Ideas to spark your paper craft Valentines Day muse

Valentines Day is near and our cupid muse is calling us to create expressions of love. Here are a few ideas to help get you started with your Valentines Day paper crafts:

Easy Valentine’s Day Treat Bag (pictured) Easy-to-make paper craft treat bags to fill with love.

Friendship Blossoms Paper flowers with a sweet-surprise center.

Hearts and Blocks Valentines Simple and contemporary stamped paper cards.

Be My Valentine Wall Hanging Recycle brown paper bags into a gorgeous shabby chic wall hanging. This craft gets my “green” thumbs up!

Framed Filgree Heart An elegant idea for turning paper filgree into a long lasting memento of love.

Vanna’s Choice Knitting and Crochet Contest

Don’t put away your needles and hooks yet. There’s still time to enter the second annual Vanna’s Choice Knitting and Crochet contest, sponsored by Lion Brand Yarn and Michael’s craft stores. The deadline is Feb 1, and since the first round accepts electronic entries (which consist of a photograph of your finished project), you can enter right up to the last day. You can also enter multiple times, so if you make more than one project with Vanna’s yarn, why not enter them all?

There’s no entry fee and who knows, you could advance to the final round, where you send in your completed item for judging, and maybe even win a nice gift certificate to Michael’s or a cash prize. The grand prize winner receives a trip to meet Vanna herself!

The four categories (afghan and throws, hats and scarves, baby items, and gifts and crafts) give you a great deal of freedom to be creative. What project couldn’t fit into the gift category, right? The only requirement is that you use Vanna’s line of yarn from Lion Brand. It includes three different types: worsted weight Vanna’s Choice, which comes in a glorious rainbow of colors; Vanna’s Choice Baby, a worsted weight yarn in a selection of  colors popular for baby gifts; and Vanna’s Glamour, a sport weight yarn with metallic thread woven in for just the right amount of sparkle. I’m dying to make a fashion doll dress with this one!

So, what’s stopping you from entering? Even if you don’t win (and there’s always a chance you could), you will still have a handmade item ready for your next gift-giving occasion. Last year, I entered a child’s hat I’d crocheted in red, white and blue (see photo below). Even though I didn’t win the contest, my son loves this hat, and wears it to school every day now the weather’s cold. Maybe I didn’t get the cash prize, but I still feel like a winner.

And yes, I’ve entered Vanna’s contest again this year–twice so far!

Happy stitching!

Cathy