Scrolling through Pinterest around the holidays always seems to make my craftier side want to come out and play. So for Valentine’s Day this year I decided to try out a few Valentine’s Day DIYs. These DIYs were pretty inexpensive since I got most of the art supplies at the dollar store and ended up changing the DIYs to what I could find there.
Expectation
Reality
I decided not to follow the directions exactly and used two boxes of strawberry cake mix because I did not believe that one box of cake mix would make enough batter for two 9-inch cake pans. However, if I were to do this DIY again I would probably only use one box and just make the cake a little smaller. I also ran into the issue where the cakes rose a lot more than I was expecting so I had to cut a good chunk off both cakes in order to make them even. The recipe also calls for only one can of frosting, however, in order to make it look even and to cover the sides of the cake you need two cans. I made the mistake of only getting one and ended up with unfrosted cake sides. All in all, this DIY ended up looking like a heart but not as good as I had hoped it would turn out.
2. DIY Heart Shaped Valentine’s Wreath with Coffee Filters
Expectation
Reality
This was definitely my favorite project of the three because I was really excited to see how it would turn out. It was, however, the most time consuming of the three because you had to soak each of the coffee filters in red/pink water, which I ended up making out of washable marker ink. It took them about a night to fully dry, and then it was time to start putting them into the Styrofoam heart cutout. The project took about two hours to finish, not including the drying process of the filters. My result was not exactly like the expectation but I loved mine just as much.
Expectation
Reality
I was surprised with how much fun I had while I made this one. I did not end up following the instructions on folding the hearts around the string due to the fact that I used ribbon instead of string and baker’s twine, the cardstock I used was too thick to fold it right and I could not find baker’s twine when I got the materials. I also could not find an embroidery hoop, so I ended up cutting out the inside portion of two pink paper plates and used that to make the top of the chandelier. This project only took about an hour and a half to make from the time I started cutting out the hearts to the finished product time.
I definitely recommend trying some of these cute Valentine’s Day DIYs on Pinterest. Not every attempt will be a success, but by not following the instructions perfectly you may end up happier with the reality than the expectations. Celebrate the uniqueness in these crafts. HCXO!
Image Credit: Cover Image, Heart cake expectation, Wreath expectation, Chandelier expectation
Direction Credit: Heart Cake, Heart Wreath, Heart Chandelier
Pinterest Credit: Heart Cake, Heart Wreath, Heart Chandelier