Keep It Simple Sunday Happy Valentine's Day DIY/Cupcake Liner Banner & Dollar Tree Valentine Crafts

This is Maddie and let's get creative. So today I'm going to be starting with this cupcake liner banner, like a garland that I made. So I have a whole bunch of these Valentine cupcake liners that I got in a grab bag at Michael's last year. So I'm just trying to find a decorative use for them. So I cut out a bunch of circles out of thin cardboard that I had, just cereal boxes, cracker boxes. I used that tin can as a template. And then I just coated the back where the pictures were with some white chocolate to coat. And then I'm just going in here with some watered down PVA white glue, just normal white school glue. And putting down two cupcake liners onto each circle. So I'm just doing the glue in the center of the cupcake liners just to give it kind of that flower effect where they stand up a little bit. Kind of that 3D effect. So it works a lot like Mod Podge when you just water down some white glue. It's basically the same thing almost. And then I just had some wooden letters that spell out extra hugs and kisses. And I just stained them with some dark walnut paint and let them dry. And then I just glued the letters into the center of the cupcake liner with some hot glue. And this made me really want one of those finer tip glue guns. I think it would be great to have one of those for detail work. Just a little dangerous with those hot glue guns. I was careful not to press down too hard on the letters just so the glue wouldn't smudge out too much. Just because it was a little hard to control. So these letters are from Dollarama, but I know Dollar Tree sells a lot of wooden letters right now too. So then I just had some white ribbon, just kind of normal, I think they call it rose spring ribbon. And I also made a few little ones with mini cupcake liners to separate the words. And sort of start in the finish of the little small ones. And then just gluing them onto the ribbon. The whole thing over. And I also cut out some circles out of scrapbook paper. So just some variations of pink and red that I had just on hand. So I cut out some circles the same size and glued them down to the back. And it helps hold the ribbon on and then helps keep the ribbon upright too. So they don't flip around too much when it's hanging at the front. This will be too bad for storage because they actually walk down flat. So I think I'll be able to just fold it up and put it into a Ziploc bag for next year. So I'm pretty happy with it. It's nice and bright and fun. And I can't wait to hang it over my fireplace next year. So this video is actually part of a challenge called the Keep It Simple Sunday Challenge. And I hope I did that enough. I tried not to use anything too complicated. I wanted to get in a few more Valentine crafts before tomorrow, before Valentine's Day. So thanks for letting me in on this challenge. And hopefully I kept it simple enough. This challenge is hosted by Melissa from Melissa Makes It DIY. And she's great at fixing up wood things that she finds at thrift stores. Just a super fun, super mom crafter. Really great to watch. And it's also co-hosted by Theresa B. DIY. And she loves to do lots of pretty farmhouse crafts and signs. Just really great designers. So I'll have their links in the description under my video. You can go ahead and check their videos out as well. So this is the next DIY. So it's just one of those love signs from the Dollar Tree. I see them in thrift stores and stuff a lot now too. I think they've been selling them for a few years. So if you come across one of these, this is a nice easy way to dress it up. Make it pretty. So I just gave it two coats of white top paint. And now I'm just covering just the top with some Mod Podge. And I gave it a fairly decent coat. Like a fairly heavy coat. And I'm just going to use some scrapbook paper. And I actually just rolled it out. Because I hear so many people say they get lots of bubbles and stuff with Mod Podge. And I hadn't really done it in a while. So I was hoping to get the best result I could. And I remembered I had this little 3D roller. So I thought I'd give it a try. And then I just let it dry. So I didn't put any Mod Podge over top of it yet. I just let it dry. And it worked great. There was no bubbles at all. And then I just cut out roughly around the edges. And then sanded it. So I'm not sure if it was just leaving it flat as one sheet of paper that helped. Or just not putting the Mod Podge over the top right away. But it turned out great. There's no bubbles at all. So I'm really happy with that. I'm just going in with an emery board to do the detailed sanding. I used a piece of sandpaper to smooth the edges. And it actually gives you such a clean finish. It looks like it's manufactured, actually. It turned out really great. And then now I'll just go in with some Mod Podge over the top. Just to seal it all and protect it. And it actually came out so great. It just looks like one of those photographs that you get dry mounted to a board. So it came out no bubbles. Nice hard finish with the Mod Podge. And it was great. So now I just have these little foam roses. They're actually just on a topiary ball. I think they're a wedding decoration. I just had it kicking around in my classroom for a long time. So I pulled off the foam roses. And then just painted them to match the Scotland paper that I used. So I mixed some red and white just to make my own pink. And then here I'm just going to seal up the back of the heart on the love sign. So I just used a piece of the same cardboard from one of the dollar store purchases I made. And then I didn't want the flowers to sit in that deep. I kind of wanted them to stick out of the heart. So I thought I would fill it with a little bit of foam. But you could just use whatever you have on hand to stuff it with. Cotton balls, whatever. I just didn't want the roses to be sunk down in that far. I kind of wanted them to have more of a 3D effect. So this worked great. I also just beveled the edges so that I could really push down on the roses in the corners. So it gave it kind of more of a rounded effect. So the rose in the center would stick out more than the others. And then just hot glue them down. And I was able to fit five of these little roses in there. They're so quicky because they're just made out of foam. But any roses would work. If you had some full flowers, you can fill flowers or plastic flowers or foam. Anything like this would work. It's kind of a fun idea to fill the heart section of that. And this is the finished product. I'm really happy with it. It kind of goes with my, before I used red, pink, purple, kind of the old Valentine colors. I'm just trying to make them all work together. So this next project is... These are some heart buckets from the Dollar Tree that we sold for Valentine's Day. So I just stuffed them up with some sandpaper just so that they would hold the paint a little better. Because they were quite shiny and smooth plastic. So I tried to keep the paint going in an up and down brush stroke to kind of mimic wood. So I had this vision. I just wanted them to look like a really aged cedar wood with white paint over top. And then kind of have a cedary wood effect coming through like they were really old. So to do that, I used some glaze, just some clear glaze. And then I mixed a little combination of a medium brown and a darker brown. Just to kind of get that cedary aged wood color that I was hoping to get. So I mixed that all up. I used glaze, but you could use Mod Podge or just water down some paint. Just to make it transparent. I didn't want it to be too opaque going on. And I wanted to be able to control it well. So if you use a glaze, it actually gives you a longer open time to work with. Meaning that it doesn't dry as fast. But just watering down paint does that as well. So then I'm just trying to make it look like it's just really old. Kind of that romantic French country kind of look. Like it had been painted, but a long time ago. And then the wood kind of is keeping that state of paint. So just going with the faux green that I had given it by doing the brush strokes up and down. And then just for this too, just using the brush to create those up and down lines too. Just so everything is kind of vertical and like it would be going with the grain of the wood. And I really love the detail of these hearts. And the bigger heart with the little heart in the center. I just thought it was so pretty. If they were just a little bit thicker, I think it would actually feel like a wood pocket. So I just wanted you guys to see in detail just what I'm doing. If you wanted to recreate that. And then I did seal these after just with a spray matte finish. And then I just used some star foam that I had on hand. Just some packing star foam instead of having used floral foam. And then I just wanted to make the buckets look like they were really full of these purple roses. So these were kind of my favorite that I found at Dollar Tree. Just because they had that variation of color in them and it was really apparent. I think the blush color ones had that as well. But I just really loved the variation in the purple in these. I thought it gave them a lot of texture and depth. So they were kind of my favorite. So I think I used four bunches. Excuse me. I used four bunches. So eight bunches all together to be two. And this is how they turned out. So I thought they'd be kind of good all through spring. So I'll probably keep them up with all my Easter stuff as well. And so for this last project, this is a sign that was in that grab bag with those cupcake liners last year. At Michael's at the end of the year. So I thought I would just kind of dress it up a little bit. Just make it look a little bit prettier. So I had this tissue paper that I thought was really pretty. It's like a vellum kind of tissue paper with this design on it. And I thought it would look really pretty over top of the red. So again, just Mod Podge and using my roller to apply it. And you can actually see the pressure of the roller. It just gives it that even pressure. It pushes all those bubbles and wrinkles out. I'm really happy with that. I think it's a great tool to have on hand if you do a lot of Mod Podge or Jacob Podge. And then I'm just using more of those little white foam roses. And I didn't color these ones. I just left them white. And just squishing them in there. Trying to make it look like a really nice little heart. So the hot glue seems to work with this kind of rubbery foam. Like the foam that comes in heat. I know it doesn't work for styrofoam, but I was really happy that it did work for this. And this is the final look. I was pretty happy with that as well. I think it only took great addition to my home decor for Valentine's Day. Kind of that romantic French country look to it. And then just another quick look at everything all together. Thank you so much if you've made it to the end of this video. And thank you so much to Melissa and to Theresa B for letting me be a part of their challenge.