happy hearts day

Happy Valentine's Day, all you good people with big and happy and generous hearts.

At noon today, San Francisco celebrated the 50th anniversary of Tony Bennett recording "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." All the local radio stations were asked to play the song at noon, and the city blasted it out of the PA system at City Hall.

"The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care. My love waits there in San Francisco..."

valentine's day heart punch napkins

Looking for something sweet for the breakfast table? These napkins use a heart hole punch to make a stencil for printing on napkins. The heavy clunk of the metal punch is almost as satisfying as the resulting shower of confetti hearts.

Materials: Napkins (washed, dried and ironed), stencil sheets or Mylar (I used frosted Mylar cut into 4 ½ x 6” sheets), heart hole punch, painter’s tape, textile or screen-printing ink, stencil brush, paper plates, iron.

Step 1: Using the heart hole punch, cut hearts in the stencil sheet. I made three sheets – one for each color I wanted to print.

Step 2: Print the napkins by taping your stencil to the napkin. This gives a buffer for the paint as well as holding it in place. Pour small amount of ink onto a paper plate. Dip your brush into the ink and then remove excess ink by tapping the stencil brush onto plate. Apply ink to stencil using a straight up and down motion. Carefully peel away stencil and move to a new area.

Step 3: Apply a new color by repeating Step 2 after the first color ink is dry to the touch. Repeat with a third color if desired.

To make your ink permanent, follow ink manufacturer’s instruction for “heat-setting” the ink. This means ironing the fabric after it has air dried to make it permanent so you can wash and dry your napkins over and over to repeatedly brighten your table.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring these posts.  I hope everyone gets just the right amount of sweet this Valentine's Day. xoxo

valentine's day cookie packaging

I know it’s the thought that counts. But I also believe that if that thought is dressed up pretty, even cookies can taste sweeter. The variations on what supplies to use are endless, but here’s what I used.

Materials for the labels: Plain shipping tags, circle stamp, ink pad, pink marker, red card stock, hole punch, scissors, spray glue, embroidery thread, letter stamp. Materials for the cookie packages: white take out containers, striped waxed paper, polka dot paper, scissors, spray glue, washi tape.

Step 1: To make the arrow labels, stamp a circle on a shipping tag and draw an arrow through the center. To make the fluted corner labels, use a fluted hole punch to cut a circle. Place the cut-out circle atop the shipping tag and cut along a corner of the tag. Use spray glue to affix to label. Add an XOXO stamp.

Step 2: To add a pennant effect around the container, cut a zig-zag length of paper long enough to wrap around the container. Spray glue the back side of paper and affix to top edge of container.

Put a piece of wax paper inside a container, add cookies and affix labels to the top with a piece of washi tape. Send to all your valentines.

A note about recipes: I used this recipe for almond lavender shortbread. And this one for the chocolate cookies – it’s like a brownie in cookie form. If you are eating or serving at home, feel free to make marshmallow fluff sandwiches with fluff mixed with a little strawberry or raspberry jam to tint pink. Be forewarned: they get goopy fast. But the goop is worth it.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring this post and encouraging us all to be creative and sweet in our Valentine's Day celebrations. xoxo

valentine's diy: bentwood hearts

I’m going to come right out with it. The thought of batting my eyelashes across a candlelit restaurant dinner on Valentine’s Day creeps me out. I’m just not that kind of girl.

What I do go for, however, is cooking a great meal and making sweet somethings for the people I love. A cluster of these lightweight veneer hearts hung in a corner or over the dining room table creates a dreamy little heart forest and transmits a 'modern love' kind of vibe.

Materials: Strips of wood veneer (available in different widths in hardware stores), scissors, awl and cutting board, brads, glue, yarn or ribbon, clothespins, paint, decorative tape or glitter for decorating

Step 1: For each heart, cut two pieces of veneer the same length (I used 10” strips for the smaller hearts and 18” for the larger hearts). Bend one strip and then the other, so the cut ends line up and pinch together.

Step 2: Using a awl and a cutting board or mat, push the awl through to make a hole through all four layers of the veneer. Once the awl is all the way through, flip the stack over and push awl in through the other side so the veneer doesn’t split. Push a brad through and open ends to secure.

Step 3: Add yarn or ribbon to hang by sliding the central “stem” of the heart open and squeezing a line of glue. Position end of yarn over the glue, slide the veneer back and clothespin together until glue dries.

Step 4: Decorate with paint – acrylic gives opaque coverage and watercolor creates a softer effect. Alternatively, add strips of decorative tape to create stripes or add glitter.

Step 5: Hang in a cluster, or tie the hearts to dowels to create a mobile.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring this post and encouraging us to be creative in the way we celebrate Valentine's Day. xoxo

happy valentine's day, team

I can’t help dorking out on a holiday that is all about sweetness. But for me, it’s not about lovey-dovey-ness for my husband (sorry, Mike). That stuff still kind of makes me gag. Instead, it’s become a holiday to make gingersnap dulche de leche cookies or marshmallows and send them to friends and family that make your life a whole lot better by being in it.

And, speaking of people who make your life better, I have to let you in on a trick that Sarah taught me. She and her family visited this weekend, and she strolled into the kitchen as I was swearing while trying (unsuccessfully) to roll gingerbread dough without tearing it.

Sarah’s trick is a Ziploc bag, and it is utter genius: if you put the dough inside, you can roll it to a perfect thickness, then cut open the sides and use cookie cutters right on the bag. You don't even have to add any flour. I am telling you, this has changed by cookie-making life forever.

And in other news, the lovely and impressive Joslyn from Simple Lovely asked me to round up a list of things that make me happy after we met at Alt. I was so happy to meet her in person, and you can check out my  list over here. But don’t tell me what happened with Friday Night Lights – I can’t bear to watch the finale and admit that it’s really over.

valentine's day string art

Do you guys remember this kooky craft from the 70s? It turns out that making string art is really calming and meditative – not to mention groovy. That loop-loop-loop back and forth between nails is sort of like remedial weaving. Okay, very remedial weaving.

I made these bulletin boards for Valentine’s Day, with a kind of abstracted string art heart motif. I tried two different styles: one on plain cork and the other on painted cork. And I used different nails for each one – the linoleum nails I used on the plain cork have a larger head than the wire brad nails I used on the white cork.

I glued two cork tiles together as a base so it would be thick enough to push the nails into place. But you could just as easily made this on wood and hammer the nails into place.

The heart involves curves; and since I am not a mathematician and I prefer asymmetrical shapes, I went a little free from with the looping. Experiment first to get a sense of stringing the design – the shape and its interior curve change depending on the path that you follow from nail to nail.

Materials:

Cork tiles

Paint (if painting the cork a color)

Glue

Pencil

Nails (I used 2 kinds – linoleum nails and wire brads.)

Colored embroidery floss or other thin string

Scissors

Japanese paper tape

How-to:

1. If painting your tiles, paint them and let dry.
2. Glue two tiles together, place under a heavy stack of books and let dry.
3. Sketch a heart shape on the cork with a pencil. Then fill in the outline with nails, spacing them evenly around the design.
4. Double-knot the embroidery floss around a nail to start.
5. Now, wrap the floss back and forth to create the design. Move from nail to nail by wrapping the floss around a nail, then returning it across the heart to another nail. Keep going from nail to nail in a criss-cross pattern until you complete your design.

When you’re done, double-knot the floss at the last nail and cut the excess. To finish edges, run a strip of Japanese tape across each edge. Secure with extra glue if you want a stronger bond, which I recommend. If you want, you can run a strip across the front of the cork as well. Trim ends.

To kid-ify this project, use larger nails and let kids do the wrapping with thick yarn. Stay tuned to see if my niece and nephew think find string art as far-out as I do.