Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello friends and Happy LOVE Day!  Valentine's Day has always been one of my most favorite holidays!  I think it's because it's so close to my birthday ;)  I love everything about it!  Okay, except that it's in February when it's cold and snowy and yucky.  But I love the hearts and flowers and chocolates and all the yummy pinks and reds and purples!

SOOOOOOOOO, in honor of LOVE day, how 'bout a quick and easy (and cheap!) craft to celebrate!?  I think yes :)

I took this collection of goodies:  (much of which was already in my stash, always a bonus)

And made this!

And here's how:

I picked up four different sized frames from the "value" bins at Michael's (I think they were $1-$2 each) and then gathered some cream-colored watermark paper from my stash, my sheet music stamp and some black ink. We'll get to the diecut machine pile in a minute :)

I tried to stamp the sheet music sections paper as close and even as I could (without overlapping) to cover the entire sheet, that way I didn't have to be overly careful about cutting out pieces to fit my frames.  I made sure to cut my new sheet music paper out using the background paper inside each frame as a guide so that each would be sure to fit.  I also kept that paper inside the frame, just behind the sheet music paper so that the black backing of the frame would not show through my light colored paper.

On to the diecut machine!  Depending on the size of your frames, you could use larger letter stickers or even sketch out your own letters!  My frames are approx. 3-3.5" so I pulled out my trusty diecutter and a loopy, cursive-y font cartridge and some very shiny black cardstock.

After I got my letters all cut out, I ran them through my handy dandy sticker maker:

And then it got fun!  To make sure I had my black letters centered in the frame where I wanted them to be, I took out the plastic "glass" of the frame, put my sheet music paper in the frame and then placed my letter :) Once each letter was stuck in the right place I took it out, replaced the "glass" and put it all back together!

And so, here's our finished product, one more time:

So cute and fun and EASY and cheap!  Which is how crafts should be sometimes :)   Really, the hardest part for me?  Deciding which letters would go in which shaped frame!  Couldn't have the "O" in the circle frame...would the "L" look better in the rectangle or the oval???  Not counting the great letter/frame debate, this cute craft took me about 15 minutes once I had all my supplies gathered :)

Happy Valentine's Day friends!  I hope you have a happy day filled with lots of lovey-dovey!


Maymie