Pepper Design Blog

Happy Valentine’s Day! Our DIY Monster Cards

***Update: I’ve just uploaded Anna Kate’s style boards from yesterday into the Wardrobe Style Board Gallery – ohhhh computer issues – sorry for the delay! And I’ve labeled her previous maternity boards as ‘Pregnancy Style Boards’ so now they’re easy to find for us moms-to-be***

Liv and I combined her birthday thank you notes with Valentine’s Day cards this year and I think it might be our new norm. It’s a good reason to spend some fun time crafting and creating (she loves when she can participate with stamping or punching holes) and we save stamps by sending out Valentine’s Day cards plus thank you notes in one (though I’m probably wayyy past the ‘thank you card’ due date etiquette at a month late…). We sent out quite a few and even Olivia’s sitter helped us cut out a ton of the cute monsters inside of the cards.

This idea has been done before (see here and here as two examples), but it was too cute to pass up!

Perfect for our parents and grandparents as a way to say ‘I Love U’ and ‘Thank You!’ in one. We sent these all out with our Kisses Treat Bags - though being the procrastinators that we are they might arrive a day or two late.

The outside of the card consists of a cut out heart, a stamped ‘U’ and a simple punch (I have used this circular label punch for SO many projects, including these wine glass charms/labels that were featured on HWTM ages ago).

The inside includes our little monster! A green construction paper monster with a googly eye and brightly colored paper backing. Plus Liv’s message to family and friends.

I asked Liv to add a little of her own crayon art and she was happy to oblige.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pinterest Challenge: Christmas Comes a Little Early This Year

I rolled up my sleeves and crossed one big holiday-related project off of my list this past week after a little motivation from Katie and Sherry’s seasonal Pinterest Challenge. Too early for Christmas? Maybe, but making this project happen (with all that I have stacked for the big holiday season) was high on my priority list for Liv this year and I’m SO happy to have it ready to go for the holidays! Liv totally digs it, too. Even if we have to box it up and rehang it in about a month.

I imagine turning this into an Advent calendar of sorts when Liv is old enough to open up one ornament each day to add to the tree (maybe even ornaments we’ve made together?), and the concept behind Advent. Maybe I’ll try a version this year to… to be determined.

I love me a good deadline to make a project that I would normally push off and off happen. It could be a visit from family, a dinner party or a challenge like this one! Previous Pinterest challenges have produced my ombre stool for Liv, painter’s tape wallpaper, DIY gold mercury glass, shimmery chevron napkins (a bit of a womp, womp – these guys didn’t wash so well, though they look awfully cool) and the capiz pendant/chandelier that hangs in our office.

The original inspiration for the felt Christmas tree came from this blogger, who redeveloped her version of a felt tree after being inspired by this blogger.

What a neat idea for a toddler? Liv is at that age where she loves to mimic and especially loves to replicate whatever I’m doing on her own – she likes to carry a purse when I have a purse, cook when I’m making dinner, pretend to drive when we get into the car, attempt to apply lipstick in the bathroom mirror…. and the best solution for her to recreate and to copy momma and dadda, without actually cooking or carrying around my purse, is to give her her own version. Hence why this felt tree is genius.

I hope that when it comes time to decorate the ‘big’ tree, she’ll be just as cheery at decorating her own version. And perhaps not try and undress or reorganize the real version in the living room?

A few of the ornaments I assembled in advance, like the poinsettia flowers and the striped pink and turquoise bulbs. A little stitch or glue holds these guys together so it’s easier for Liv to move the entire decoration. It’s wonderful that felt sticks to felt – no adhesives to attach the actual ornaments to the tree.

Others I left unglued so that she can play with and rearrange bows and packages and Christmas lights.

Creating this guy was fairly simple. I way over bought on yards of felt (1.5 of green for the tree, 1/4 each of the various colors) which left me with about $18 worth, this project was probably made with a fourth of that though so you can add this to the extremely budget-friendly category.

I opted for a modern, basic triangular shape for my little tree and chose the dining room (with a big open space on the wall while our fiddle leaf fig soaks up some sun closer to the window) as its home.

Various votive candle holders and glasses made for the perfect stencil to make my round ornaments, the rest were basically free hand.

One of the best tips I have for messy projects like this (aka lots of bits of felt everywhere) is to use the ol’ Rachel Ray scrap bucket rule. I love this! instead of leaving your scraps (of food on the prep table, in Rachel’s case) out, collect them all in a bowl for the trash or composting pile. In our case, a felt scrap bowl. As we cut out ornaments, we immediately pushed all of the extra bits and pieces from the table into the bowl leaving us with a cleaner workspace.

Which resulted in faster ornament making!

I’m imagining the felt board possibilities… We can keep rearranging and updating this tree through December, Liv has already stripped it down a few times to start again. What next? An ocean scene? or maybe a play kitchen out of felt?

And as of tomorrow, back to Halloween. Can’t wait to show you Liv’s homemade costume and my plans for our annual Halloween dinner party. PS I owe you all updates on our recent travel adventures, painting of the house, new deck (new side yard!) and so much more. Forgive me, I’m so behind.

Happy Pinterest pinning! If you participated in the challenge, I’d love to see your project!