DIY Network

Crafty Valentine Ideas

Crafter Michele Beschen, creator of the B Original series, gives advice on getting creative with your gifts this year.

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	Now that Valentine's Day is approaching, use your imagination to come up with that very special heart-shaped creation. Place it where you'll see it frequently as a daily reminder to always "create with heart."
	This heart was made from lobster tails.

Creating with heart

By Michele Beschen

"Whether you realize it or not, you and you alone have something unique to create. None of the billions of other people who populate the earth has your particular talents, knowledge, experience and dreams. This is your birthright — the gift you have been given." — Suzanne Falter Barns.

That quote reinforces what I've been saying all along: A heartfelt belief that guides me every week as we put together our TV shows. The only thing I would add would be the call to action, the call that would encourage everyone to use the gifts they've been given.

You just need to look inside and tap into what makes you tick, what sparks your passion — in short, to get to the heart of things. And February is the just month in which to do it. The month of February is filled with heart, due in large part to the heart-shaped holiday stamped on its 14th day.

So feel the beat. Take advantage of this yearly celebration and all it symbolizes — warm admiration, affection, love, and the capacity for courage and determination. Everywhere you turn you'll see shades of red and pink, pointing us to the center of it all ... the heart, so readily available for inspiration.

So why not be inspired. Wear your creative heart on your sleeve ... figuratively or literally. Make it your talisman. Create a heart to remind you to put your heart into everything you create. This can take shape in many ways. A few ideas to get those creative juices bubbling include the following:

• For the minimalist mindset, just look around for anything that remotely resembles the rounded triangular shape we lovingly call the heart, and set it nearby. A unique example that I've been known to hang on to would be the beautiful shell that housed a delicious lobster dinner. Dry it, bleach it, varnish and hang! Beautiful.

• For a more primitive approach, take a scrap piece of wood, draw out a heart design, pound nails around the heart outline and wrap string or wire around each of the nails. Cut letters out of soda pop cans and tack together to spell out your favorite quote at the bottom.

• To prove to yourself that you really "mesh" with your creative side, have some fun creating a heart sculpture out of aluminum mesh window screen. Here's how:
  
  
  
  1. Put two pieces of aluminum window screen on top of each other. Draw out your heart shape on the screen with a marker. I like to make mine at least two to three feet wide and tall.

  2. Put on some leather gloves and cut out both layers of the screen with tin snips or heavy-duty shears. Fold the edges of each piece in about half an inch to conceal the cut mesh and soften the edges.

  3. Now put your two heart shapes together (folded edges on the inside) and stitch together. Just do a simple whipstitch all the way around, using 20-gauge wire.

  4. Once stitched, pull the two sides of the heart away from each other to add depth and dimension. Wrinkle here and there for added texture and don't be afraid to "fluff" it up. You can even make a smaller heart and connect it to the front for added pizzazz.

  5. You're now ready add some color to your wire creation with acrylic paints. When dry, run a small piece of wire through the top of your sculpture to create a loop for a hanger and then display your new piece of love and affection proudly indoors or out. I like to hang mine on a tree to mimic a carved heart in the bark.

Whatever shape your talisman takes, place it where you'll see it frequently as a daily reminder to always "create with heart."

(Michele Beschen is creator of the B Original series for the DIY Network. Contact her at www.couragetocreate.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

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