Monday, February 7, 2011

Valentines Tree


 My daughter loves Christmas trees -- she hates it when it's time to take the tree down and "get back to normal."  Last year we remedied this by keeping out one small tree and decorating it for each season.  (Basically spring/summer/fall/winter).  This year we decided to add in a Valentines Tree for the month of February.  Not having a lot of extra cash laying around right now - we went for a more homemade look this time.  We only spent $5 on this tree -- $3 for the roses and $2 for the heart treat containers (that we snapped a piece of red DMC into so we could hang them).
I had seen a crocheted heart garland on-line (click here for directions) -- we did ours in pink.
Also made a few crocheted hearts using variegated yarn.
Chain 3 - join with slip stitch in initial slip knot
R1 Chain 1, sc into loop 7 times - join with slip stitch into chain 1
R2 sl st into 1single crochet, 5 hdc into second sc, hdc in next two stitches, hdc, chain 1, hdc in next stitch, hdc in next two stitches, 5 hdc in last stitch, sl st in original sl st.
Pull up a loop on your finished stitch to hang it by - weave ends into back

Wendy (over at Wendy's Hat) inspired me to make some felt ornaments with her beautiful heart creation --
I actually made three valentine ornaments like this ---- here's the other two

The vintage images came from Clearly Vintage (love that site - Cora does a great job collecting vintage images and putting them up for all of us to use!) I ran the images through my Cuttlebug with the Script Embossing folder (Provo Craft) and lightly inked them with brown ink (to age them a little).
The crocheted hearts are exactly the same as the ones above - only difference is I used the single crochet stitch instead of the half double crochet stitch - in this way they were a little smaller and fit on my felt heart better.
I hot glued some vintage lace (that I picked up at a thrift store last year) around the edge.

For this one I used a cream felt and made a little pocket on the front. (Also inspired by Wendy at Wendy's Hat).  Used another Clearly Vintage image and added some pleated ribbon around the outside edge.
Used my Martha Stewart leaf punch for those leaves and the rose came from ?????? --- just something I had in my stash. 
I don't like having a "messy" looking back on my projects so I cut a cream piece of felt to cover the back of these --- here's a view of that.
I saved my favorite for last --- my first ever embroidery project!
This was inspired by Pam (over at Our Sheltering Tree) ---- as soon as I saw her beautiful embroidered bird I knew I wanted to try it.  I free-handed this...but having never embroidered before I wasn't sure how to do the blanket stitch around the edge......this page helped with that.  I think I'm hooked -- it was so much fun making this!
I made two red hearts and one white one...I couldn't find the rest of my cream felt so I used batting instead.  Both hearts are stuffed with a little bit of poly fill.
Since embroidery is "new" to me (as far as me trying it) - I'd love to know of any embroidery blogs/free patterns sites that you've discovered....or any book recommendations.   Especially interested in simple hand embroidery -- nothing too complicated at this point.......if you know of something I'd enjoy  -- leave me a comment with a link.  Thanks!
Wanted to link to this post I just saw on Made with Monday -- come extra cute stuffed felt hearts!!
Hope you've enjoyed my homemade Valentines' tree --- I enjoyed making it!
This post linked to:
Made With Love Monday 
 Take A Look Tuesday 
Friday Flair 
Valentine's Link Party at The Shabby Creek Cottage

6 comments:

angie said...

i love the idea of a valentine's tree - how fun! thanks for linking to my felt hearts :)

Amazing Flower said...

wow this is the first time i saw christmas tree turns to be valentine tree. what a nice idea.

Love from international flower delivery :)

Lynn said...

Your tree is really cute-enjoy:@)

Christa said...

This is beautiful! Great job! :) As far as embroidery, I always enjoyed the iron-on designs when I was learning. I haven't done it in awhile, though, and I don't think those designs are offered anymore. However, I do have an iron-on pen here if you find a design you'd especially like to do. :)

Wendys Hat said...

Very cute! I love it!

Pamela said...

You are so creative! I love how you "spoil" your daughter. I say spoil because RB always said there are no spoiled children--just undisciplined ones. So I'm safe in saying "spoiled" without the normal connotation! I'm making some felt hearts too for a project but didn't think about the extra small heart--I may have to steal your idea.