valentine's door decor.

As of yet I haven't come up with a witty, clever rant of any kind to blog about. I'm apparently not cut out for this. But, as it happens, I've started an insane crafting/diy habit (thanks a lot pinterest) and have another one of my valentine creations to showcase.
I am a huge fan of those over-sized door decorations in basic shapes. I recently started making my own out of foam core and assorted paper. I decided to get a little creative with the Valentine's heart and use a mosaic-like effect. Here's the end result:

It looks a little off-kilter shape-wise due to the fact that it was bending forward a little bit. I couldn't believe how much I actually liked the final product (sometimes I come to hate my so-called "genius" ideas). And it was possibly easier than any other door-hanger I've made.

Supplies:
1 piece of foam core board (I usually grab mine at Michael's, they often have sales on it)
4 different scrapbook size pieces of paper (I recommend 3 solid, 1 pattern)
Elmer's Glue
Water
Medium-Sized Foam Brush
Yarn (I just used some I had left over from a scarf I had knitted for Christmas)
Hot Glue Gun

1. Mix equal parts glue and water in a serving sized bowl (amount may vary due to how big your piece is). This will be your "mod podge" to adhere the scraps of paper to your foam core.
2. Draw and then cut out (an exacto/utility knife works best) your heart on the sheet of foam core. I made my heart as big as I could on one sheet of foam core, so as long as yours fits on one piece, you will have enough paper to cover the whole thing.
3. Tear all of your paper up into scraps (all different shapes but relatively the same size is how I made mine).
4. Start gluing!! Just brush some of your glue mixture onto the foam core heart(I started top left) and stick the pieces of paper to the board. After they're in place, put another layer of glue mixture on top to "seal" it on there. You don't have to have a "pattern" or anything, but I did try to make it so that the colors were evenly distributed around the heart.
5. Once all of your paper is on there and you like the way it's arranged, set it somewhere to dry. When mine dried, unfortunately, it bowed a little bit. If anyone has any ideas on how to keep this from happening during the drying process--tips would be much appreciated! I flattened mine afterwards under a tote full of books (I'm nothing if not resourceful).

6. Finishing: Now, my husband liked the look of my heart before I trimmed around the edges, and he would have preferred if I left it "rugged." I am, however, obsessive, and couldn't leave it alone. SO I trimmed down around the edges (just using some scissors). One of the problems that comes with working with foam core is the edges are often ragged and unsightly. To solve that problem, I glued some leftover yarn to create a border around the heart. I just used my hot glue gun and followed the edges, securing the yarn every three inches or so. I then used that yarn to create a "hanger" for the heart, and voila! Your very own door decor.

Well folks, hopefully I'll be back soon with something substantial or at the very least entertaining.
Until then, mes amis.
Love,
Katie M.

so this is the new year.

Happy New Year, one and all.

I'm not sure what it is, but the lack of Christmas decorations in my household (after I haphazardly threw them all into what probably weren't their respective boxes this morning in a fit of "being on top of it") makes it look even messier. 
Perhaps all of the shiny baubles and Christmas tree detracted from all of the clutter that pretty much is eating my house alive.
Whatever the reason, I've started this New Year off with a little bit less than optimism.
I've also decided to skip right past those pesky "winter" decorations that would be around for all of maybe half a month.
What am I doing instead, you ask??
I am putting myself full-force into Valentine's Day.

Makes no sense, really, since I pretty much hate the holiday. Someday I'll share some of my hatred-filled poetry with you from a few years ago at my low point.
But now I've got kids and making pretty valentines is fun.

For Christmas, we made the over-21 males (as responsible adults would) a six-pack of "Rein-Beers" (see pinterest for the How-To on that one--they were a big hit)...but you need about one brown pipe cleaner per beer.
And unfortunately, I could not find a pack of only brown pipe cleaners.
So I was left with about 200 pipe cleaners in assorted colors and no idea what to do with them.
Then, while messing around with them with the day care kids and my boys, I came up with this:

Super insanely easy and it used my leftovers.
Perfect. Timing.
Needless to say all afternoon I've been hailing myself as a crafty genius and patting myself on the back with alarming frequency.
Should you need a How-To on this, if you have also found yourself with an abundance of random pipe-cleaners:
1. Twist two ends of a pipe cleaner together, shape into a heart.
2. To keep them all connected, etc. wrap the second pipe cleaner around the first heart before twisting the ends together.
3. Keep going until it's as long as you want it.
4. Ta-da!!

I'm not sure how I'm going to store this during the off-season, considering it's all smushy and whatnot, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.