Affordable Winter ThriftFlips and Crafts with BONUS Ideas to Transform Them Into Valentine's Decor

Hello my crafty tribe, this is Artsy Maddy and let's get creative! So I got really lucky and found this wooden snowflake at one of my local home decor stores and it had a broken tip but luckily it was a super easy fix just with some wood glue and a clamp and then just left it to dry overnight and just the pressure of the clamp and the wood glue it's as good as new so it's a really easy fix if you ever find something wooden that is broken just use some wood glue and a little bit of pressure overnight and it will dry just as strong as ever. So once I had it all repaired I just went in with a little bit of white paint and just did a dry brush effect just to get it a little bit whiter and cleaner looking. I liked the rustic look of it but I just didn't want it quite so much so just dry brushing some white going in the direction of each cut on the wood so not quite the wood grain but just in the direction that each little angle is cut and then I'm going to valentine this so or valentine it up I guess. I found some three wooden beads in my stash of old macrame stuff some kind of old retro stuff that an old neighbor had given me and I painted the largest bead with some pink nail polish and gave that a few coats. I just had it on a skewer there with some hot glue built up just to hold it on there nice and firm while I was painting it and then I'm just gonna do some little tiny light pink hearts. So I'm using the embossing tool from Dollar Tree it's just got a little round ball on the end I find it a little easier to control than a paintbrush sometimes so just start by doing two little dots and then you just drag them together to make your little heart shape. So I just get the three wooden beads put down onto that piece of twine to hang it with and tied it off at the top just so it's temporary and then I just I'm going to use a bunch of different trim and yarns that I have on hand here just to make it look a little bit more romantic and kind of shabby chic looking and I just tie some simple shoestring bows onto the twine and that's all there is to this piece and I'll move on now to some lace doilies. So these are just a set of paper doilies in three different sizes and we are going to do a really simple technique and just folding them in a fan-like style. So start with it folded in half and then you just fold back and forth back and forth on each side. I tried to get them about a centimeter width in the folds. It doesn't really matter how wide they are but you just want to keep them all fairly similar just because you're going to be sticking them all together. So I'm going to be working with groups of four so four doilies per snowflake. We're just going to make some paper snowflakes. So just again just showing you you fold it in half and then just back and forth back and forth just like folding a regular fan if you ever did that in elementary school and then once you have those folds done you just fold it in half the whole thing and then we're going to be butting them up against each other and I'm just going to use some hot glue to tack them all together. So I would glue about one third between the folds and then we're just tacking them all together with hot glue. Hopefully it's clear here. So a little bit of the glue does go down into the holes in the doily but not far enough to really affect it that much. It still worked out just fine. So then to decorate these a little bit more I'm just using some scrap pieces of book pages that I have from other projects and just a little circle punch here with a scalloped edge and I just cut out like four for one for each doily. I should say one for each snowflake and then I just found some odd little pearly type buttons in my button jar and then poked holes if I needed to if the button had a little back on it just to go down into the center of the hole. So now I'm just using some spray adhesive, this spray glue from Dollar Tree and I just sprayed a little bit of it on and then sprinkled a little bit of some glitter that I had in just kind of a snowy white color just to give it kind of a frosted effect and then to make them valentine like romantic on the other side I'm going to do the same thing. I just shaded the book pages, the little book circles with some pink pencil crayons just a lighter pink in the middle and a little bit rosier pink around the edges. I found these little jewels at Dollarama recently in their wedding section and then just a couple pink buttons and just same thing on the other side of these little snowflake doilies. So here they are as just the plain winter decor. Please excuse the ugly hanger, this is just kind of what I used to temporarily display stuff for you guys and then here it is with the valentine touch to it. So this will just set up as our background for our little vignette today. This is just some nice easy ways to kind of transition from winter to valentine's. So this was another score that I found at the same home decor store on clearance for six dollars regular 20 and it is just a flocked velvet christmas tree and I knew I could fix it with just some air dry clay. So this is just some natural air drying clay from Dollarama, almost anything would work, paper clay, anything that you have that will harden when it dries. So I'm just going in and fixing up those little cracked and broken parts on it. So I just used just a little bit of the clay pushing it in just to be as much as you need to get it to that part where it should be and then I just followed the lines that were already in the design of this tree and just kind of marked those down into the clay bits as well. It was fairly easy to follow just because they're already there you're just kind of following the line that's up above it. So this worked really well you can even kind of put some into the hole just to make it a little bit stronger and then I just let them dry overnight and now I'm going in with some paint and primer mixture. This is just a mist tint that I found at Home Depot one day just in a nice linen kind of parchment color and this has the primer sealer property in it so I knew that would help lock this burgundy color from coming through the paint. If it was just paint I feel like that burgundy flock might tend to come through the paint so I would recommend something with the primer sealer in it just to be sure if you were trying to cover up a deep color like this especially because the flocking would have dye in it. So I gave it two really good coats of that parchment linen color and then I just wanted to go in with a heavy dry brush of white so I am just hitting all the high parts of this sculpted tree with the white just so it's a mostly white tree now but it'll just kind of have that linen parchment color down into the depth of the cracks and stuff just to kind of give it some depth and kind of make it look a little bit older and kind of that shabby chic look. So then I recently found these little wooden hearts at Dollarama they're so tiny they're just adorable and I'm going to paint them pink with like more of a stained pink just so you can kind of see that wood grain through them so you do that just by adding a little bit of water to your paint. So I figured out these were going to be pretty hard to paint because they are so little so I just put down some masking tape for myself just to stick them down to and I painted them on the one side let them dry and then flipped them over on the masking tape and painted the other side. It wasn't totally necessary for what we're doing it for but I tend to be used to painting both sides of everything. So moving on we're going to be making a little garland for the tree so I'm just cutting enough of this pink yarn this is from Dollarama as well and then just some twill tape that I have I bought that huge thing a long long time ago off ebay for sewing it comes in really handy so just something similar you could look at twill tape at any sewing supply area like in walmart or whatever they should have that. I'm also just cutting strips of the margin off of these book pages that I have just so I had some nice kind of ivory color paper. The other papers I'm working with are just some scrapbook paper and I'm just cutting out some stripes so I'm going to have a very light pinstripe of a light pink and then I'm going to have this wider strip of this medium color pink. So I made these about one and a half centimeters wide and then the linen color the little book paper pages are about a centimeter wide. So this is that pinstripe one just some random scrapbook paper that I had hopefully you guys can find similar I know stripes are in a lot of scrapbook pages so if you're wanting to recreate this hopefully you guys can find some nice stripes to work with as well or just some plain old colored paper too would work. So I'm just going to tack these down with a Elmer's glue stick I'm just tacking down the linen strips onto this medium pink here so that the little sides of the linen paper will show the pink and then I just cut them all down this is just kind of a rough size it's a kind of between one and a half and two inches long these little strips and then we're just going to be folding everything in half so same with these little linen kind of twill tape ribbon type things here these are about between one and a half and two inches wide as well and I'm just tacking down the paper just again with the Elmer's glue stick onto these linen twill tape little ribbons here. So once they're all dried I'm going to be folding them in half so I'm using this little bone folder tool it's not actual bone I don't know why they're called that maybe they must have been made of bone originally but I'm just using this little folding tool to just press out the folds on these that's from Dollar Tree as well so I'm just dovetailing the edges of the little twill tape ones just giving them that little inverted triangle kind of shape there and then onto the paper ones I just cut them into a point so these are going to be our little banner pieces here on our little garland for the tree. So for the twill tape I used a little tiny dab of hot glue and then did the rest with a glue stick to tape them together onto the string and then for the paper ones I just used the hot glue that worked fine and then I just left about a half an inch between each little banner piece there so just showing some of that yarn in between and then once I got those all glued down I'm just going to go in on the little plain paper ones and just tack down these little wooden hearts so I'm just using some Aleene's tacky glue and I just left them for a few hours to be sure that they were dry and then for the top to attach this little banner to our tree I just made a little bit of a loop on the top that can just sit onto the tree so that this will be temporary as well so I can use this as my Christmas and winter decor and then just transition it into Valentine's. So here it is just as the plain white tree this is sitting on a little cupcake stand that I found recently so it's like a little porcelain kind of or ceramic type little cupcake stand if you ever find one of those it works well for this too kind of gives the tree like a little trunk look and there it is with our little Valentine banner. So moving on I have these adorable little snowmen that were both some fun little thrift finds and I just want to make them a little bit more neutral to go with my Christmas and winter decor so I usually do quite a neutral theme at Christmas and into winter so I'm just going to remove kind of this bright red Christmassy stuff and I just thought he was really cute and worth kind of putting some effort into so we'll just clean him up a bit here I got all this stuff removed and then I put them in the washing machine. I have a great washing machine with a nice sanitized cycle on it so I never have to worry about bringing home linens or anything like that from the thrift store. So once the snowmen were all clean and smelling nice I just went over him with a little defuzzer he kind of pilled a little bit in the washing machine but that was no problem this cleaned him up nice and then I just wanted to tighten the little seam around his neck he just seemed really wide to me so I thought I would just kind of gather in here just with some hand stitching and just kind of tighten up that little neck seam a little bit. So I just got that sewn all around and then pulled the string the thread a little bit tight and it just kind of cinched up the neck and made him look a little bit cuter I think. And then for this little guy same thing he just got a little bit pilly on the hat and stuff in the washing machine so cleaned him up and then I'm going to try and cover up this hat here so it wasn't really sturdy as you can see it's just empty inside so really squishy so I wanted to make it a little bit more firm and then it would hold its shape a little better so I just rolled up a little piece of black fleece and then just tucked it up into the hat just to make it a little bit more firm and hold its shape a little bit better and then once I got that all secured and the way I wanted I just tacked it down with a little bit of hot glue and then to cover up this little kind of wild colors on his hat here I actually just went in with a black sharpie I thought I was going to paint over it but the black sharpie worked just fine it was just like a silk screened kind of print onto it so it's really easy to cover and then to replace the scarves for Valentine's Day I'm just going to cut up some pink fleece pants I have that aren't really fitting so well anymore and I will just use the scarves that were already on them to get the right length and then I decided to make them a little bit wider just to kind of make them look a little bit fuller and fluffier give it more of that cozy feel if you guys have never used spring-loaded scissors they are awesome for fabric I can't recommend them enough I will put a link to those in my description box just be sure to keep them just for fabric if you do splurge on a pair I love keeping them nice and sharp for fabric so here is that little pink fleece scarf and then I'm just going to give it a little bit of fringe on the edges I just cut them about a centimeter apart and then I'm just going to give this guy another little pink scarf for Valentine's Day so just same thing using the scarf that was already on him as a pattern for the length and just made it a little bit wider so that it was a little bit snuglier and fluffier same thing just cut the little trim on the edges and then because I was trying to bring in a light pink and a medium pink and just to make this look a little bit cuter I just went in and added some polka dots with that same pink nail polish I knew I wouldn't be able to do the little heart shapes on the fleece it's just too uneven to work on but a little polka dot design worked out just fine and it was easy enough to control and then I'm going to make some little valentine bands for the top of their little top hats as well so I just measured out some fleece for the actual band like to cover up the one that's on there and then I'm just going to make like a little decorative thing here with some wooden hearts so I just have a little assortment here somewhere from dollarama somewhere from dollar tree and I believe these tiny little pom-poms are from dollarama as well I'm just going to kind of coordinate them all so just using the white and light pink and medium pink and I got them tacked down to the little bands so these are going to be the neutral ones for winter so I just used a cream fleece instead of the pink for the winter display I'm just trying to arrange them into like a little pleasing little pattern here I thought I could use one of these little mini roses from Dollar Tree but it just seemed like a little bit too much so once I was happy with the little design of it then I just tacked it down with some hot glue to the fleece band for the hat and it just fits snugly just right over top of his little black hat and then for the larger snowman I am just removing some of the Christmas decor that was still on there and then this will be the winter band just with the ivory color and the white snowflake and then I'll just show you just fitting the pink one so I'll just show you how I put them together I didn't want them to overlap because I knew that would be pretty noticeable because the fleece is so thick so I just butted them up together with some hot glue and the hot glue holds really well on fabric so I know that'll be strong enough and then again just trying to make a little pleasing arrangement with the little wooden hearts again I thought maybe I could use one of those little roses but it just seemed like too much so I'll just stick with the wooden hearts and the little pom-poms and the fleece has a little bit of give to it so it just goes over the hats really easily so here they are with their winter look and here are the sweet little valentine's snowmen and then I'm going to make some more winter bunnies so I made some for spring and I enjoyed them so much having them around that I thought I would like to make one for each season a set of bunnies for each season so these are going to be my winter bunnies so I just gave them a nice coat of white paint and then this tissue paper is from Dollar Tree and it was with the the Christmas wrapping paper and stuff although I have still seen it kicking around at my Dollar Tree so if you're interested in making these you should be able to hopefully still find some so I'm just getting the tissue paper all mod podged down to the bunnies this is just the regular matte mod podge and I'm just using the kids brushes from Dollar Tree they actually have a really nice texture to them much like a chippy brush and it goes into the little grooves of the rabbits pretty well these rabbits luckily they sell these at Dollarama which is luckily for me but hopefully you guys can find something similar like this in your garden centers they're just like an outdoor resin type decor item so I just kind of took my time and laid out the snowflakes kind of in an even pattern just working with like a small next to a bigger snowflake and alternating the different designs and then I just went in and painted the eyes so I'm going to do a nice dark brown so I'm using the burnt umber with a little bit of black to create a nice dark brown and just doing two coats to get a nice coverage all inside of the eyeball and then once that has dried you're going to go back in with just just the black and create a nice big round pupil so you just want to get it nice and round as you can just anchor your elbows and then just move your project so you can have a nice steady hand and then just creating some of the little white reflections in the eye and then I did want to put on some of the pip berries I could have sworn I bought pink pip berries at the beginning of the valentine season but I can't find them anywhere so I luckily had some of this ribbon on hand and I just used that to be their valentine decor but I think the little pink pip berries would have been pretty sweet too and then for our last creation here this is just a wooden bowl I was lucky to find at the thrift store I thought it had a really nice um neat coil texture to it and then this bag of Christmas ornaments they look like little snowballs and they were great prices as you can see so for the brown of the bowl I really like the nice warm tone to it but I thought I would just lighten it up with some white wax so this is the bear brand white wax it's really soft and easy to work with I haven't used any others so I don't know how to compare it to different brands but I am enjoying it I think it works great and it has a nice white quality to it so I just let that dry for a few hours that white wax and then just barely wiped any off I really did want quite a bit of white on there and then for these ornaments they were quite old and yellowed so I just went in and gave them a fresh coat of white paint and I just used a skewer in the little hanging part of the ornament and then again I'm trying to use this um adhesive spray like spray glue from Dollar Tree it drives me crazy it gums up and like that was only a couple hours since I had used it and it had already gummed up so I can't really recommend it it's very frustrating unless you're going to use it all in one shot after you buy it I can't recommend it it's really really frustrating it just gums up too easily I just went in and sprinkled some of that glitter snow on them as well just to kind of give them a little bit of sparkle and glisten just like the snow has and then these are the little heart picks for Valentine's Day from Dollar Tree as well and I'm just going to paint them with a lighter pink and and then um they did take a couple coats to cover up just because that foam doesn't really have much of a sealer on it I'm not sure how they get that glitter on there but the foam wasn't too well sealed so it did take a couple coats and then again super frustrating with that spray adhesive but I did manage to get a bunch on there and then just went in with a little bit of the white glitter sprinkles just to get them you know glistening and shining like snow so just some nice easy little pieces just to add to your valentine decor and then here is a look at everything just for kind of a neutral winter decor ideas and then everything with this little valentine twist so hopefully you guys have enjoyed this video and found some inspiration for your winter decor or for your valentine decor or what to keep an eye out for um if I have inspired you it would be really great if you could give this video a thumbs up and if you are already subscribed to my channel thank you so much I appreciate I appreciate you guys so much always coming back and watching my videos it means the world to me and if you haven't subscribed hopefully you'll consider it thank you so much for watching I hope you all have a great week and we'll talk to you soon in the next video