Valentines: Twinkie Minions!

Happy Valentines Day...er...again!  

Still trying to find Valentine's cards for your kid's class?  Opt for home made!  Despicable Me 2 is SUPER popular right now, with their lovable little minions and all.  So spread the love with some delicious little minions of your own! Variations of this Valentine have been filling up Pinterest lately, so I took my favorite parts of them and made THESE:

Wanna give it a try?  Let's go!

You will need:

-Scissors

-Tape

- Glue

-Marker

-Construction Paper

- Twinkies

- Heart Stickers

- Minion Print Out (Thanks to Create, Celebrate, Explore)

-Heart Print out (Thanks to Sassy Dealz)

Minion Template

 1. Cut out the minions and add heart stickers to the front.

2. Cut out the heart template. Cut out the heart leaving a 1/4 inch boarder around the heart.

3. Glue hearts to pink construction paper and cut around with another 1/4 inch(ish) boarder, see below:

4. Assemble!  Wrap the minion around the Twinkie and tape in the back.  Then tape the heart at a slight angle on one side of the back.

TA-DA!  TWINKIE MINIONS!

I also had my little boy sign "From Joey" on the back of each heart before taping the hearts on: it was a great way for him to practice his "J's" since they've been backwards lately!

*If you find yourself having trouble finding Twinkies, it's because Hostess went out of business and now Little Debbie makes them.  Due to copy right issues (or something, whatever) they are now called "Cloud Cakes".  Lame right?!  Whatevs, they're still Twinkies to me!

Let me know what you think and how they turned out for you in the comment section, I love reading your thoughts!

Happy Crafting!

Valentines Day: Candy Heart Wreath!

Happy Valentines Everyone!  So I had some requests for a Valentines Day craft, well, ask and ye shall receive!  I have seen lots of these floating around on Pinterest so I decided to take all my favorite parts and make my own version.  I made a Halloween version of this several years ago and, um, lets just say THIS candy heart wreath is the culmination of some hard lessons I learned from candy corn... but that's another disaster story!

Let's get started!  You will need:

-3 bags of candy hearts (this leaves some for snacking!)

- hot glue sticks, like a ton

- hot glue gun

- duct tape

- pool noodle

- ribbon

- Mod Podge & brush

- twine, burlap, markers (not pictured) for "xoxo" banner

1. Cut pool noodle to desired wreath size using a serrated bread knife (see below). Now you absolutely can buy a foam wreath but they can be expensive.  Pool noddles are $1-$2 depending on the store...I like that price!

2. Wrap the ENTIRE wreath form in duct tape. Foam and hot glue do not like each other, the glue will melt the foam! So wrapping it in duct tape prevents melting.  I used standard duct tape because that's what I had laying around, however they make a plethora of colors so feel free to use any color you want since the tape will show through slightly.

3. Get gluing! I started by gluing down an entire ring around the very top of the wreath (see below) as my guide.  Work in circles, match each bottom of one heart to the top of the next. 

This is by no means a quick craft, however, the results are quite fun! Also, don't go around the back of the wreath: leave the back exposed so it can safely rub up against the door.

4. Mod Podge that thing! A thin coat of Mod Podge not only reinforces the structure, but it also protects the candy hearts from the elements, things like rain and bugs...I found this out the hard way!

5. Ribbon!  Cut about 2 yards of large ribbon from the spool, cut and melt the edges (this prevents fraying), and tie into a pretty bow. The length of the ribbon from wreath to bow is totally up to you!

 The "xoxo" banner! Collect burlap or linen fabric, twine, markers (I used red and pink), glue and scissors.

6. Fold your fabric in half and cut little triangles: unfolded they'll look like diamonds (see below).

7. Glue the triangles to the twine. Sandwich the twine inside the triangles and close with glue.  Space triangles about a quarter-inch apart.

8. Draw on the "xoxo" with your markers.  I used pink and red and styled my text in a Times New Roman style font.  Then glue the ends of the banner to the backside of your wreath...voila! 

I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did!  It's pretty inexpensive to make, less than $10 if you already have things like glue, duct tape and scrap fabric.  

Tell me what you think about this craft in the comment section below:  I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Happy Crafting!