Celebrate the Month of Love!

Let's have a Valentine's Party!

Too early to think about Valentine's Day?  Never!  We have two whole weeks before we will be celebrating this day of love.  I like to decorate my house for the holiday theme when appropriate and be ready for friends popping in, a spontaneous party, or just for my family to enjoy! 

A pictorial tutorial is always welcome for us creative types.  Being a "visual" type myself, I find this useful when putting together any project.






Here is what you will need:

*Sticky Sticks, flat wooden 1-1/2" circle (I used a Woodsie circle)
*8" Smoothfoam disk (1" deep")
*Memory Cardstock papers:  green, dark pink, white, red, light pink, yellow; patterned paper with a coordinating print on the back side.
*pencil, piece of paper
*white glue or other adhesive
*jute twine
*paper cutter, score, scallop paper punch, crafting scissors
*Acrylic Paint, lt. peach, black, white, red
*Paint brush, water bucket, paper towels, paper plate, toothpicks
*Optional: Cricut cutting machine for hearts and pennant and cartridge with matching shapes

*Note:  The hearts and pennant  can also be cut out with a handmade pattern.  Remember how we made paper hearts as a kid?  Fold plain paper in two, cut half of a heart on the fold then unfold and trace around it onto red construction paper?  This still works and can look really cute! The same for the triangle shaped pennants!

Ready to start?  Here is what you do!

GATHER YOUR STICKY STICKS.  LAY THEM OUT AS SHOWN IN THE DIAGRAMS GIVEN.

 Shoulders: Cut one Sticky Stick from the adhesive end in, 2-1/4".  Hips: Cut a second length at about 2-1/2".

Lay the pieces out with the adhesive side up as shown. They will help you know where they will be placed as shown in the next photo.

In the photo below, I laid the pieces out .  You will remove the release paper and turn each piece over before adhering everything together.

You will need a little glue to attach the bottom of the middle stick to the "hips" piece you cut earlier.

Then, remove the release paper and adhere each "leg" Sticky Stick to the hips piece as shown in the photo below.

Now you are ready to trace around the body on the plain piece of paper and create a clothing pattern for your girl!  Lay her on the paper, trace around the body, making the pattern larger around the middle. Allow just a little extra room around the edges. Refer to the finished project for some help here.  Once you have front and back for the shirt and the pants, lay the pieces aside.

Paint the head, neck and hands, lt. peach.  Paint the bottom of the legs black.  Paint on the front and the back.  Apply a black dip dot with a tooth pick of stylus for each eye.  Dot the mouth with red.  When paint is dry, apply some powder blush to each check using your finger.

Hair:  Cut two 2-1/2" circles from the yellow card stock.  Refer to the finished project and cut a triangle out of one circle.  Place over the face to make sure the opening is large enough for the face to show.  Take the triangular piece and cut a fringe.  This will be the "bangs".  Place and adhere the bangs to the top of the head, place and glue the yellow hair to the head.  Adhere the "whole" yellow circle to the back of the head. 

 *Note:  You can change the hair color to brown, black or auburn.  Whatever your prefer!

This is a picture of the pattern I cut out for the outfit I dressed her in.  There are two pieces.  The shirt and the pants.  I traced around the pattern onto the memory paper for the shirt; reversed the paper and cut out the coordinating pants.  Reverse the pattern and cut out matching pieces for the back of the outfit.

I didn't have the painting done when I photographed the step shown above.  Make sure the painting is done, then adhere the outfit to the doll, front and back.  I chalked the edges using a grey ink pad and wedge sponge.  This is optional.

Cut a piece of jute twine and tie one end to each wrist.  Leave it a little bit slack in the middle.

I cut the pennants using my Cricut machine and cartridge.  You can also make them by using your own pattern.  Fold your dark pink cardstock in two, place the flat side of the pattern on the fold.  Trace around the triangle pattern, and cut out the pennants.  Fold over the jute twine as shown and adhere.  Layer and adhere the punched hearts to each pennant as shown.

I adhered two sticks together to make a longer stem for the paper rosettes.  Do this for two of the stems and stagger the lengths as shown. Below is a pictorial tutorial for paper rosettes.  Adapt the width to the size you want to make your rosette.

You have options here!  You can make bigger hearts and adhere a front and back to each Sticky Sticks stem.  I made rosettes and adhered three different sizes of hearts to each.  The "stems" are covered with 1" strips of green cardstock.  I glued a 1" strip of green paper around the edges of the Smoothfoam base.  The finished project has scalloped circle paper punches adhered all around the top of the Smoothfoam.  You can also use glitter, moss, or just a flat piece of paper cut to fit the top of the Smoothfoam disk.

I hope this project gives you a great start to your Valentine's planning and decorating!  If you have any questions, please leave  a message.  May the New Year be off to a great start and many blessings lie ahead!

Live Life with a Flourish,

Marilyn