Glittered Letter Doily Banner {Valentine's Day Ideas}

Hello sweet friends! I hope your week has been a beautiful one so far!

I thought that as it was getting closer to Valentine's Day, I would share this banner with you! 

I shared this when I guest posted over at Attempting Aloha about this time last year, but never shared it here! However, it's such an easy little craft, I thought it would be a shame not to show it over here as well!




I had these cute large chipboard letters on hand. A few years ago, I was really into using them for my banners, but I hadn't used them in a while.




They are pre-glittered, but I didn't want them to be black for this project. Enter dark blue glitter...

I decoupaged the letter,

and then shook the glitter over it. Yea! Now I had a blue  glittered letter!

And another letter...

I just kept glittering away, until I had finished all the letters I needed. After letting them dry, I was ready for these:

These small doilies, just under 7 inches wide, were found at JoAnn's Fabrics.

I glued each glittered letter to the the center of each doily...Now I used a glue gun, because I want to be able to get it off easily, to use these doilies again. However, I tested a letter using Elmer's multipurpose glue, and it worked great.

There is just something about glittered letters...

I just wove the ribbon through two of the holes in the top of each doily. I adjusted them until they looked right, attaching it securely to both ends of the mantel. (Upholstery tacks work wonders for this!)

And you have a doily banner!

{What you will need for this project}

Small doilies

Chipboard letters {I know these can be found at Michael's craft store}

Glitter

Decoupage glue

Foam brush

Glue gun/glue sticks or Elmer's glue

Ribbon



 I hope you all have a good night, and a lovely Wednesday! It has been snowing since Saturday, and we are enjoying being *snowed in* over here! Apparently there is a lot more on the way, too, so I have three very excited children! I'm crossing my fingers we get even more snowed in! :)


Blessings,
Jenni

Have A Heart {A Valentine's Day Treat}

Hi sweet friends! :)

I hope you had a fun weekend!

As you know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day...I am SO excited about this! Valentine's Day is a big deal at my little nest, and we are having our usual family party tomorrow night!

(My husband and I already went out to dinner earlier this weekend.)

One thing I personally love about Valentine's Day is baking special treats, and I tried one this year that will be a tradition, I think! :) I found it at one of my favorite baking websites, Joy of Baking, and it was just what I was looking for!

{Shortbread with White Chocolate & Raspberries}

Shortbreads:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup confectioners' (powdered) sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling:

1/2 cup of raspberry jam

2 ounces white chocolate, grated

Shortbreads: In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat the butter until smooth (about one minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about two minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On the lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2 to 3 inch cookie cutter (round, square, heart, etc.) cut out the dough. Place the cookies about one inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use a small cookie cutter (3/4 to 1 inch) to cut out the centers of half of the cookies on the baking sheet. (You will be sandwiching two cookies together and there will be a small "window" or "cut out" in the top cookie so you can see the jam underneath.) * Tip: I kept the little hearts that I cut out and baked these, too. My kids loved them!) Place the unbaked cookies, on the baking sheet, in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. *This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for about ten minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

* (I wanted the shortbread to be softer, not crisp, and so I did not bake them until lightly browned, but removed them just before this.)

To assemble cookies: Place the cookies with the cut-outs on a wire rack and dust with confectioners' (powdered) sugar. (I used my flour sifter for this.)

On the bottom surface of the full cookie (top of cookie will face out) spread with about 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

Sprinkle with a little grated white chocolate, if desired. ( I didn't use it on mine~ just personal preference.) Place the cut-out cookie on top, and sandwich together gently, being careful not to smudge the confectioners' sugar.

Using a small spoon, fill the cut-out with a little more jam.

And enjoy!

{Makes about 12 sandwich cookies.}

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Thanks so much for coming by, and have a good night! :)

Blessings to you~

Jenni

You've Got Mail! {A Valentine's Idea}

Well, I was supposed to show you a Valentine's Day craft, but I am not happy with the pictures I took. So I will have to wait until tomorrow for this. But I have a fun Valentine's Day idea for you instead tonight! :)

Two years ago I happened upon some darling little metal mailboxes while shopping at Target, in the dollar section. I thought it would be fun for each of us in my family to have one. I could imagine sneaking little surprises into their mail boxes as the days lead up to Valentine's Day. I knew what a kick our kids would get out of this, and so I bought four of them. (My husband and I don't mind sharing!) We actually started this barely past New Year's up until February 14th. It was a complete hit! And our kids enjoyed giving everyone else mail, too! I talked about this on my other blog, Nest to Keep, when we did this, but realized I hadn't shown it here. :) (If you click on the the blog title, it will take you to the original post.)

Now the mailboxes came out again last year, as this has become a tradition in our home. However, this year I replaced them with new ones, because a couple of them had lost the part that opened in the front, because it was made to come off. One mailbox we can't find entirely. I was planning on us making some, which would have been fun.

But then I saw these...

{Mailboxes found at JoAnn's; $3.99}

They are almost identical to the ones I found at Target, but a little bigger. (And the front part does not come off, which means they may last longer!) They also had larger ones, in pink, blue, green, and white. I just liked the smaller ones best, even though they only came in white.

It is easy to add names to little slips of paper or card stock and slip them into the label holders on the front.

This year we are waiting until the first of February to start using the mailboxes. And the kids know to check their mailboxes when coming home from school...is the flag up?

One day it's a cute pair of V-day socks, or a little note. Sometimes~ okay, often~ it is a piece or two of candy.

I will be stocking up these next couple of weeks, and planning out each day!

{I can't wait!}

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share this with you! I hope you are all doing well! And tomorrow I will be showing you that craft. Really. ;)

Have a good night~

Jenni