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Felt Heart Garland

Sherri — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 02:00:44 +0000

Valentine’s Cards used to be homemade. I know this because my Granny Ola told me how she used to spend hours preparing her cards for her special friends. Does calling her Granny Ola call up images of a tree hugging, granola loving, moccasin wearing, free spirited woman? Good, then you have the right image in your head. During her youth in a small farming town, there were no boxes or bags for each child. You made your cards for your best friends, or the boys you were interested in. Only the girls made them. There was no candy. No printed papers. Just construction paper, scissors and glue. A doily if you were lucky. Granny was one of my favorite friends. And she could make things out of construction paper that I could not believe! She started amazing me with paper dolls, moved to all kinds of cut out windows, and folded designs for cards and worked her way to pop ups for the inside.I was so excited about my homemade cards. Only to find they were to big to fit in the slits in the boxes, and even too large for the bags. They had to be rolled, or folded, and ruined. And as much as I loved the cards I made with Granny, the cool cards were the commercial kind, with candy attached if you were really hip. When I saw this felt heart garland made with felt, sewing machine, scissors and thread, it brought back those memories of sitting with Granny making cards. The creator is Betz White. You gotta check out her site. She is crazy creative, This is such a clever craft idea that is simple to do, with darling results. If you don’t like sewing, it’s okay. Use a stapler. I won’t tell. And Granny would approve. She was really into clever, but simple. You don’t have to hug trees, love granola or wear moccasins to like this. You don’t even have to be a free spirit, although I highly recommend it. Anyone can do this! Even ultra strict, buttoned up, handbag and shoe matching, up tight, high heel wearing’ mama’s gotta have a little fun! It’s Valentine’s for cryin’ out loud. You gotta love it! It’s in the rules. St. Valentine said so. I really have no idea what St. Valentine would say about this, I just thought it added credibility. Anyway, I think this craft is crazy easy, and stinkin’ cute, so here’s how:

First, gather your supplies.

Red and white felt (I used 9 x 12 squares)

Pink Pom Poms

Ruler

Chalk

Scissors

Thread or staples (I used red and white baker’s twine)

Sewing machine or stapler

Now let’s put it all together:

Cut two pieces of felt to measure 3 x 12.

Put one piece of felt on top of the other, matching edges. Sew along one long edge with a 1/4 seam allowance. Sew again along the same stitching line to reinforce since you will be cutting through the stitching lines later. Trim seam allowances after sewing. Open it up and use a ruler and tailor’s chalk to mark lines every 3/4 inch. This is on the inside with the seam open in the middle and the raw edges in back.Flip the pieces over, so the seam is folded to the inside. Your marked lines should now be on the outside. Match the edges of the other long side. Sew with a 1/4 seam allowance. Again, sew over the same stitching line to reinforce. Trim seam allowance. You now have a tube in the shape of a heart.Pressing all layers as flat as possible, cut along the marked lines. Voila!

Don’t have a sewing machine or hate the thought of using it? Replace the sewing with stapling. Just mark the lines first so your staples won’t get in the way of cutting.

Now you can string it all together. Thread a needle with cord, or baker’s twine and poke through one side of the heart, through the center and then the other side. Alternate between red and white hearts, with pink pom poms in between. Make sure to fasten each end.

Hot City! You are done and ready to hang some love in the room. Granny used to say hot city to try and sound up with the lingo of her grandkids. I told her it sounded better to use the lingo of her day. So, in her honor, I hope you have a hunky dory Valentine’s Day.

This Pin Rocks!

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Scalloped Felt Trees

Linda — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 03:00:24 +0000

We are so excited to have Linda from It All Started With Paint with us again today. We love her witty writing as well as her great ideas. No wonder we have her back, right? These Scalloped Felt Trees look so cozy! Enjoy this great post from Linda.

This scalloped felt tree tutorial is not the project I had planned to share with you wonderful Made From Pinterest readers. No, I had other plans in mind. Big plans. Plans that included plastic forks. And spray paint …

Inspired by the plastic spoon tree that’s been all over Pinterest. It caught my eye …

and sparked my imagination …

and I thought I’d give it a fun twist with forks. Instead of spoons. Personally, I thought it was a stroke of brilliance. I mean, the tines on the fork would represent the needles on the tree.

Pure genius, right?

So I picked up some cheap forks at the grocery store. And started cutting. And plastic was flying this way and that. Tines in one direction, handles in the other. After five cuts, I gave up. Because the original tutorial called for 200+ spoon “heads” …

and because my dog was quivering in the corner …

and because, quite frankly, I like my DIY’s easy.

Enter the scalloped felt tree. Which I pinned here and here and here …

So much less risky than those flying plastic tines …

although, there is the hot glue gun to contend with.

How to Make a Scalloped Felt Tree

I started by cutting up felt pieces into 2” x 4” lengths …

Which I folded in half …

And free-hand cut circles …

When I thought I had enough circles cut (which I didn’t, so I had to cut more) I started hot gluing them on the form. Starting at the bottom …

Staggering the rows as I worked my way up …

Until I was done …

And now they look so cute on my holiday fantel mantel …

So much simpler than cutting the heads off of plastic forks!

***You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

Linda, thanks for another great post. We think the fork idea was genius too, but based on your experience we are not trying it! The felt trees sound like the way to go!

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