Hey Lovelies!  Today I can finally share some fun news with you!  A while ago, Brides.com contacted me about revamping my I Love You Garland into an exclusive DIY for their site.  So we updated, streamlined the project, and made it fresh and new for Valentine’s Day this year.  (This one even includes a free printable!)  Head over to Brides.com to see the full post and get sparkly!  xoxo

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It’s DIY time, dudes!  This one’s a piece of cake, and pretty self explanatory.  Here’s what you’ll need:

• a computer & printer, for designing your numbers
• scissors
• cardboard
• ribbon
• glue gun
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic (any craft store should do the trick)
• paint & paintbrush

Have fun!  xoxo

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I’ve been into modeling clay recently and I got an itch to try out some handmade beads.  But then I needed a place to put them, so that turned into this.

Gather your materials.

• Fimo modeling clay
• baking pan & oven
• embroidery needle
• embroidery thread
• bonus points: cute packaging material

Start by deciding what shape and size you’d like your beads.  I tried round, square, and heart before I decided I wanted teeny tiny triangles.  Shape your beads from modeling clay.  Pass the needle through the center of your bead and make a hole large enough to eventually thread a string.

Place the beads on a baking pan and bake according to the directions on the clay packaging.  Let them cool and string them onto an eight-inch length of embroidery thread, using the needle if necessary.

Tie a double knot on either side of the beads to keep them in place in the center of the bracelet.

Package your bracelets up and give with the following instructions: Tie on your wrist & make a wish.  When your bracelet falls off, wait for your wish to come true.  Be sure to wear with love.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

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I’ve got another sweet Valentine idea for you today over on The Sweetest Occasion!  Click here to head over and see how to make something lovely.  xoxo

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When it come to parties, UPPERCASE knows how to do it.  At their recent Alt Summit mini party they had tubs of beads, skeins of twine, and other fun goodies set around so folks could make jewelry while they chatted.  I obviously had to make a necklace for my most perfect niece, because she’s starting to love jewelry.

But!  I didn’t knot it right up because I wanted it to be adjustable but didn’t know how to tie those fancy-schmancy adjustable knots.  So I came right home and learned how to make one, and come to find out — they are neither fancy nor schmancy.  They are crazy easy.

Step by step:  Tie one end of your string into a loose knot.  Insert the other end into the loose knot and pull through until there is a tail a few inches long.  Tighten the first knot firmly.  Tie the remaining loose end around the first string.  Tighten knot.  Adjust the knots by slipping them back and forth.

See?  Oh my gosh!  Now we can all be brilliant together.  And my niece is going to love this.  xoxo

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It’s Monday!  And I’m kicking off the week with a special peek at Lovely Indeed’s fancy new business cards.  Let’s start with the what, and then we’ll get to the how.

Ta-da!  I thought the rounded-corner, double-sided action was nice, so I definitely wanted to get them professionally printed.  That said, though, they obviously needed a DIY touch, so here’s what we did.

I enlisted my {brilliant, awesome, patient} sister for some help and we got down to work.  She started punching out polka dots from a roll of pretty gold washi tape that I had in stock.

She would hand me stacks and stacks of little sticky polka dots, and I would place them {painstakingly, one by one} on each business card.  There was a little trial and error involved, but eventually we got it down to a science.

It was a bit of work, but I’m so pleased with how they turned out it was definitely worth it.  And now, because I love them so much, I want to give them to you!

I’d love to send you some snail mail with my business card and another special little surprise that I had printed up especially for Lovely Indeed readers!  If you’d like to get some pretty mail, send your mailing address to hello{at}lovelyindeed{dot}com and it’ll happen!  (Promise, no junk mail, and your address won’t be distributed whatsoever.  This is just for funsies.)

Thanks lovelies, and I hope I get to send you something cool!  xoxo

**UPDATE 2/4/12:  Business card mailers are no longer available, but keep an eye out for future Lovely Indeed reader appreciation offers!

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It’s totally time to start thinking about Valentine’s Day!  I know what you’re thinking — Valentine’s Day?!  I just finished Christmas!  What’s next?  Halloween again?

And you would be right.  But!  If you want to get your DIY on, you’ve gotta plan a little bit in advance, no?  And if I wanna help you get your DIY on, I’ve gotta plan even more in advance.  Hence the Valentine’s Day talk in the middle of January.

But I digress!  I’ve got the perfect DIY for all of you coffee-loving, Earth-friendly movers and shakers:  upcycled and reusable coffee sleeves, just the right size to fit over all those Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and Peet’s cups.

It’s a piece of cake:  just download this template, cut it out, and trace it onto some thick fabric.  I used felt for one, and a scrap of faux suede from an old purse for another.  After you’ve traced, cut out the fabric and either sew or hot glue the ends together, overlapping as far as the marked section on the template.  Then cut a heart from another swatch of fabric and sew or glue it on.  I chose to use some embroidery thread and make big stitches for some embellishment.

Keep them for yourself, or give them to a coffee (or tea)-loving friend for Valentine’s Day!  They weigh nothing, so keep ‘em in your purse to use every time you visit a coffee shop (the Earth will thank you for laying off of the cardboard ones).  xoxo

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Hey y’all!  It may be January, but it’s time to start talking about love!  Hop on over to The Sweetest Occasion to get my newest design in a free download and see how you can make it into a super-sweet Valentine for the folks you love.  Not gonna lie — it’s pretty cute.  xoxo

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Just had to share this awesome little stamp set that Santa dropped in my stocking this Christmas.  It’s the coolest thing — two stamps that you can fill with letters to say whatever you like!  There are large & small letters, along with plenty of punctuation and symbols.  My head is spinning with possibilities!  Just to try it out, I made a little greeting tag.  What would you use the stamps for?  I can think of about a zillion things!  xoxo

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Recently, a friend asked for some details about the candy buffet that Mr. Lovely and I had at our wedding reception.  I started laying out some information for her, and once I started, I couldn’t stop!  So I decided to share the info with you, too.  There’s a ton of information for you after the jump — I’m talking diagrams, spreadsheets, tips and tricks.  Read on here!

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