A Blown Glass Heart Valentine

This year delight your Valentine with a beautiful handmade heart ornament.  Made with a blown glass heart from Germany, Dresden foils, paper scraps, and pretty fabric trims.

 

Here are links to the very supplies we used:
Gold Dresden Border, Silver Dresden Border, Blue Shell Border
Dresden Halos
Floral Scraps, Angel Scraps
Blown Glass Heart
Rosebud Trims, Metallic Trims

Step 1: Start by gently removing the cap from your heart ornament.

Step 2: Next wrap a Dresden border around the side of the heart.

Step 3: Gently glue a fabric trim on top of the Dresden border.  You may have to hold the trim in place while the glue sets up so it conforms to the contours of the heart.

Step 4: When all has dried, gently replace the cap.

 Step 5: Next pair your angel scrap with a floral scrap and a halo.  We used the pairings below.

Step 6: Glue the angel scrap to the halo.  You may wish to reinforce behind the angel's head with a light cardstock so the halo's embossing isn't visible.

Step 7: Glue the angel and halo to the ornament and, once dry, glue the flower scrap in place, layering it slightly over the bottom of the angel's wings.

Step 8: Allow to dry.

A few things to keep in mind:
We like a clear-drying liquid craft glue for applying scraps and trims.

The angel design can be repeated on the back of the heart as well.  Or you can apply a petty Dresden foil heart.

Layering is what takes these from ordinary to extraordinary -- metallic trims, Dresden foil trims, fabric trims and scraps -- the art is in the overlay!

Project Idea: Make a Hallowen Treat Bucket

With today being October 1st, we couldn't resist sharing a project for making decorative Halloween treat buckets. At just 3 1/2" deep and 4 1/2" across the top, these little guys work best as tabletop decorations as opposed to something to take trick-or-treating.

Tool wise, you'll need: glue, an x-acto knife, scissors, tape and a pencil.
And as for supplies, here are a few ideas:

Gilded Florentine paper from Italy, above, in festive harvest colors. I really like the middle one... reminds me of a pumpkin patch, and the one on the far right looks like a fall orchard. These are all available HERE.

You'll also need a selection of Dresden trims. The medallion shapes are for building the pumpkin medallion and the trim strips are for edging along the top of the bucket. You can find these same trims available HERE.

We also mixed in fancy fabric trims with our Dresdens. Wouldn't the ones below be lovely? You can find the fringe HERE, the pom pom & loop HERE and the lace HERE.

And don't forget the paper scraps! We used the large pumpkins from this German sheet, available HERE.


In addition, you'll need tinsel sticks, non-toxic paint, and sturdy paper board (like mat board used for matting picture frames.) We also used part of a tinsel garland to further embellish our pumpkin medallion. You'll need the following template, too:

Click on the template to make it full size, then drag it to your desktop and print it out. It fits on a standard sized sheet of paper. Next transfer it to your board, cut it out and glue the sides so you end up with a shape like this:

Once dry, we painted the inside of ours with festive orange non-toxic paint before covering the outside in Florentine paper.

With the paper on and dry, we next applied a tinsel stick handle, gluing it to the outside of the bucket then "hiding" it under rows of Dresden and fabric trims. Last but not least came the pumpkin medallion, which we made by layering part of a tinsel garland, a Dresden medallion and a pumpkin scrap. Our last step was applying the medallion to the bucket and, voila! finished treat bucket:


This is a fun and easy project that packs a lot of decorative punch. Try painting the inside a pretty fall hue like burgundy or sunflower yellow.... Make your pumpkin medallion a witch or cat medallion instead -- and you don't have to use paper scraps, different Dresdens layered also look great.

If you're keen to have a couple of these, but aren't feeling creative, we have the ones you see here available on our website HERE along with many more autumn inspired supplies and already made Halloween decorations.

Happy crafting! Hope you're all enjoying the fall!