Before I start, I think I should tell you that this is not rocket science but I was tickled when I realized I could make some holiday decor that would do double duty. This actually started as a Christmas craft and then, well, the holidays happened and so now it is a Valentine’s craft that will be used again come Christmas. When I began pulling out our Christmas decorations this year, I realized that we definitely have more stuff than I’m willing to put out at this stage in life. I want to simplify in the quantity of items I decorate with and then have to put away each year. One of the items that I pulled out were kraft letters that I had decoupaged scrapbook paper to several years ago.
The letters were NOEL. See in my husband’s family the running joke was that he and his brother would attempt to annoy his mom by moving the letters to spell LEON. When his mom would spot it she would switch it back and this would go back and forth for the holiday season. They still do this when they visit if they have the chance. I figured we needed some letters at our house when our oldest was little. This year the kids really got into messing around with the letters and so carried on the tradition. Our letters were looking a little worn when I got them out and I wasn’t in love with the colors anymore so it was time to update.
I decided to make some new letters but this time make them smaller using wood blocks that I found very inexpensively at Michael’s, some black craft paint, Mod Podge and glitter scrapbook paper that I planned to cut with my Cricut. Then it occurred to me that I could actually get two holidays for the price of one if I just put a V on the back side of the N block. Voila! NOEL, LOVE and in our case, LEON.
This project finally encouraged me to take my new Cricut Explore out of the box and get everything set up. I love new technology and tools but boy do I hate to set them up. Anyway, my simple little project cost me about $12 and I have saved space in my holiday storage because I can use these letters from Thanksgiving until Valentine’s Day. In fact, I may leave them out all year long.