Last week, I had a super-fun craft n’ chat sesh at People.com with Laura Marano, star of the Disney channel’s hit Austin & Ally, and the star of the upcoming Disney movie Bad Hair Day (airs tomorrow, February 13th at 8/7c!). We made some wire flowers with nail polish (get the how-to here), chatted about her new movie…and her tiny fingers.

It’s a great, last minute Valentine’s Day bloom…that will never wilt!

Making these delicate little blooms feels like magic. It’s one of the craft techniques that you have to see to believe!

Insert the stems into spools or teeny vases to display, or attach to a pin back or bobby pin to show of your handiwork!

Check out this video of me making these with Laura Marano, star of the Disney show Austin & Alley, on People.com!

With Valentine’s Day coming up, you are scrambling to help your kids get their Valentines made for the friends, their teachers, and their BFFs.

This project is a great one because the technique can be applied to many different surfaces—blank notebook covers, canvases, or plain greeting cards. And the more you play with the heart-shaped stickers—layering and cutting—the more dynamic your design will be.

To create a very symmetrical pattern like the one featured above (left), first draw a pencil grid using a ruler. Use that grid to arrange your stickers. Once you are finished placing your hearts, erase all of the lines that are exposed.

Or you can play with creating pictures using the heart shape as a building block. This flower pattern here and the fish pictured above don’t require a grid…just a little imagination.

You can choose from a huge selection of heart stickers at Instocklabels.com, and for all different sized blank journals, visit barebooks.com.

PS…if your kids are planning to join me at the Curious Jane Valentine Craft Workshop on February 7th or 8th, this is a project that they will get to do!

Create pictures and designs with various shaped heart stickers.

To design a symmetrical pattern, first draw a grid in pencil, then place stickers in desired pattern, and when finished, erase any exposed lines. Cut hearts to create an even more dynamic design!

Heart stickers from In Stock Labels

Blank Books from Bare Books

Visit the Etsy blog for the instructions!

 “What do you give a friend who has everything?” You’ve said it before, and there’s no doubt you’ll say it again. But here’s an idea: one gift that even the owner of everything could use is a chic box to store all those stylish bibs and bobs in. (Pretty genius, right?) So you start to shop for a cool trinket box, and I’ll tell you, because I’ve done it — you either find the glamorous, glossy, $200 variety or the $10 job that doesn’t quite match the elegance of said friend.

What a pleasant surprise, then, that this DIY faux-geode trinket box — the one that looks like it could cost close to $250 — only requires about $20 worth of supplies, provided you already have food coloring and glue in your craft arsenal. And if you assume you need a lab coat and beakers to “grow” your own decorative crystals, think again. This project can be completed right on your kitchen counter — no science degree required.

Here’s what you need:

Now head over to the Etsy blog for the step-by-step how-to! I’ll just beat you to it: you’re welcome.