DIY: Fabric Rag Garland and Pet Rock Valentines Tutorials

Today, I am giving you a SNEAK PEEK into my baby's nursery. I made this rag garland from scraps of colorful new and vintage fabrics, ribbon and pieces of clothing from us for some "personalization". I think it turned out perfect!  This garland is probably about 6 feet long and adds wonderful character to the room.



There are tons of tutorials online how to do it, but basically, you just cut/tear fabric scraps (mine were about 20 inches long and 2 inches wide), and knot them on your string/twine. I use this method for knotting. 

I only had a hodge podge of fabrics, so I made a base of white from the same fabric as the one I made for my window. Really, the garland looked just like that before I started layering more colors onto it. I add one color at a time, so I know I am evenly distributing them, so my garland won't be uneven. I have since added some more pizazz to the wall design, but that will be in another post.

 My previous DIY Pet Rock Valentine tutorial post was picked up by a cute online kids mag that featured 15 no-candy Valentine ideas that are all really cute. So be sure to visit there! Today, I am cleaning (yeah right), makng decorative hearts and stuff for my upcoming Valentine's mantle, going to work, and doing the mom thing... fun stuff! Hope your day is wonderful!

U Rock: DIY Pet Rock Valentine Cards

I have been seeing a ton of adorable diy Valentine's this year in the blogosphere, that I will likely show you soon. But my kindergartner's party is Friday, so I had to go ahead and make something for his class now.
 

So we headed to Micheal's to check out their V-Day offerings. They have tons of cute stamps on sale for 49 cents. We originally got a cute robot holding hearts, and a hedgehog that said "I'm stuck on you".. but the "U Rock" stamp caught my eye. So after going down aisle by aisle, I wasn't really seeing anything that was a) affordable and b) not too girly or c) had enough for each child... and I *almost* resorted to forgetting the diy thing and getting a store bought boxed set, (no offense to those who do, I still love the Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony ones I got as a kid), I was just determined to do something crafty. When I saw these bags of rocks, the "U Rock" stamp entered my mind and I thought, Pet Rock Valentines! Don't kids love rocks? My son was sold on the idea.

So, you need a few pieces of scrapbook paper, ink pad and a stamp (or just write the message out), hot glue and glue gun, rocks, paintbrushes and paint. I had most all of these supplies, so it was pretty easy and inexpensive to do. I tested my permanent markers on a rock, and they didn't show up well enough, so I settled for paint.

Stamp on the two outer/parallel edges of paper, then cut the paper in half. You can get about 12 cards from one large square piece of scrapbook paper. Once they are all cut out, fold in half and hot glue your rock above the stamp, and write your message inside. Perfect, original and cute for non-candy Valentines.

But...  on the rest of the Valentines, I accidentally folded the paper wrong and had already written on the backs, so I had to get creative with that extra flap.. I hot glued the Starburst on both sides and stuffed it in there for a little pocket. Just enough glue to keep it in place, so the kids will be able to still get to the candy quite easily. The rocks can be peeled off pretty easily too.

Not as cute in my opinion, but hey, they are for little kids who are going to be on the hunt for candy anyways, right?

My girl rocks have little hearts on the cheek, and my boy rocks have eyebrows. If you know the kids well though, it would be cute to make them more original with eye and hair color, glasses, freckles, or even go silly with mustaches, pirate patches, eyelashes and that sort of craziness... The two below are the ones I made for my kiddos.

If you make a Pet Rock Valentine, I'd love to see it! Happy crafting :)