If I only had a heart...

Valentines Day is just a round the corner Tiddlybobbers and it's a bit like marmite - people either love it or hate it! I, for one, love it! I think it's great to have a day to celebrate love and happiness but I do wish there was more of a focus on all kinds of love and not just the romantic kind. So, this year, try and tell your friends, family members and pets how much you love them too and let's celebrate love in all it's forms!! In fact I'm so excited I want to make everything heart shaped!! Below are a few ideas if you want to too!

How about letting nature know how much you love her by making these awesome heart-shaped bird feeders created by Alison at No Time For Flashcards? Birds will appreciate it and you'll get to wile away the Valentines day hours bird-watching - sounds like bliss!

But if looking at nature is not your thing, what about looking at some photographs? You could create a photo collage in a heart shape of all the people you love. I particularly love the overlapping design above from Hadley at Huffington Post as part of another inspirational list blog. 

Or why not invite all those people you love over for some cake and surprise them with a secret hidden heart! A brilliant creative bake recipe from I am Baker and one that definitely must be tried out!

And what is cake without a cup of tea? Try making these genius heart-shaped teabags courtesy of Her Imajination. It's a great tutorial - very easy to follow and beautiful pictures. 

And if there's something I love more than tea then it's books! This heart shaped bookmark is perfect  for those gorgeous times when you get to curl up with a great book and travel to your favourite far off world. This video tutorial below is from Lindsay at Craft Foxes and shows you how to make them. 

I hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day celebrating love in all it's forms even your love of crafting! 

Remove the rings not the Caffeine!

One of the best things about working from home is that I can have a proper cup of tea whenever I want. Unfortunately hot drinks do leave rings and by the end of the day I can be left with an overwhelming sense of shame as I count how many rings I've drank that day! So instead of giving up drinking so much tea (which is madness!) I have decided to make myself some coasters.

I came across these gorgeous coasters on Pinterest and fell in love. They're very easy to make and you don't need many materials which is great for a girl with, currently, a very rudimentary craft box. 

You can find the full tutorial including a free PDF of the pattern on the  How About Orange blog which is currently resigned. Sad face. But all of Jessica's tutorials and downloads are still there for you to use. Happy face. 

The only change I made to the steps Jessica provided was that I stuck the pattern piece to a cereal box just because it made it easier to cut around as felt seems to stretch and move as you cut around a paper template even if you've pinned it down.

Also, because I only had black felt which doesn't show the design as well as the blue felt used in the tutorial, I stuck my coaster to a small piece of leftover white felt which I think gave it a nice finish. 

I really enjoyed making it, even though it was a bit fiddly at times, and I will make more but probably in different colours next time. 

Coasters, Shoes, Sharpies and More

DIY Wool Felt Ball Coasters 

I absolutely love this idea found via the Inspired by Charm blog. In fact I love it so much I think it might be the first craft project I take on so watch this space! 

I love the look of these FancyDolls and that you can buy the whole set and try it yourself!

Comic Book Shoes!

So many kinds of awesome but which comic to choose??

As a massive Harry Potter nerd, I have always wanted my own wand and this is definitely the best Harry Potter Wand Tutorial  I've seen for creating your own. 

Also I absolutely love this Harry Potter Book Art... I'll try to limit the links to Harry Potter crafts in future Tiddlybits I promise! 

I've been looking for a clock for my bedroom for ages and this clock might just be the one I've been looking for! 

I love this felt bow tutorial and so many things you can use them for. I'd love to add them to the front of an old t-shirt to jazz it up a little. 

Love yesmissy.com and all their DIY project ideas especially these Sharpie Projects - I didn't realise sharpies were so versatile so definitely have to get my hands on one of them!

And finally my Mag of the Moment goes to Homemaker Magazine They have such great features, website and craft recommendations and sometimes they come with fantastic craft projects to try! I absolutely adore it and highly recommend you subscribe or at least follow them on twitter @Homemakermag

That's it for this weeks Tiddlybits! See you next week for more craft inspiration!