Stenciled: Heart Doily Chalkboard

This simple craft continues the heart doily theme for this Valentine's season.  I used a small heart doily as a stencil, taped it to the chalkboard ($2.99 from Michael's), and used an extra fine Sharpie paint pen to trace around the heart and fill in the spaces.  The gold is subtle; so, it will not interfere with any potential chalk writing.  Then, I decoupaged a small piece of festive scrapbook paper at the top and attached a piece of twine in the back with a couple of staples.  That's it.  Quick, easy, and toned-down; yet, it's a sweet gift or decoration for Valentine's Day.

  

 P.S. You can find me tomorrow morning on Great Day St. Louis sharing this idea and more simple ideas for using doilies in your Valentine's Day crafts like this and this! 

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Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

In an effort to get out of our snow comas today, the kiddo and I made these Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes.  It was great fun; after our cupcake indulgence, we ran around the house and bounced-off the walls!  While the kiddo would have loved to spend the day out in the snow, I just wasn't up for it today.  Mid-winter exhaustion has set in, I guess. 

Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes

They are a basic white cake with coconut and a raspberry or two in the middle for a sweet surprise.

2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c shortening or unsalted butter

1.5 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg whites

1 1/3 c buttermilk

1/3 c sweetened coconut flakes

24 frozen raspberries tossed in flour

1. Grease your muffin pan or line with cupcake liners; I used Baking Joy spray.  Sift dry ingredients together.

2. Mix shortening, sugar, and vanilla until well-combined into course crumbles.  Add egg whites one at a time. 

3. Mix in buttermilk.

4. Stir in coconut flakes. 

5. Fill cupcake pan; then, push two flour-dusted raspberries into the center of each cupcake. 

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. 

For the icing, I actually used Pamela's Vanilla Frosting Mix and colored it pink in celebration of the upcoming romantic holiday.  Typically, I would make my own icing, but I had purchased this mix on a whim and it's actually pretty tasty and extremely easy to whip up.

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Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple
Sugar and Spice at 733-A Creative Blog
Free For All at Young and Crafty
Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello

Happy February: A few faves from Pinterest

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P.S. Do you belong to Pinterest?  If you don't, oh how you should.  Leave a comment with your email or just email me directly and I will send you an invite.

One Sydney Road

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One Sydney Road is a lovely little boutique with a excellent selection of well-curated goods, both new and vintage, for you and your home.

As we are still in the throws of winter, head on over for some mood-lifting window shopping and pick something up to give you a little lift in your step.  

Here are a few of my picks... 

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P.S. Piper, the shop owner, has a lovely little blog as well. Check it out here.

Valentine's Postcard Printable

Recently, I made these postcards to surprise my friends with in the mail for Valentine's Day.  It's no secret that real mail is a lost art anymore, am I right or am I right?  

I altered a stenciled heart doily in Photoshop to give it a pink mosaic look; I love how the doily looks like a face. It does right, I'm not just seeing things???

 *I've been secretly trying to discover new things to make with doilies...I'd really like to make some doily t-shirts like this fabulous one.* 

Then, I printed it out at 4"x6" on regular card stock, cut it out with a paper cutter, and rounded the edges.  It's a little bigger than standard postcard size, but it works.

Here's the postcard with "Happy Valentine's Day!" and without for your own sweet words.  Just click, print, and mail away!

Now that I've finished my simple Valentine's, I've got to get started on the kiddos.  I'm so excited because we are using balloons and glitter! I think I've figured out something that a 2.5-year-old can actually participate in!  We'll see how they turn out...don't worry, I'll be sure to share them here!

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Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
Tute {Yourself} Tuesday at Little Eme
We did it! Wednesday at Sew Much Ado