Things I Love About You... By Heather Wilson

Valentine's Love Cage of Affirmation!

Instead of using a card, I put together this little project as a way to show my boyfriend I love him this Valentine's Day. Here's the materials you need:

Cut n' Boss and heart die cuts
decorative paper
Ebrush and markers
Small decorative bird cage
Hot glue
Embellishments (beads, lock, key, fringe, lace, etc.)
Jump rings
A colored pen to write with

Start with a sample piece of your decorative paper to practice on. You'll want to test this out with your Ebrush and see how different colors look on your paper. If you like the results, you can move on to a larger sheet and put all the colors you like on it.

I didn't leave any areas a solid color because I wanted the print on the paper to show. I did just enough to give it a bit of color.

Now you can start cutting out hearts with the Cut n' Boss! Remember to put the die cut flat side down on platform D. Lay your paper on top of that, then layer A, B, then A on top. I started out with about 15 hearts and later it ended up being 20 because I did some coloring with the Ebrush on plain white paper.

Take the color pen of your choice (I used pink!) and begin writing the things you love about your significant other! (You can also do this for family members or friends, but of course what you write would be much different!) I also wrote a couple favorite memories, and included some in-jokes in some of them.

Setting your hearts aside, you can start spicing up your bird cage a bit. I attached a heart shaped lock with a couple jump rings to the clasp of the cage lid.

Next I put a key above the lock by wrapping some wire from the cage around it with my pliers to hold it in place.

The bottom of the cage looked too plain to me, so I found some beaded fringe in one of my crafting stashes (you can never have too many craft stashes!) I attached it by putting a line of hot glue on the bottom of the bars. Tip: glue from top to bottom so the stringy parts can be pulled off easily from the bottom edges).

End your strip by overlapping the end where you started, and hot glue in place.

I hot glued some beads to the ends of the swirly wires on top. It needed some color there to balance out the trim on the bottom.

Now make your tag, either by buying some plain ones or cutting your own with the Cut n' Boss. Then add some color to it with the eBrush. I used a light pink sharpie first, then went around the edges with a slightly darker sharpie.

After writing "Things I love about YOU", attach the tag with two jump rings to the top of the cage.
Now you can add your notes to the cage in a neat pile. I put the sweetest ones on the bottom so the best ones would be saved for last.

Here it is finished! Either set on a table, or hang it up somewhere. If you have a bigger cage, use it as a centerpiece on the table for your loved one to find on Valentine's Day!
Have a great Valentine's everybody!

February 14, 2017