Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts

Monday, February 21, 2011

Silhouette Heat Transfer - One Design, Two Shirts!

Shirt 2

One of the reasons that I was so excited to get my hands on the Silhouette machine was the option to use the heat transfer material. I had used some store bought iron-on letters to make my son a "lil mascot" shirt before and had TERRIBLE results! Really, the letters immediately started peeling off when my son was wearing it, several came off in the wash, and even with a iron on "refresher" they still just wouldn't stay. So last week I finally just ripped them all off.

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My son was delivering Valentine's Day cookies to his dad's class, so the night before I decided to use that red shirt and my white heat transfer material to make him a cute Valentine shirt. He's almost 3 now, so I didn't want his shirt to be too cutesy, but I still wanted it to be Valentine-ish. I found this fun "trucks" graphic that was just what I was looking for.

I bought it from Silhouette's online store, opened it in the software, played around with the sizing and layout a bit, and was finished.

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But as I was looking at the design on my screen, I realized that I could make good use of both the trucks and the blank space around it that the trucks had been cut out from. That way I could have 2 truck shirts, a Valentine version, and a "rest of the year" version. I sent my design to the Silhouette and it cut out the truck design.

I got a blank piece of paper and cut out a heart that was big enough to encompass all three trucks. I trimmed it down until it was just the right size, and then used it as a template to cut the heat transfer paper into a heart shape. I then peeled the little trucks out, and set them aside.

Valentine 18

Once all of the truck pieces were removed, I had this fun heart shape with truck shapes already cut out. I ironed it onto my little red shirt and it was ready to go!

Valentine 19

It made for one cute and sassy little Valentine shirt! I told my husband that it was like the shirt was saying "I Love Trucks!" He didn't buy it, but I didn't care, and my son was a total ham when I got the camera out!!

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I then took the truck cut outs that I had set aside, and laid those on another shirt. I used the plastic transfer paper backing to keep them in place while I ironed them down, and was done!!

Valentine 20

Two shirts out from the effort of making one!? You really can't beat that!!

Shirt 1

I'll be linking my shirts to these parties this week.

In other fun news, did you know that Lemon Tree Creations is about to turn 1?! Yep, it's our birthday next week, and we're so excited!!

We also have some fun giveaways lined up for next week: a stunning dress from Shabby Apple, a $50 Target gift card, and a Lemon Tree Bundle - a gift from each of us!! Sounds fun, right? Be sure to come back next week and enter to win these great prizes!

Have a great week!

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Friday, February 11, 2011

It's a "Felt" Friday

You may remember my Paper Tree a while back. Felt is so versatile and such an easy throw together project when you are looking for a last minute table decoration idea. So I decided to use my old paper tree project and turn it into this cute Valentine Tree!



All you need is tons of felt, some pins, and of course some styrofoam. (A wreath would be super cute as well)



Depending on the size of your tree (mine is just a little guy) I cut my circles approx. 2". Folding them in half and once more, then simply putting the pin in the end and placing them in no particular order on the tree.



Just keep going...



And going...you are almost finished!



Voila! Add your tiny cute tree to the rest of your festive decor. Place a felt rosette inside serving piece, topped along with some awesome houndstooth frames, which I found for super cheap and of course added some felt to them.

Ever feel like a "Felt" Friday?

Happy Valentine's Day!


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Friday, February 4, 2011

5 Tips to Great Sugar Cookies


I love traditions. One tradition that comes with each and every holiday around here is the making, decorating and packaging (not to mention consuming) of homemade sugar cookies. I love everything about making sugar cookies. I picked up a recipe along the way somewhere, and have changed bits and pieces here and there to get my sugar cookies just the way I like them!

So today, I thought I would share with you...
5 Tips to Great Sugar Cookies
1) Find the perfect recipe. Here is the one I have used to make literally HUNDREDS of yummy cookies:
1 1/2 cups butter (soften)
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (best not to use imitation)
5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (optional, I vote no most of the time!)

Cream the butter and sugar together til smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour,
baking powder and salt. Cover and chill dough for 30 minutes or more.
Bake at 400 degrees F (or 200 degrees C) for 6-8 minutes.

2)Don't preheat the oven. Ok, am I scaring you yet? I know there are a lot of methods to keep your first batch of cookies from burning, but the quickest and easiest is no preheating. It never fails, if I forget this little rule of thumb my first cookies come out crispy with nice dark bottoms. Trust me, you'll live and learn on this one.

3)Roll your dough and cut your cookies thick. I roll my dough out around 1/2 inch thick. It sounds crazy, but it makes for extremely soft and delicious cookies!

4) Never cook your cookies the whole 6-8 minutes. What? I know, I sound crazier by the minute. Here is my thinking on this tip. THE BEST sugar cookies are perfectly fluffly and soft all the way through right? The minute you over cook, even by 30 seconds, a brown ring forms on the bottom of your cookies and you have taken just a little bit of goodness out of them. So, watch your cookies at the 4 minute mark. Depending on how hot your oven has remained, this might be all the cooking time you need a few batches in.

Worried about undercooking? Well that is simple to monitor as well. If your cookies appear slightly darker in the center, as though they are moist, pop them back in the oven for 1 minute increments.

5)Make your own icing. I love to glaze my cookies with powdered sugar icing. It is a sweet, simple icing that is BIG on taste. It brings the sweetness of the cookies to life. Creating this icing is kind of guess and check process. You can find a good standard recipe here, but I tend to guess and check quite a bit! Be sure to add just the right color to make your cookies stand out!

This year I decided to use my new silhouette to package the cookies! I love the way they turned out. I simply typed up my design and printed it on some fun scrapbook paper. Done and done!

Just be sure to not get too carried away with the packaging, I am sure one of your little sweeties and you will want to eat a few too! Enjoy!
Happy Baking!

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Vintage Valentine's Table

I found these sweetest vintage Valentines at the same local antique store I purchased my awesome farm table.
So, I thought it was only fitting that I put the two to work together to create a sweet and vintage Valentine's table.
As I was working on putting my table together, I thought I would show you my first step one just to keep it real around here... So, first find your dining room table under the random useless stuff you've spent the last few days piling on...Next, I gathered a great tulip bouquet I snagged for $6, the last great remnants of some great flowers the hubby surprised me with, and one of every jar I could find in my house.The tulips went further than I could have expected! I was thrilled.
I arranged the flowers on my table, somewhat hap-hazardly for a natural feel.Can you tell I am IN LOVE with the way these flowers look in the sunlight in their glass vases on that farm wood table top? And for $6 a bouquet, I am going to be watching my grocers clearance section a little more closely this season...

Now, for the place settings, I pulled out some favorites, like my monogrammed plates from way back, some china tea cups, gorgeous pink spray roses and the vintage valentines.




I also added some interest to the napkins by scalloping basic pink dinner napkins and tying they up pretty with red ribbon.

Then, I just sat back and had a nice long look. Sure, the flowers will have to be changed out again closer to Valentine's Day, but I am sure by them I will be willing to spend a few extra bucks for a special family dinner.
Have you done any great Valentine's Day table displays? I would love for you to link them up to our flickr page on the side bar and share your fabulous ideas! In the meantime, I will be linking to these great parties this week. See you there!

Happy Thursday,

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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Valentine's Day Party Ideas

The past two years I have had a Valentine's Day party for my daughter and a few of her little friends.  So much fun!  This is pretty much her favorite day of the year so we try to make the most of it!

Our first party was for her and three of her best little boyfriends.  I chose some special pictures of her with each friend and placed them on the kitchen chalkboard...


Avery wanted hearts everywhere so I punched holes in paper hearts and strung them on ribbon as well as hung them from the light fixture...



I used more paper hearts and wrote, "Valentine, you rule!" on them.  I believe that idea came from Family Fun magazine.  I stuck letter stickers on the plates so the kids would each have a special plate.  I found some whistling heart straws and plastic heart cups at Wal-Mart.  The straws were a big hit as you can imagine...


I gathered up some heart stickers and let them each decorate a white take-out box...


I hid paper hearts all around the living room and they went on a "heart hunt".  Their boxes were used to collect the hearts.  Then we sat down to count how many we found...


We also let them go crazy with red, pink, & green paint and some heart stamps...


We had a simple lunch of heart pb & j's, heart cheese, and strawberries...


And for dessert, each kid got a heart shaped sugar cookie to decorate themselves with white icing and sprinkles galore...


Last year's party was a little more sophisticated to meet the needs of our then (almost) four year olds.  I added apples to the menu this time...


I took pics of the letters in the word love, a heart beanbag, and a Valentine's Day book, scanned them into the computer, and printed them out.  I glued them to pieces of cardboard so they could carry them around and know what to search for...

They played a game of "toss the heart beanbags" into a red bucket...  



I found foam heart photo magnets and printed off a pic of each kid to place in their frame.  They then decorated them with foam stickers...


I found different heart straws for that year and of course more special heart cups...


And instead of icing sugar cookies, they got to frost their own cupcakes with red frosting and sprinkles. A huge mess was made with the red icing but the kids loved it...

And then Avery exchanged valentines with her friends...

Also balloons are always a necessity at any party, of course...


Happy Valentine's Day!  

I'll be linking to these parties this week.

Happy Tuesday!

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