DIY Valentines

Ok, so it's a little late, but here is the post I've been talking about! I decided to make valentines for my whole family because it's the first Valentines Day I'll spend with my family in a couple of years. So I was thinking, what is a cheap something that I can make, but still cute, easy and fun?

DIY Recycled paper bag valentines
Supplies:
1 Brown grocery bag (I used one normal sized bag and got 5 valentines bags)
Scraps of fabric
1 dvd (I found the ones with the square cover best since they are really square)
pencil
Sewing machine and brightly colored thread
Needle
Candy (I'm using some I already had, but I also bought some more to fill it out a little more... that was the only thing I had to buy for this project, so the total cost of the project was around $3.00 and a couple hours of time)

Step 1: Cut open grocery bag and lay flat on hard surface.Then trace DVD cover. Next I free handed the angled edges at the bottom (these are showing on the top, but imagine them flipped around) to create an envelope effect. Not necessary, but I liked it better. You can freehand this because you can just trim them to match later on.
I used my copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to trace.
Step 2: Pick out the fabric or design you want on the outside of the bag and pin it on. Make sure it's where you want it though because the pin marks show if you move it around. In this case, I cut a heart out of fun fabric for my brother.
Step 3: Sew design on using your regular sewing machine. Be careful not to go to fast or pull too hard as it will tear the paper.

Step 4: Lay two pieces together with the rough sides out (the sides that will be on the inside) and sew the angled parts of the bottom together.
I also folded along the pencil mark from the DVD tracing so that when I did the next step it was a cleaner fold.
Step 5: Fold two pieces at line down and away from each other until those two pieces that were just on the outside are now on the inside and your pretty design is on the outside.

Step 6: Sew straight-edges up each side. I chose a bright color that matches the bright fabric.
Step 7: I added straps so I can hang them on their doors the night before, so they can have them first thing in the morning! I used scraps that I already had. If I could change how I did this for next time, if I'm adding straps I would have done it before I sewed the two pieces together. Because after I sewed them together, I couldn't use the sewing machine, so I had to sew them together by hand which was the most time-consuming part of the whole project.

And voila! Easy, cute and cheap (cheap cheap!).

This one is for my older bro.

This one is for my little bro.
For my mom (painted with pink acrylic paint before sewing)
And for my dad (painted with white acrylic paint, and the red is made from a red paper napkin)

All my cuties all together.
This was such an easy, cheap project that I'm almost considering making them again for my favors. Can you imagine a candy buffet with these to put the candy in? And it would only cost me time and energy because I have so much scrap fabric that could be used and they could all be different and I could even maybe get a monogram stamp to put on them too! Love it :)



In other news, here are my anniversary roses almost three weeks later. I think there is something really elegant about dying roses. I've saved so many of the flowers I've received in my life (I dried the roses Evan gave me on our first date and still have them).



And in even other news.... My kitten boy thinks he is a man and has to control the remote. So cute :D
And now I've off to fill up my valentines bags and finishing F's other valentines projects which I will show later. We are going to the zoo tomorrow and I'm sure I will have pictures of that to share soon too.

Have a wonderful Valentines Day!