Valentines DIY's to try

tablet holder, Geometric cushion, Heart necklace, e-reader case

OK, ok so we might be a little late to the party, but if you happen to be at home today or have an hour before your partner gets home, we have put together a few of our quick and simple DIY's from our blog history for you.

Make it: Geometric Heart Cushion + Free PDF Download

Love is really in the air as there are just 3 days until Valentines day. I have just added some yummy felt packs to my online store Sew Crafty Online so I wanted to make something to show what you could make out of them. I have been lusting after a geometric cushion for a while now as you can tell from our latest Pinterest board so I thought this project could be the perfect solution,

Make it: XO Valentines Gift Boxes

It is almost that time again where I have to engage my romantic side and come up with a gift idea for my hubby that doesn't involve my go-to Lego or Star Wars. It can be hard after 10 years together to come up with new ways to make your other half smile but I always think that the memories you share are the best way to celebrate Valentines. This year I have made my Steve a couple of little gift boxes, one filled with his fave chocolate and the other with my favourite memories of our time together.

I am going to give it to him before our traditional Shepherds pie dinner, then we can open them up and go through them all whilst we eat so we can enjoy remembering our best times together.

What are you planning for Valentines? In searching around for inspiration I found some great ideas from some of my favourite bloggers. Click over to the links to get some ideas for your loved one.
Head to Lovely Indeed for the perfect 'Galentines' prep, Sugar and Cloth for these cool Lipstick glasses, The Crafted Life for a collection of great printable Valentines cards, Oh Happy Day for these adorable crackers, Paper and Stitch for gorgeous gift bags, and Handmade Charlotte for the perfect fun dessert.

Sammy xoxo


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Make it: Quick and Easy Valentines Carpet Picnic

Today is Valentines Day, just in case you had forgotten and if you are like me you will have.  It is a God-send that my Steve's birthday is the same day as mine, otherwise he wouldn't stand a chance of being remembered, I am truly awful at remembering dates. If you are like me and have forgotten to sort something for your loved one tonight I have a suggestion that will get you lots of brownie points! A carpet picnic. The supplies only take a quick trip to the supermarket and a little careful preparation, perfect for those of us with busy lives and a memory like a sieve. This would also be great if you are having a girls/guys anti Valentines get together. 

I popped to the supermarket and picked up a few of Steve's favourite snacks and a couple of Valentines themed goodies. 

We both love strawberries and chocolate covered ones are perfect for a picnic, and very quick to prepare. Simply melt your favourite chocolate, dip your strawberries in and set them down on some baking paper in the fridge to set. They look impressive, even if they aren't perfect and taste great.

I picked up some of Steve's favourite picnic foods in miniature and arranged them restaurant style on a serving dish. Paying attention to presentation shows that you have spent time and make the little things more special.

I chose some fancy drink and fished out some red straws to make it more Valentines-y.  I displayed all our food on our coffee table in our lounge with a couple of small table cloths in lieu of a rug on the ground.

Our main dish was a sharing sub. I filled a small farmhouse loaf with our favourite fillings, each half with different flavours and cut it in to chunks. I kept it together with these cute heart cocktail sticks and displayed it on a cutting board to make it look more fancy.

I popped the strawberries out of the fridge and put them and some Valentines chocolates on another serving dish for desert.

This little feast was so easy and quick to prepare. A total Valentines save for anyone who has forgotten to do something special in advance. Your special someone will be impressed with the time you have taken to get everything ready and the thought that went into it, they don't need to know it was a last minute thing. If you want something altogether sweeter check out the sweetie platter I made last year.

We had our picnic last week, just in-case you were wondering, as we are at Steve's parents house for dinner tonight. What do you guys have planned for Valentines??

Happy Valentines day to you all

Sammy xxx

Make it: Glitter Heart DIY Phone Case

Lets face it sometimes you just want to make something cute to treat yourself on Valentines, this Phone case is the perfect little DIY and super easy to make. I picked up a cheap phone case from Amazon and I loved the colour but it was a little plain so I decided to DIY it as a gift to myself.

All you will need is a phone case, glitter (colour of your choice) and strong glue.

It is as easy as pie, pop your glue onto the case in the shape of a heart. Sprinkle the glitter over the glue and wait for it to dry a little before tapping off the excess. Whenever I work with glitter I always work over a sheet of paper so I can salvage any of the glitter left over. You can use a dry paint brush to dust away any glitter from around the edge of your design if it doesn't fall away when your glue is dry.  There you have it, a cute glittery heart case for your phone.

The obvious use for it is to take some dorky mirror selfies to send to your beau, I am printing these out for the inside My Hubby's Valentines card, as he says that my phone and I are inseparable. Hopefully it will make him laugh.

What are you making for Valentines? Are you making or buying treats for yourself, like I do?
If you missed it, head back and check out the Gamertag hoodie I made for Steve and see more ideas for DIY phone cases in this post from last year.

Sammy xxx

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a pic and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

Make it: My Heart Belongs to You Necklace

With Valentines less than a week away I thought I would squeeze in a little jewellery DIY you can make before next week. This really sweet glass bottle necklace would be such a lovely accessory to wear on Valentines Day. 

Make it. Gamer Tag Hoodie

I don't know about you but I always struggle to find a really cool Valentines day gift for my Husband. Quite a lot of the Valentines DIY's I find are girlie and my Steve is definitely not girlie! I have also been wanting to do a tutorial with freezer paper for a while now, so I came up with the perfect DIY gift for the gamer guy or girl in your life, a gamer tag Hoodie.

You will need: a Hoodie or sweatshirt, Freezer paper, a pencil, a craft knife or small scissors, a sponge, fabric paint, a paint brush (not shown) and your gamer tag printed on paper.

For this tutorial I have used Dylon Fabric Paint, the colours in this range are quite thin and translucent, so I chose to start with a base of white (which is more opaque) and build up my colours on top. You can choose any colours you like, but bear in mind the colour of the hoodie you are decorating. 

I started off by printing off Steve's gamer tag from the computer, I messed around with size and fonts until I got one that I liked, be mindful that you are going to be making a stencil so if you have any loose middles like O's and D's that you will need to draw stems for them into your design. I laid the design on top of the hoodie to make sure it fitted in the space I wanted it to go and that the hood wouldn't cover it. Then I took a sheet of Freezer paper and placed it wax side down over the print out to trace the design through. Once I had traced the design I cut it out with a craft knife, you could use small scissors if it starts to get fragile.

When you have cut the whole design out you have your stencil. The joy of freezer paper is that it is waxed on one side so you can use an iron to temporarily stick it in place. Be careful to make sure all the small bits of your design are ironed down. Leave it to cool for a moment before you start to apply your paint. As it is waterproof I used another piece of freezer paper underneath where I was going to be painting, just in case any paint seeped through to the other side, and another piece for mixing my paint. It is very versatile stuff. Now you can take your sponge and gently press on your first layer of paint.

As I wanted a flame look to my design I waited for the first layer of paint to dry, then applied a thin layer of white at the top, then a layer of yellow blended into that and let it dry again for about 20 mins. After that I went in and mixed up some orange on that piece of freezer paper and sponged that over the bottom of the yellow. Finally, I went over the very bottom with some pure red paint. It wasn't looking strong enough with the sponge so I dabbed some on with a paint brush for a more intense colour at the base.

You need to let it dry for about two hours before running the iron over the whole design to set the paint so it won't wash out, and to loosen up the freezer paper before the fun part, pealing away the stencil!

I am so chuffed with how this turned out, and as you can see my Steve was pretty chuffed with his early Valentines gift (although I have taken it back to wrap it up for him to open on Valentines)

My favourite thing about using freezer paper as a stencil is the clean crisp lines you get on your designs and the flexibility of designs you can create, the possibilities are endless.

I chose Steve's Gamer tag because that's his thing, but you could easily use this technique to add a personal touch to a football top, hen party t-shirts or a nickname hoodie for yourself. Check out some more Valentines ideas in my post from last year.

What would you put on yours? We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a photo and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

Sammy xxx

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Love it: Valentines

Firstly, Happy Valentine's Day!  Who will be getting all lovely today then for Valentine's Day?  Is it a flowers and hearts kind of day or more about doing something really extraordinary for each other?

We thought it might be nice to have a little moment and hear two sides of the romantic coin - although it turns out they might be quite similar after all!

H...

I am currently single but no, that does not mean that I hate Valentine's Day, it just doesn't have much of a feature in my life.  I don't buy or get anything on the day and it really just passes by without much thought.  Of course apart from the fact that every shop I go into, I am reminded that it is near!  It really doesn't help that my brother's birthday is close to the day either, as there is nothing more creepy than trying to find a card and present for your brother amid all the romantic stuff!

It's not a bitter thing, it's just the same as any other day for me.  My friends usually get a text though, but I don't go out and have a Valentines hate night, or cry into a tub of ice-cream, cos you know what it really isn't that bad!  Some single people might hate Valentines and feel sad about what they haven't got, but you know what, I have alot, I have my friends and family, my health, a job I love and to top it all I get to not feel bad about working all night on Valentines - yes really it will be that dull!

So all in all, I have always been a bit indifferent to Valentine's day with the feeling of forced romance and the over-the-top nature of it all and that's just not my view.  

I was reading an article this week in Company magazine about a woman who feels that romance has been commercialised and not actually romantic anymore and she is in a relationship, so those kind of comments aren't just for the single!  In fact my favourite bit is: 

'Candles, roses, chocolates, petals; these things are nice.  We all like a petal.  But - romantico? Christ.  Who invented this abysmal, predictable , sappy idea of romance?  And how did we become the morons who buy into it?'  Author: Afsaneh Knight.

Sammy was saying yesterday that being in a restaurant with lots of other couples fills her full of dread and I can totally relate to that.  I cannot imagine wanting to spend my evening with all the other couples, surely something a little closer to home would be nicer, a real bit of being in each others company.  Perhaps then Valentine's is for early stage couples as it could be that its the catalyst for those couples to show their true feelings for each other.  Perhaps when you get to the later stages of a relationship, it should be more about doing those romantic things all the time, not just on the one day a year when everyone else tells you to be romantic?

Sammy... 

So I am the Married one, so I should be counting down the days until Valentines... right? wrong. H is right, as I said yesterday, for me the thought of sitting in a restaurant with lots of other couples is the furthest thing from romantic. Shouldn't St Valentine's day be about sharing your love for others, not about how much money you can spend on romance? 

I am not good at remembering anniversaries, it wasn't an accident that when I choose the date for our wedding I made it the same date {two years after} we got engaged, exactly three years to the day that we met, so that I wouldn't have to remember three different anniversaries! I am also lucky that Steve and I share the same birthday, one less date to forget. He always jokes that I said to him one year as he handed me my Valentines card, and I stood there empty handed, 'But why do you need a card to tell you... I love you this much everyday' {sorry for that vomit inducing story... I have a point} It is great to have a day set aside to celebrate 'love' in all its forms, but I agree with Afsaneh's quote above money spent does not not equate to LOVE given... or received. 

My Steve always goes to a lot of effort to find me a card {note I say effort, not expense} and I always try and make him a card, and special Valentines dinner at home {shepherds pie with heart shaped mash potato topping} this years with the addition of the tray of goodies that you saw yesterday.  I often share a Valentines text with my friends and family. I am not a hater of romance, or Valentines day, but it doesn't have to be a competition on who gets the most gifts or biggest bunch of flowers. 

I am a big believer in giving your Love in time spent with your loved one, on the phone or Skype if your not together, tell them how much you love them, more importantly, tell them why you love them. It means so much more to hear it than to read it in a generic card. If you don't have a partner, phone a friend you haven't spoken to for a while, or a family member who lives far away. Valentines day is about Love.  Share it around <3

Happy Valentines Day all!

H & Sammy

Make it: Quick and Easy Valentines Crafts

My Husband and I have never really been fussed about Valentines day. For us it falls smack between Christmas and our Birthday (we have the same birthday) and the thought of going out to a restaurant surrounded by lots other couples is not our idea of a good time. However I do always try and make a special effort to cook a nice meal and make Steve a little something. I thought I would share a couple of ideas for little last minute gifts that are super easy to make for your boy/girl or to decorate your dinner table with a few supplies from home or your local store.  If, like me you haven't really thought about Valentines until today!

I made Steve this little Valentines dessert platter. As well as making some treats I bought some Valentines sweets from M&S and put them in little heart shaped cupcake cases. Presentation can make a little look like a lot. What I made him includes.....Valentines chocolate bark

recipe found here

Peppermint Creams & Peanut Butter Hearts

Peppermint creams from my mums recipe, there are lots out there, some use egg, I use double cream, icing sugar, peppermint essence and food colouring, and peanut butter hearts  recipe found here

Basically any of your partners favourite treats or biscuits cut into heart shapes are always a winner.

Eton Mess Milkshake, my hubby loves Milkshakes and they look cute too! I made these with fresh strawberries, milk, double cream, meringue, strawberry syrup, squirt cream and fresh strawberry to decorate. I am a bit obsessed with serving drinks in jars lately.

Quick easy cards, I made the heart one by using my hole punch to punch a heart shape and then threading ribbon through the holes and tying it in a bow to finish. The pink one was super easy, I just used my computer to lay out the word love in different typefaces, made the background pink and the words white and printed onto white paper, cut it out and stuck it to a card blank. Easy peasy!

Then at the top of the stairs I hung this magazine heart garland. I went through my Heat and Look mags and tore out any pages that had reds and pinks on and cut out heart shapes. Punched a hole in the top of each one and tied them on to pieces of red cord. I blue-tac'ed them to the wall underneath a picture {ironically hanging down under Steve's Darth Vader print that is hung on the landing} I adapted the original idea found here

Here are some more ideas for quick last minute gifts I found around the web

Coupon booklet

Sweet topper printable

Felt Hand warmers

Wishing you a Happy Valentines Day!

Sammy xxx

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Love it: Valentines

"For this was Saint Valentine's Day, 

when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."

Geoffrey Chaucer

Being a married lady I quite like Valentines day, which I'm sure wont surprise you, but even when I was single I never hated it as some people seem to, I always look at it as a way to show all the people I love how much they mean to me.

So today, St Valentines Day, maybe take some time to tell your loved ones how important they are to you, whether its your Mum, Dad, Brothers or Sisters, Friends or Partners. Valentines should really just be about sharing the LOVE, whatever form it may take.

Love it 

Sammy xxx