Valentine's Headband Tutorial

I posted this pic a little bit ago on Facebook and got enough positive feedback that I thought I'd share a little 'how-to' here on the blog!

Materials:

Fold Over Elastic (FOE)

Felt Stickers or Flower Embellishments

(I bought these at JoAnne's in the Valentine's Section under 'card making supplies' - they were $2.99 for a bag and were 40%. You can also find paper flowers, embellishments, etc. 

in the scrapbooking section of Michael's or JoAnne's.)

Felt

(you don't need much so the 8x10 squares from any craft store work GREAT!)

Other supplies:
Hot Glue
Sewing Machine (optional)
Measuring Tape
Pinking Shears/Scissors

Step 1:  Determine how big you need your headband. You can either use a measuring tape and measure the circumfrence of your baby/child's noggin...

...or you can use an old headband that currently fits said baby/child and use it as a guide.  Cut the FOE a little bit shorter than the actual circumfrence - you want the headband to have the desired amount of stretch so it will stay on their head.

Step 2:  'designing' the headband.  Play around with your different felt stickers/embellishments - here are a few examples that I came up with....

Step 3:  Glue stickers/embellishments onto the felt.  You can either remove the backing on the sticker and glue or you can leave the backing on.  

For this particular headband - I chose to remove the paper backing and then glue onto the sticky side.  (I thought maybe it'd provide extra hold?)

Step 4:  Use pinking shears (or standard scissors) and cut the felt around the stickers - try to get as close as possible to the edge of the sticker.  I like the look that the pinking shears give to the design but a straight edge would look great too.

Step 5:  Make the 'band' - you can use a sewing machine and sew the two ends together (overlapping a bit) or you can use your hot glue (as I did here) to glue them together.

Step 6:  Glue the embellishment to the band.  Using your hot glue, make a squiggle line down the length of the embellishment in the area where your FOE will go.

Press down, making sure the correct side of the band is facing out (in this case, the shiny side of the FOE will face outwards)

Step 7:  Once again, using your pinking shears; cut a strip/rectangle of felt to cover the FOE on the backside of your embellishment.

Step 8:  PROJECT COMPLETE! Congratulations on creating a SUPER cute Valentine's headband for your little lovely to wear on February 14th (or any day of the year)!

Here are a few other examples:

Love this one - black FOE with paper flowers that I found at Michael's - goes with LOTS of outfits!

Bottom to Top:  Red Felt Flower with Leaf on White FOE, another Valentine's Felt Sticker  arrangement on light blue FOE, Crocheted flowers on white FOE

Detail - these crocheted flowers were found in the scrapbook section at JoAnne's!  Perfect colors to go with so many of the pink outfits my baby girl has and the rhinestones are fun too.

Valentine's Day Decorations in Our House

I love Valentine's Day - maybe because my favorite color is pink and I think adding hearts and happy colors benefits any home decor?  Even if it's sickly sweet your kids are sure to love it!

a little Mommy & Daughter crafting! (see below for the finished project!)

our Valentine's mantle

I was able to do some 'on the cheap' decorating this year - I raided our local Dollar Tree, found fabulous inspiration on Pinterest and rustled up some of the decor I already had from years past.  

I'm really happy with how things turned out and I even ended up with a fun keepsake that my daughter and I crafted together.  

(this art was inspired by this idea: Crazy Wonderful Subway Art)

The love garland was made using three pink placemats that I found at Dollar Tree.
I just threaded them onto red ruffled ribbon

love this heart garland - here's a link to my what inspired me to make it: Scrapper Girl Photo Strip Heart Garland

I kept the white finial (was up with my Christmas decor) as well as the bird and birdcage but added these AWESOME candy jars!  My inspiration:

Source:  eighteen25 Pickle Jar Project

My version!  I love that they're white - can be used for any/all the holidays!
Just change out the candy and/or the ribbon!

My favorite piece this year - a little birdhouse that my daughter painted  :)

love this little area in our dining area... unfortunately I took an awful picture of it.  More heart garland that I pinned to the wall, a vintage table cloth on top of a console table, a piece of canvas board painted with chalkboard paint and adorned with a heart and some mercury glass jars with candy!

a great printable that I found on eighteen25
(can you tell I LOVE their blog yet?), a fun candy dish, votives in mason jars with pretty ribbon & ric rack, vintage doily and tin - this vignette sits on my credenza in my front entry....

and what's a holiday with kids if you don't have vinyl clings for your windows & mirrors?  my 2 year old put these up.... not that it's not obvious or anything.  ;)

I will be linking this to:

No Blog For A Month? Craziness! (Or Laziness?)

Fans:  (i.e.  some family & a few friends),
I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last made a post!  I'm a bit embarassed but at the same time - our lives the last month have been crazy and hectic and so beyond my comprehension of 'normal' that blogging here was the last item on my to do list.  That of course meant it just kept moving down further on the list as new things popped up.  ;)
My husband had to leave us for the WHOLE month of December... now a month for many of my military wife friends really isn't much, but December?  When we are thousands of miles from our family AND it was over the holidays... it was rough.  We sure were glad when my husband got home!

Since then, madness has reigned supreme.  My baby, who was a seemingly perfect sleeper suddenly became the worst, so I was up constantly throughout the night.  Nap time in our house quickly became nap time for EVERYONE.  (Even our dog seemed to know and he was usually in on his bed before the rest of us!)  And nap time is usually when I sewed/blogged/crafted....  Then the flu hit.  My 2 year old got it first and then a day or so later, my husband and I got it within an hour of each other.  It's comical now to think about how we were basically taking turns throughout the night springing up from our bed and running to the bathroom.  At the time though, nothing about it was funny.  Then we went to Disneyworld.  (We are certifiably crazy, huh?)  Well, where we live now it's a 3 hour drive to 'the happiest place on earth' and it seemed like such a fun thing to do once my husband had returned from deployment so we went.... not sure if going the same week after we'd all had the flu was the best idea but at least our 2 year old had a blast!  (the rest of us were sleep deprived from the 'perfect sleeper who was no more' being awake all night.)

Have I been sewing?  Not really.  I completed a special project for my cousin before Christmas - he and his fiance wanted me to sew stockings for them.  They did turn out wonderful, especially since it was my first attempt making stockings:

I also am half-finished with another custom order for a good friend in Washington.  She wanted some decor for her youngest son's room so I started making a personalized banner and a window valance.  Then they found out about a (very long time coming) promotion for her husband which means they were going to be moving ASAP!  So.... the valance still needs to be made but first they need to find a house, move and then get settled and she'll send me some window measurements.  Obviously I'm not going to rush her!

Otherwise, I've been a very lazy sewer.  I think I overdid myself prior to Christmas and can anyone else attest that Pinterest - although wonderful at providing new and exciting ideas, it can be a bit overwhelming!  There are some fantasticly awesome ideas that I've 'pinned' that I would love to just go crazy making but who has all that time (or money)?  A lot of the crafts I've seen are do-able and getting out my trusty glue gun is easier than loading up the sewing machine with thread and a bobbin so I've focused on some small projects instead.  Here are a few of them:

a little artwork and color for the 'toilet room' in our master bath!  
subway art quotes and fabric stretched on embroidery hoops!

the cutest little jars!  saw this idea on pinterest - $1.00 glass candlesticks from the dollar store, jars of pickles & mandarin oranges (also from the dollar store) - spray paint candlesticks and lids then glue jars to candlesticks!  Voila!  So cute and because they're white.... I can re-use for ALL the holidays!  

heart garland made out of scrapbook paper and yarn

subway art using a pre-stretched canvas