Valentine Themed Projects

Valentine's Day is coming up, so I have been having fun creating Valentine themed decor and gifts. Below are a few photos of projects I have completed. If you have questions or would like to order any of these, just drop an email to: judesigns@hotmail.com.

I think gumball machines are so neat, so when I came across this idea to make one using terracotta pots and a glass dish I thought it was perfect! I wanted to make it as realistic as I could, so added embossed metal to the front of it. This would make a fun candy dish for any room of the house. :)

Here is a gold frame that I used vinyl to add the birds, branches, and the word "Love".

Here is black crackled frame that has the I Corinthians 13 verse inside and the word "Love" in pink vinyl on the glass.

This black frame says "I love you because..." and I added the same color paper to the dry erase marker. This is a fun way to remind the people closes to you that you love them and why you love them.

This is a 4"x4" box that I distressed and stamped on. I really like the Kraft paper look with the black and deep red! Two sides have red hearts, one side says "love you" and the other side says "with love". The butterfly is stamped and cut out and I added a little bit of silver Stickles to the wings. I think it will make a cute and fun way to wrap a Valentine's gift, so I will be making more!

This glass etched cupcake/treat stand isn't really done in a Valentine's theme, but it was a new project I completed, so I thought I would post a photo of it. What a fun way to display treats on a table at any party!

Crafting Space Organization

Some of you have mentioned that you are always looking for craft room organizing ideas, so I thought I would post something that I just completed in my craft area. I love having a place for everything and everything in it's place. It really helps when I am creating to know exactly where to find what I am looking for. It also helps when I am done creating to know where to put things away, because I can't seem to be creative in a clean and orderly manner. :)

This is what my area looks like when I am creating...

My craft area is a part of our family room in the basement, so it is out in the open where everyone can see it. I am always looking for ways to help it look more organized, without spending a lot of money. The one thing that has been bugging me for awhile is that all of my storage bins and paper stash under my craft tables were visible. I just didn't like being able to see all of it, so I decided to hide it with curtains. I had changed out the curtains in our formal dining room last summer, so I decided to use a couple of those panels to make curtains for my craft tables.

I purchased a couple of spring loaded curtain rods and thanks to my daughter's help, we were able to whip these curtains out in no time at all. I think it looks so much better, what do you think? Now I am ready to start my next project!

Frame Wall

I like to re-arrange decor in order to change things up a bit for the new year. A decorating trend that has caught my fancy lately is the wall of frames. I have seen this decorating style used all over the place and I really like how it looks. I have three walls in my front dining room that need something on them and I decided that one of them is getting a frame make-over. I started shopping around at my local thrift stores for unique and different sized and shaped frames a couple of months ago and felt like I had enough of an array to start!

I laid all of my frames on the floor trying to figure out how I wanted to hang them. This is a picture taken before redoing any of the frames. Don't you like the sideways bull fighting picture?

I painted and distressed the frames and then started hanging them on the wall. Don't they look better? I ended up not liking the way I had them arranged on the floor, so I did a little re-arranging.

Once I was happy with the arrangement, I started figuring out what, if anything, I wanted to put inside of the frames. Here is the arrangement that I ended up with.

The bull fighting picture is now a beautiful frame with a french saying. I did a little research to see if I could find an English interpretation, and what I found out was that this is some kind of advertisement for chocolate and it says something to the effect of eat chocolate for lunch. I figured that is very fitting for my home as I believe that life is short and you should eat dessert first. ;) The round silver tray I turned into a chalkboard and in the bottom frame I used vinyl to put the year my hubby and I got married.

I am pretty happy with the way the wall has turned out so far. Now to tackle the other two walls!

Another vinyl project that I just finished is this platter that I have displayed on my kitchen counter. I think it will be fun for us to be able to leave notes or encouraging words to one another.