Valentine the Voodoo Pincushion

Are you spending Valentine’s Day alone after a nasty break-up? Then why not exact your revenge on that no good so-and-so with a little old-fashioned voodoo? Valentine the Voodoo Pincushion is the perfect outlet for all sorts of frustrations, even if you haven’t been spurned by a lover. With a little bit of felt, thread, stuffing, and crafty know-how, you can have your very own voodoo doll to puncture to your heart’s content. Full instructions are included by Indie Spotting.

Bleeding Heart Cupcakes

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know how much we enjoy cupcakes over here at the Happy Seamstress (in fact, the last three round-ups included a cupcake recipe), so it’ll come as no surprise that we’re going to list one here. However, instead of your traditionally pink-frosted heart-shaped confection, this recipe from yumsugar allows you to make an anatomically correct heart cupcake, complete with oozing strawberry jam blood.

Anti-Valentine Cards

Do you feel that the messages on the cards you buy in the store don’t fully convey the range of your feelings for this holiday? How about printing out one of these free Anti-Valentine Cards by me(ish) for someone you care about (or hate, as the case might be)? They cover the whole range from understated to painfully direct with messages like “Happy unimaginative, consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day”, and the less subtle “Valentine’s Day Sucks”.

Bleeding Heart Martini

This next recipe comes from Martha Stewart Living, of all places. Originally intended as a Halloween cocktail, the Bleeding Heart Martini is a fun twist on your traditional gin and vermouth martini with the addition of a pickled baby beet, which lends the drink a bloody hue. It would make a great cocktail to serve at an Anti-Valentine’s Day party, or simply to drink alone during a quiet night at home.

You can also find a fairly comprehensive list of other delicious cocktails to serve on this anti-holiday at Latina (you just have to scroll past the lovey-dovey Valentine’s Day-themed drinks). My personal favourite is “Adios Motherf-er”, which contains vodka, tequila, rum, and gin!

Grouchy Love Bug

For the folks who aren’t a fan of Valentine’s Day, but can still appreciate a little cuteness in their lives, you can make some chocolate-strawberry grouchy love bugs with little “Love Stinks!” signs. Wing-It Vegan offers extremely comprehensive instructions on how to dip your strawberries in chocolate, make and attach those little antennae, and decorate your love bugs. I would skip the cutesy “I (heart) U” bugs, however, and make a whole army of frowning grouchy anti-love bugs.

Dalek Embroidery

If you’re feeling a little bit nerdy, you might want to try your hand at stitching this adorable scene of a Dalek (from Dr. Who) attempting to exterminate a balloon heart. Sarah from Trying to Enjoy Life based this embroidery on an anti-Valentine sketch (which, unfortunately, is not linked from the post). It would look really fantastic in a cute frame!

Bleeding impaled heart ornaments

Continuing with the hand-stitched theme, why not make yourself some of these felt bleeding heart ornaments. Katie Canavan of Under the Red Umbrella has only posted the pictures of her creations without instructions, but I think that anyone with some basic stitching skills would be able to reproduce these without too much hassle. However, if you’re feeling lazy and would rather support an all-around crafty lady, you can also buy some from her Etsy shop. These would look great hung on a vase full of dead branches… sort of like an Anti-Valentine’s Tree!

Cupid Shot in the Back cake

For those of you with awesome cake decorating skills, and an extreme dedication to truly hating Valentine’s Day, you might want to try to replicate this hysterical cake from Cake Central. It’s decorated with a fondant dead Cupid who was just shot in the back by one of his own arrows. The expired cherub is surrounded by flames, just in case it wasn’t painfully obvious that the baker isn’t a fan of this holiday. And just to make it even more sacrilicious, it’s made from Devil’s food cake with chocolate cream filling.

I hate Valentine’s Day

Finally, if you’re willing to go all the way and make Anti-Valentine’s Day a permanent fixture in your life, you might as well pick up a copy of I Hate Valentine’s Day (on Amazon or Barnes & Noble) by Bennett Madison. It’s a humorous guide to surviving the schmaltziest day of the year, whether you’re single or in a relationship. You’ll learn how to avoid the people and places who tend to make the holiday that much more unbearable, how to celebrate the holiday in alternative ways, and even how to score a last-minute date. And really, at just a couple of bucks, this book is a steal.

Bath Fizzies

I don’t know about you, but my favourite way to relax is by soaking in the tub with a glass of red and a good book, and bath fizzies are always a welcome addition. These look really easy to make—you basically just need baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, and whatever essential oils and colours you want to add. I think I’ll make a batch of these bath fizzies from Martha Stewart for myself, and if I’m feeling generous I just might make extra for gifting. But, in all honesty, I’ll probably keep them all for myself!

Upcycled Christmas Lights

From the Craftzine blog comes this brilliant idea to transform old burnt-out Christmas lights into a delightful sparkly bowl-filler. Anything that’s cheap and cheerful and satisfies my magpie-like tendency to collect shiny things is good in my books!

DIY Gift Bags

Learn how to make your own gift bags with this tutorial from Waterfall Creative. Lots of possibilities for reusing wrapping paper, posters, and other paper goods combined with ribbon or yarn.

Recycled Gift Bows

Another recycled-paper gift-wrapping idea, this time from Lines Across My Face. An easy tutorial for making those classic star-shaped gift bows we all know and love!

Rum-Spiked Eggnog Cupcakes

Oh, Bakers Royale, you already had me at eggnog! And then you went and sweetened the deal with spiced rum. The hubby’s birthday is coming up, so I’m definitely going to whip up a batch of these cupcakes to celebrate…and I’ll probably make another batch for Christmas, too.

Cinnamon Ornaments

Another great idea from the Martha Stewart blog, these cinnamon ornaments look great and will fill your house up with a lovely spicy holiday scent. I would love to try these with sparkles mixed into the dough.

Tea Lights

Another great upcycled thrift-to-gift idea from Georgica Pond—turn a pretty teacup and some old candles into a unique home decor piece. Head over to your nearest thrift store and stock up on cute teacups to make a bunch of these, and you could take care of a good chunk of your gift list in one fell swoop!

Felt Rose Scarf

This free tutorial for a flowery scarf comes from Watch Me Daddy. It looks ridiculously easy to make, with impressive results. I’d love to make one out of felt from thrifted wool sweaters, or some luxuriously soft 100% wool felt in a few coordinated colours.

Peppermint Foot Scrub

I love a Christmas gift that helps you recover from Christmas! This foot scrub recipe from The Idea Room is cheap to make, too—you just need sugar, olive oil, and essential oil. I love the idea of doing a peppermint scrub for the holidays, but you could use any essential oil you like.

Yarn Ball Ornament

If you have a bit of scrap yarn, skewers, and large wooden beads, you can quickly whip up one of these yarn ball ornaments. This one is by Phoenix Fire Designs, based on this idea by appleshannon on Crafster. I think it would make a great gift for any knitters on your list, or just make a bunch to cover your own tree!

Spooky Cupcakes

Cupcakes are appropriate for any occasion. Instead of serving tons of packaged candy at your Hallowe’en party tonight, try serving up some of these delicious holiday-themed treats. Studio 5 has instructions for pumpkin, witch, spider, ghost, and mummy cupcake decorations. My personal favourites are the eyeball cupcakes shown here, made with marshmallows, life-saver candies and tiny black jelly beans… and of course red icing for those creepy veins.

Fanged Pumpkins

If you don’t have the time or patience to carve out a regular jack-o-lantern, try making one of these fanged pumpkins from Martha Stewart. They’re made by cutting one hole for the mouth into a smallish pumpkin, inserting some of those cheap dollar store plastic fangs, and using a couple of thumb tacks for eyes. There’s even a video tutorial, in case you need it explained in explicit detail.

Glow Stick Lanterns

There’s nothing quite like eerily glowing things to complete your Hallowe’en decor. To make a glowing lantern (or a bunch of them!) just activate some glow sticks, which you can get for cheap at the dollar store or pharmacy, cut the tips off them, and dump the contents into a glass jar. Then swirl the jar around to evenly coat it.

Wriggling Snake Wreath

Here’s another one from Martha Stewart: a wriggling snake wreath! From a distance, this would look like a regular wreath, but once you get close, you can see that it’s a squirming mass of creepy snakes, perfect for scaring trick-or-treaters! It’s also really simple to make. Just attach a bunch of rubber snakes to a simple grapevine wreath using floral wire or by coiling them around the wreath.

Candy Corn Cookies

Candy corn is by far my favourite Hallowe’en treat. It has that perfect mix of texture and flavour that I find absolutely irresistible. These chocolate dipped candy corn cookies, created by Be Different Act Normal, look almost as good. They were created by adding orange food colouring to a simple sugar cookie dough, cutting the cookies into triangles, and dipping one end in white chocolate and the other in dark chocolate.

Hallowe’en Crackers

Crackers aren’t just for Christmas anymore! With a toilet paper tube, some coloured crepe paper and a few Hallowe’en-ey decorations, you can create these adorable Hallowe’en crackers, again from Martha Stewart (she’s just full of good ideas!). Then fill them with lots of tasty candy!

Toothy Jack-O-Lantern

If you have a lot of time and a ton of ambition, you can test your carving skills by attempting to emulate this impressive Jack-O-Lantern. This work of art was seen at a local coffee shop and snapped by Leya at Curious Bird. I love that toothy grin, and using the stem for a nose is a really original idea. If nothing else, this is great inspiration!

Scrummy Pumpkin Cupcakes

I thought I’d start the list off with this delicious recipe from Eat Live Run for pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing. If there’s one thing I love about fall, it’s all the yummy pumpkin stuff (soup, pie, etc.) you get to eat around this time of year. And of course you need your sugar energy before you can do any serious crafting, so bake yourself up a batch pronto!

Sweater Bangles

From leftcoastknits on Ravelry comes this wonderful idea to use scraps of yarn to create a beautiful fall/winter accessory. Unfortunately no pattern is available, but she does mention she started out with a provisional cast on. I think making these would go something like this: grab some cheap plastic bangles (try Forever 21, Claire’s, or a dollar store), cast on enough stitches to go all the way around, knit any stitch pattern until you’ve reached about double the width of the bangle, then graft the edges together around the bracelet.

Adorable Owl Hair Clip

You may recognize this owl from the hugely-popular owlet kiddie sweater (thankfully also available in a grownup version!). This cute hair clip is made of one motif from the main stitch pattern, and would be a fantastic quick-to-make gift that anyone would love to receive.

Mobius Wrap

This pattern from Interweave Knits looks super cozy, gorgeous, and really easy to make. Knitting this out of a lace weight mohair yarn held together with a sequined thread yarn such as Lazer FX would make for a beautiful evening wrap to wear to office holiday parties and such. I’m always tempted to buy lace weight mohair yarn for it’s prettiness, but never know what I want to make out of it. So this is perfect, now I have an excuse to buy a few skeins!

Cargo Scarf

A brilliant way to keep yourself warm and your stuff safely stashed away at the same time, for those days when you don’t feel like carrying a purse around. Check out this tutorial on Instructables and make one for yourself!

Pretty Pumpkins

A really simple and pretty idea for carving pumpkins. I would love to make a bunch of these to put in a group in my garden, and just sit outside for a cozy hot-chocolate evening with friends.

Yellow Jacket

I love, love, love Anthropologie, and as usual their fall collection doesn’t disappoint. If you’re adventurous and are comfortable with altering commercial sewing patterns, I think this design would be easy to make yourself (no tailored set-in sleeves to worry about!). Just find a sewing pattern for a jacket with raglan sleeves (try F2548 from Marfy, or 2149 from Simplicity) and alter the collar pattern pieces—I suggest extending and widening the left side to make the half-bow, and adding a loop to the back of the right side to pull the bow through.

Fuzzy Felt Balls Tutorial

A pretty and simple way to use wool roving to create colourful decorations for around the house. This tutorial from Painted Threads Projects is specifically for large balls that would be great to fill a bowl or create hanging ornaments. I think you could also use this technique to make smaller felt beads for necklaces and other jewelry.

Chunky Lap Blanket

Who wouldn’t love to cuddle up with a nice book under this cozy and sparkly blanket? It’s made out of Pixie Dust yarn (a thick/thin yarn with a delicious blend of wool, mohair, and sparkles), so you get both warmth and bling at the same time. I love the slubby texture created by using the unevenly-spun yarn. I think this could be a really nice gift for someone special, if it wouldn’t be so hard to give away…

Whiskey Hot Toddy

What better way to end a crisp fall day (and a list of fall crafts) than a warm, spicy, boozy drink? This rendition of the classic Hot Toddy from Verses from my Kitchen uses rye instead of whiskey or bourbon, brown sugar instead of granulated, and includes cloves, cardamom, lemon peels, and a cinnamon stick. It may not chase away the sniffles, but it will sure make you feel better and is bound to fill your house with delicious autumn-y scents.

I Heart Wall Art

Most Valentine’s Day decorations are quite cheap and cheesy, so if you’re hosting a V-Day get together, it can be difficult to find a tasteful way to decorate your place. I love this idea by Secret Pie Shoppe to cut hearts out of sheet music and tape them to the wall.

P.S. I want to know how I can get my hands on one of those awesome armchairs!

Anatomical Knit Heart

If you’re not really into pink and red Valentine hearts, why not knit up a tongue-in-cheek anatomical heart instead? This one was skillfully made by Craftster PrettyCranium, but she warns that the finishing instructions in the pattern are a bit confusing. If you’re interested in making one of your own, you can buy the pattern on the VogueKnitting website here.

Nerd Love

Got a crush on a web design nerd? Give them one of these cards from Pop+Shorty, and they’re sure to notice you. As a web design nerd myself, I absolutely love it both for it’s cute nerdiness and it’s simple modern design. Not sure if this card is actually handmade or not, but I love it so much I had to include it in the round-up anyway!

Marshmallows in Love

This adorable card features an original illustration by Etsy seller SweetAndKindOf, based out of New York. If loving marshmallows this much is wrong, then I don’t want to be right!

Heartwarmers

Show someone you care by crocheting them one of these pocket ricewarmers. You can get a free pattern here. When you’re done, fill it with rice and heat it in the microwave to keep you or a loved one warm in the cold.

Touch-Activated Pulsating Card

What’s more appropriate on Valentine’s Day than a card that is touch-activated? Touching the spot on the bottom causes the LED’s to light up—I love it! Get full instructions on how to make your very own (including a video tutorial) on the DIY Life website.

Made With Love

I’m not so great at cake decorating (I guess it takes a steadier hand than mine) so I was happy to find free instructions on the CraftZine blog for making these easy cupcake toppers. They take almost no materials, skill, or effort, and the resulting cupcakes still look nice.

LoveBot

Learn how to make your own LoveBot with free instructions from the Sew Green blog. It’s made of secondhand felted sweaters, so it’s good for the environment, too.

You’re the Peanut Butter to my Jam

Who thought a sandwich could be so cute? I always suspected there was something going on between PB and J, and now this confirms it. A nice bit of embroidery work by Craftster magpienight.

Print-Your-Own Bags

I found these two free downloadable bag designs from Twig&Thistle, to giftwrap your handmade goodies. Get the brown paper bag design here, and the white paper bag design here.

Why You Should Be Mine

These cards from Fooka Designs are a bit like those notes kids pass around in school (Do you like me? Check yes or no.) but for really anal types. Give one of these to the lawyer or accountant in your life, and you’re sure to win them over with your romantic thoroughness (just make sure you initial it five times and get it notarized).

Screen Printed Animal Puns

Silly puns have been a Valentine card tradition for many years, but most of them are not as cute and well-executed as these cards by Westmama. They’re a great alternative to the cheap and cheesy cards available at every store this time of year.

Love Yetis

In spite of being kind of ugly and decidedly strange, I find these five-inch-tall Love Yetis to be inexplicably cute. If you have anyone in your life who is a bit offbeat and has an unusual sense of humour, give them one of these to make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Twig Heart

Hhead into the forest and gather some twigs to earn some Girl Scout cred by making this woven twig heart designed by Sweet Paul.

Heart-Shaped Pouch

If you’re comfortable with the idea of sewing a zipper into a tight curve (not for the faint of heart*) head over to The Purl Bee to learn how to make your own heart-shaped pouch. Make one and fill it up with chocolate—it’s a great environmentally-friendly alternative to the elaborate and disposable chocolate packaging that’s so common this time of year.


*Pun not intended

Bite Me Pillow

We’re all familiar with those chalky candy hearts with no discernible flavour. The worst/best part of them are those cheesy sayings—I can’t help but wonder whose job it is to write them. I love Dominitrix’ take on it with this wonderfully sarcastic Bite Me pillow. If you enjoy well-crafted sarcasm as much as I do, you’ll have lots of fun coming up with alternate sayings to stitch onto it.

Olive You

If your sweetie isn’t really into pink hearts and cherubs, knit him or her this cute jar of olives from Cut Out + Keep to show that you really get them.

Melted Heart Crayon

This melted heart crayon is a nice Valentine’s Day gift to make and give to kids, while getting rid of old broken crayons at the same time. Best of all, you can download a free PDF on the same web page of cards to print out and attach the crayons to.

Let Me Count the Ways

I love this sweater with a binary heart knit into it. I’m not sure what all the zeroes and ones really mean, but after all the effort and detail that goes into making something like this, I’m sure the recipient would agree that it means “I love you”.

A Magnetic Attraction

Learn how to make this LED valentine on Instructables. Give your sweetie one half, then attach both together to make the LEDs light up.

Space Invaders Cutting Board

From Captain Sideburns (you gotta love the name!) comes this fantastic and well-executed Space Invaders cutting board, made of precisely-cut cubes of high quality wood, glued together with FDA-approved food safe glue. Check out his blog for the instructions.

NES Controller Coffee Table

This kicks so much butt on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. This coffee table made by Ultra Awesome is not only an impressively accurate representation of the classic NES controller blown up to giant proportions, but it actually functions as an NES controller! If you want to nerd up your own living room with one of these (and who could blame you) you can get started here.

Lego Halloween Costume

Check out CraftZine for the instructions to make this awesome/adorable/slightly strange Lego costume made of a box and plastic food containers. All you’ll need to do is find a kid to bully into wearing this thing…

Giant Super Mario Quilt

This one might just put my Mario Sweater Vest to shame. This is well over 6 feet of geeky goodness in the form of a crocheted quilt. Me like!

Underpants Gnome

I’m a huge fan of South Park, so I was so happy when I saw this cute crocheted Underpants Gnome. Based on the cuteness, you’d never guess that he’d want to pilfer all of your underpants. But it’s always the cute ones you have to look out for…

Cross-Stitched Super Mario Map

Another Mario-themed entry, this elaborately detailed Super Mario map made by the Cross Stitch Ninja is so impressive it almost takes my breath away. Even more impressive is that the Ninja made two others: Super Mario 3 World 1 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

“Apple” Pie

I love visual puns, even more so if it’s also a dessert! Bonus points for the incredibly intricate latticework inside the apple. Find out how to make your very own here.

VHS Toaster

Finally something useful to do with those obsolete VHS players. As a bonus, now you can actually encourage your toddler to stick bread into your VCR! Learn how to make one with this tutorial from Instructables.

Where the Wild Things Are Amigurumi

I can’t get over how beautiful these crocheted characters from Where the Wild Things Are…are. Just look at how carefully the different textures of yarn were chosen and combined, and not a single detail overlooked.

jQuery Pumpkin

Finally, for you fellow coding nerds, is this pumpkin featuring a jQuery pun. See one more here, featuring yet another deliciously nerdy coding pun!

Jumping Frog

From the CraftZine blog comes this tutorial for making an adorable and slightly ridiculous jumping frog out of some paper and a paper clip. MacGyver would definitely approve. What better way to spend a snowy afternoon than by making a flock of spring-loaded frogs and racing them across the room?

Embroidered Logs

These embroidered logs from Design*Sponge would make any living room feel outdoorsy and cozy. A great project to get your power tools out for.

Recycled Hurricane Lamp Cover

Check out this tutorial for a great way to use up old paper towel tubes. This would look great alongside the embroidered logs above, or as a cluster of three different-sized ones on a mantelpiece. I found it on the talented Patricia Zapata’s blog, which you should definitely take a look at—you’ll find a lot more inspiring crafty stuff.

Crocheted Master Shake & Meatwad

Learn how to make this crocheted Master Shake doll from Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Instructables. Get the free pattern here. And while you’re at it, make a friend for him with this free pattern for a crocheted Meatwad.

Nerdy Perler Bead Coasters

Get your nerd on with this tutorial I found on the Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins blog. You’ll learn how to take a screenshot of your favourite video game character and turn it into a usable coaster.

Jell-O Fruit

Fill some hollowed-out orange, lime, and lemon peels with Jell-O with these instructions from the NotMartha blog. She says she loves food shaped like other food, and I would have to agree! It looks like so much fun, especially the weird orange slices filled with blue Jell-O.

Knitted Nautili

Fill your house with some cute creepy-crawlies with this free pattern to knit three nautili (or is it nautiluses?) from Knitty. Why not make a bunch of them and hang them from a mobile for an adorable under the sea-themed baby’s room?

Embroidered LED Froggie

Embroidery gets geeky with this tutorial from Sternlab, where you can learn how to combine LEDs into your crafts. You can also buy LED sewing kits from the online store. Why do I have a sudden urge to make a light-up Disco Stu jacket?

Paper Colbert and Paper Conan

Create your very own paper Colbert or Conan O’Brien with four free templates from CubeeCraft.

A Tiny Gingerbread House

To round out this cabin fever round-up, a tutorial for an actual cabin. Well, sort of. It’s an adorable tiny gingerbread house that can perch on a mug of hot chocolate. A great way to warm up on a cold day! This one also came from the
Not Martha blog, and she gives you ideas for lots of different rooftop decorations (my favourite is the crushed candy cane).