.  Whales! I almost forgot how much I loved whales. :)

Anyways, since I don't know any babies (as previously stated), and the dog seemed to love it anyways...

...I'm such a pushover.