Easy Budget Friendly Ideas For Valentine's Day/ Conversation Heart Cone Tree /Plaid Ambassador

Hello my crafty tribe, this is Artsy Maddie and let's make some sweet valentine home decor. So we are going to make three sets of cone trees. So I'm going to start off by making the cones out of some scrap poster cardstock that I had. So any of that poster board from the Dollar Tree or any dollar store cereal boxes, just whatever you have. I'm just tying a pencil to a shoelace, holding it in the corner and then making that little arched circle shape that you need to get the bottom of the cone to sit flat. So if you want a fatter cone you can just roll it into a fatter cone size but you need that circle shape on the bottom in order for it to sit flush on the table. So this is just a really easy way to create that. It doesn't have to be exact because you can always trim up the edges if you need to after. And then I'm just gluing them together with some hot glue, just one little line down the end of the cone there and it holds it all together really well. And then just to soften the overlap of the cardstock I just went in with some mod podge and just some white plain old computer paper and just decoupaged a bit, kind of did like a paper mache treatment over that edge just to make it a little softer. So I have these conversation hearts, these are from the Dollar Tree, just some of the candy valentine hearts and I'm just going to spray them with some matte mod podge spray sealer just to kind of protect them and hopefully help them last longer. And I just sprayed the one side and then they dry lighter. They look a little darker when they're wet but they dry back to the original color. Flipped them over, did the other side and then I am just gluing them to two of the cones that I have painted a turquoise color and I just spaced them out about every inch to inch and a half just randomly. Try not to have colors side by side, just kind of spacing them out in a nice pattern. Some of them are kind of cheeky, the message is on them, it's not quite what I remember the conversation hearts being like when we were young and I remember them totally different too, they were a lot softer. These are really hard and dense but it's good for crafting, I think they'll last a long time. So then I have these foam beads, this is the mixed color bag, they're all the pastel colors, these are from Dollar Tree and then just some plain old white PVA glue and I just went in with a brush after drizzling some on and just made sure it was all covered with the white glue and then I just cut a little hole from the bag that the foam balls are in, this tended to work the best just to have a little bit more control over them and then just spilled them out onto the wet glue and then just using my fingers just to kind of push them in a little bit, the ones that were just resting on top because I wanted them all to be pretty solid down into that glue so that hopefully it'll be a little durable and they won't be coming off anytime soon. So it does work easiest just playing around with this, it works easiest to just be dumping on from the bag and then if you have to just funnel them back into the bag and just keep working from the bag, it was a little too frustrating trying to scoop them up and put them onto the glue with just your fingers. And I did two full cones from one bag of candy and one bag of the foam balls and the cones are quite high, they're about 16, they're all about between 16 inches and 24 inches high. So then for the second set of cones I was just going to be decoupaging onto them so I wanted them to have a little bit of a smoother feel so I just did a quick little coat of some spackle or drywall compound, whatever you have, joint compound, just whatever you use for your filler and then I just sanded them smooth and got a nice finish on them. So I gave them a base coat of some turquoise deco art paint mixed with a little bit of white and then I found these napkins at Walmart in the Christmas clearance section and I thought they were really cute and kind of the color scheme I was going for. So I just had to cut the napkin in half because to keep the cars facing the right direction and then for decoupage you just want to get down to that one layer of tissue so until it feels like just like tissue paper there's usually three plies to a napkin so it's a little bit tricky but you just want to get down to that one ply of the napkin and then I'm just again working with the matte mod podge and I'm just going to work in small sections at a time. So I started right with the middle bottom part and this napkin piece here and then I'm just using the cling wrap trip trick so saran wrap cling wrap whatever you have and that just helps the tissue paper not to tear so it really protects especially with napkins they can be kind of extra delicate and this cling wrap just really helps protect them from getting torn as you're working with them so it's a great trick whoever first came up with that is just genius and then just again just working in small sections so the mod podge doesn't dry and that so you have a good handle on it with just the part that you're working on there so you can see it does have a little bit of a crinkly wrinkle to it but I didn't mind it I thought it added some character to it and then just with the size of these napkins here I had to work in two sections on the tree so just cutting so that I didn't have a huge overlap I didn't want the print to be overlapping too much more than it had to be so I'm just kind of cutting up the back so that it just has a slight little overlap in the back of the tree you can even bundle up the cling wrap and just use it to kind of pat down your pieces of tissue paper and then for the third set of trees I found this beautiful pink yarn at dollarama and these are just easy peasy yarn trees I'm sure you guys have seen these around on pinterest or for sure on youtube and just the trickiest part here is just starting at the top so you just want to take your time with that top part get it really nice and secured I'm just using hot glue for mine and then once you get going it's super easy it goes so quick and I was able to do both of these trees with I'm sure it was less than half this ball of yarn so you just get into a nice rhythm you don't want to be pulling too hard just letting it fall nicely onto the cone and just keeping it nice and secure secure with enough hot glue and then here's the reveal of all the the cone trees that we've made so far I love these little candy candy heart trees I just think they're so cute and I love the pattern of the little pink beetle on those napkins too I just thought it was a really fun fun combination of colors kind of just inspired by the little conversation hearts that everybody loves so much so after your the foam balls have dried you can even poke in a couple more if you do have bare spots but it worked out pretty well I wasn't too concerned and then just having the nice color to blend in behind them works out really well too just whatever color you're leaning towards so today's video I'm so excited it's part of the plaid ambassador collaboration and look at all these beautiful creators that I love so much we've all joined together and it's actually a gift away so all you have to do is watch and like each video in the playlist and each each creator will feature a plaid product and mention the product for the giveaway so in your comment you just have to mention the product that each collaborator is talking about in their video so I'll let you know by the end of the video what my product is so that you can be sure to add that into your comment for a chance to win a great box of goodies from plaid plaid makes such wonderful products and I'm sure you guys are bound to get tons and tons of inspiration from today's playlist so I'll have a link to it in my description box be sure to check out all the creators videos so moving on I finally found two of these sweet little delivery trucks from Dollar Tree and I love to have things double-sided when I put it on my tiered tree just because I keep it in the middle of my kitchen and it's viewable from all angles so I just love it when things are double-sided and you don't really have to worry about seeing the backs of things so what I did was I took an eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper so that I would know the exact size of these um trucks and then used a pdf program I have to make sure that they were the exact size and then I just played around in photoshop to get the lettering facing the right way but flip the actual truck um if that makes sense so I'll have a printable if you guys are wanting to do this to your trucks like if you're wanting to make them double-sided I'll just share the link to that in my google drives in the description box if you're interested in doing that as well so I just mod podged them down in hindsight I wish I had have used some photo paper or some cardstock to print them on I think it would have turned out a little better quality and I wouldn't get those little tiny wrinkles just because it was just flimsy just regular computer paper so if you have access to photo paper or cardstock I would definitely recommend that and then just the lighter color truck here just it looks a little bit faded with the yellow color on there so I just went in with a marker and touched that up and then because it is such thin paper I just wanted to seal the top too so I just went back in with some mod podge to seal it up and then I just wanted to paint the wood sides that you still see like the exposed wood on them so for the lighter truck I used the seashell pink color by FolkArt mixed with a little bit of white and then for this darker pink truck I'm just using a deep red deco art mixed with a little bit of white and then for the darker pink I just mixed in a little bit more of the deep red and that seemed to match up okay and then just painting the tire wheels black and there they are and then they're viewable from all sides on my tiered tree which makes me happy and I know some of you guys have commented that you love to make things double-sided too so I thought this would be a fun idea to share with you so just have a look for that link for my google drives in my description box if you're wanting to print those out and do those as well too to your little delivery trucks so moving on I have these foam foam cones from Dollar Tree in two different sizes and I'm just painting them with the turquoise and white mixed together as well just to make it a little bit lighter and then I found this eyelash yarn at Dollar Tree they've had tons of it for a couple years at my Dollar Tree so hopefully you guys have access to this too if you like this DIY and I'm just going to take my time I'm using some more Mod Podge and just tacking it down to this little cone starting at the bottom taking my time trying to keep the yarn laying flat so that most of the little eyelash parts face in a downward motion so it's it's kind of fun actually and I had poked these skewers into the cones to paint them but then it actually worked really well for twisting the cone as you're putting the eyelash yarn on so highly recommend just keep your skewers in them if you're painting them first and then it'll be a super easy way to turn them as you're laying down that yarn I thought these were just so sweet and such little furry trees might try and make some white ones for for some winter decor too and then you just want to take your time as you get to the top just to seal up the top part so that you're get a nice little finish on the top of the tree there so then I have these styrofoam snowflakes these are from Dollar Tree as well and I'm going to be painting them with again that seashell pink folk art paint just a beautiful soft pink color I'm still in full winter mode that's why I'm doing snowflakes I was just showing you if you live somewhere where you're going to get spring sooner than me you'll probably want to do some birds or flowers or something instead but I am definitely in the midst of winter here in Canada so just getting them painted with that nice soft pink color and then I'm going to go in with this extreme glitter mod podge it's so pretty has such a nice little sparkle to it so I just give them a full coverage coat of this mod podge and then I had these iridescent snowflakes just like they sell at Dollar Tree sort of thing these ones are quite iridescent though the ones at Dollar Tree tend to be a little whiter but whatever your preference whatever you have I just thought this is kind of a fun little way to add some more sparkle to them and then once they're dry I just flipped them over and did the other side as well and then here is those pretty pretty little little cone trees I made some more with that pink yarn that I just thought was so pretty as well and with some little gnomes from the Dollar Tree so I'm really excited to put this um all together on the tiered tray but you guys I can't wait to show you the video that I have coming out in a couple days I've been working on it as a collaboration with two of my favorite youtubers my bestie on YouTube Favi from Arrows DIY and Mary Beth of MB Gray Designs and we're doing a collaboration in a couple days so be sure to look out for that as well and it is called love at first bite and so we've all made some sweet little valentine treats for your home decor so definitely be sure to check that out as well and this playlist today is going to be huge it's going to have so much inspiration I'm sure a lot of it will be valentines as well um you just want to check that out and be sure to enter in so all you have to do is watch the videos like and then comment with each plaid product so if you guys can't guess I've used a lot of Mod Podge today and I think that Mod Podge is my true um tried and true favorite of the plaid products so I find myself always using it almost in every video and it is my favorite product so that will be my secret word for the comments today if you want to add one of those in and be entered to win in in that plaid gift away it'll be a great little product box from plaid so I'll have a link to this the playlist in my description box as well as I'll put it in the comments too have a great week we'll talk to you soon thank you so much for watching