Valentine Crafts

A couple of friends and I make hand stamped cards and crafts to sell at what we 'tongue in cheek' call the "Divine Card's" Table at our church's Harvest Fair each October.

We also make stamped crafts for each holiday to make money for the church during the year.

These are some Valentine's items that I made this year.

First up are these cute candles that I made by stamping on white tissue paper, then coloring in the stamping with markers or colored pencils where needed. Cut around the image leaving just a little bit extra. Then you cut a piece of wax paper that is as tall as the candle and long enough to wrap around the candle with several inches extra. Place the stamped tissue against the candle and wrap the waxed paper tightly over it holding it by the extra length in the back. Then heat with a hot gun over the stamped area - you will see the wax paper melt slightly into the candle - it happens pretty quickly. When you remove the wax paper - the tissue has become part of the candle and that's it! This is an easy process and it comes out really professional looking! I then put the candles in flat bottom clear bags that I got from http://www.clearbags.com/ and stapled a punched stamped heart layered on a paper doily to the top.

I got these cute red tins at Michaels for $1 - can't beat that! I decorated them by punching a large heart from several pretty Valentine designer papers with my Giga Marvy Scalloped punch. I attached that to the tin with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive that I got at Michaels. Next I stamped my cute little hedgehog from Penny Black stamps onto a white scalloped circle (Marvy punch again) added a couple of jewels and attached it over the heart with dimensional adhesives. The last decorating item is to attach coordinating ribbon around the sides using super tacky tape. I filled these cute treats with white shredded paper and 6 Hershey kisses.

These cute little items are called "Pixie Pockets" and I made them a few weeks ago for the 'Try a New Technique' challenge over on Split Coast Stampers. The original directions were given by Anita for a Virtual Stamp Night challenge in 2006 and were resurrected by Wendella247 for this challenge in 2008. Here are the directions: cut one 7x7 inch piece of cardstock - I used red, pink and white for mine. Fold this in half so it measures 7" high by 3 1/2" wide. Open it up and cut down 2" on the center fold from the top. Fold it back and fold down the 2" top panel. Cut 2 pieces of designer paper 3 3/8 x 3 1/2 for the bottom and 3 3/8 x 1 3/4 for the top panel. Punch all corners of the card stock and designer paper with your corner rounder. Attach the designer paper to the front bottom and flap. Either sew the edges or use super tacky tape. Add stamped decorations as desired. I then made some chocolate Valentine pops and slipped them into the pocket.

I'm sure you've seen these fun decorated little metal mail boxes - they are all over the blogs and on Split Coast. They are $1 at Target and come in pink, white and red. I used wonderful directions that I found on Emily's blog I just put shredded white paper inside and let the buyers add their own candy as desired.

I found the instructions for these cute little fortune cookies in the February Issue of Martha Stewart. They are made by first cutting a 4 inch circle out of felt. Then you cut a 3 3/4" piece of florist wire and place it across the center of the circle. Attach a 4" piece of same color grosgrain ribbon over the wire using a white glue. Let this dry for a couple of hours, Then bend the wire in half and it shapes into a fortune cookie. The instructions said that you could slip Hershey kisses inside them - but I found that the 'cookie' wasn't firm enough or big enough to hold them - so I just stamped a fortune on vellum (hugs and kisses - from Papertrey Ink Sweet Love ) and attached it to the inside of the cookie. I then placed shredded white paper into a flat bottom clear bag and added Hershey kisses around it. I embossed hearts with my Cuttlebug folder on a square of card stock - folded it in half - stamped Happy Valentines Day ($1 Michaels stamp) on a punched scalloped circle and stapled that on the folded top of the bag.

My last craft for our sale is this cute little 'sour cream' container made out of clear acetate. This project was from a challenge on Split Coast Stampers also - we learn such fun things there - you really need to check out all the templates and projects in the Resources section on the site. I cut out the acetate - stamped it with white craft ink with a cute heart and dots stamp from Stampin Up. I let the ink dry overnight as it takes longer to dry on acetate. Then I put super tacky tape on the edges - folded as directed - added delicious Cherry Cream Hershey Kisses and sealed the top. Then I stamped the label with another Stampin Up stamp and stapled that to the top with a piece of ribbon.

So - those are the crafts I made for our Valentine's sale - hope you enjoyed them and that they will inspire you to make some too! Let me know what you think by hitting comments below.

Happy Valentine's Day!