DIY: 3D Heart Shaped Photo Cupcake Toppers

Create these picture-perfect photo cupcake toppers for your next Valentine’s Day dinner. They make great "place cards” for any special event.

And, not only will your guests be able to identify where they’re sitting, but they'll enjoy them for dessert as well!
Cupcakes courtesy of Magnolia Bakery.

Directions below:

Supplies Needed:
White removable labels or plain paper
Photos printed out about 1.5 x 1.5, three in a row
Heart shaped puncher
Toothpicks
Glue Stick - if using plain paper
Cupcakes

1. Gather your supplies. Printing your photos on removable labels make it easier to assemble your 3D heart toppers. You can also print on plain paper and use a glue stick to assemble.
2. Cut your photos into strips.
3. Punch out photos with your heart puncher.
4. Punch out 3 photos.
5. Fold each heart in half as shown.
6. Peel off backing for each heart. Adhere your toothpick to center of one heart.
7. Adhere 2nd heart to half of the first heart.
8. Adhere 3rd heart to 1st and 2nd heart creating a 3D heart.


Insert into a yummy cupcake or any other desssert!! Happy Valentine's Day!

DIY: How to make chocolate monogram cupcake toppers

These chocolate letters are a sweet way to top a lovely cupcake, especially a Magnolia Bakery cupcake! Make them for your friends, family or significant other. They also make great "place cards".

Directions below:

Supplies Needed:
• Cupcakes (I used mini ones courtesy of Magnolia Bakery)
• Chocolate (Candy Melts work best for this project)
• Letter template
• Plastic bag or piping bag
• A piece of parchment paper
• Scissor
• Edible glitter or sprinkles


1. Gather your supplies.
2. Place your chocolate into the plastic bag and melt in microwave at 30 seconds intervals until soft.
3. Place parchment paper over your template. (you can also freehand your letters)
4. Snip off tip of plastic bag.
5. Pipe your letters onto the parchment tracing your template. This will take some practice.
6. You can also create a message.
7. Sprinkle edible glitter onto chocolate before it sets. Let chocolate set in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
8. Pipe some hearts to top a few cupcakes.

Needle Felted Animal Wedding Cake Toppers by Facci Designs

Planning a wedding? Order one of my custom-made animal cake topper of your choice! As featured on MarthaStewartWeddings.com. Let me top off your wedding cake with a custom needle felted wedding cake topper. You pick your animals and "accessories" and let me do the rest. Same sex wedding cake toppers available too!

The pair stand on a plaque - covered with your choice gold leaf, silver leaf or glitter that matches your wedding colors.

Click HERE to order.

Facci Designs Needle Felted Animal Wedding Cake Toppers

DIY: Learn how to turn bath towels into an area rug

I filmed this video back in 2006 for HGTV and it's recently been found on littlethings.com.  It's a pretty cool craft! You need 3 towels, old or new to make a small-medium bathroom area rug.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

• Fold the towels in half and cut into one-inch strips. You'll need about 13 strips to make a medium-size rug.
• Now take a strip in each color and sew the three ends together.
• Start braiding the three strips folding the ends underneath so the raw edges don’t show.
• Connect and sew three more strips onto those strips and continue braiding until you have one long braid.
• Sew the rug together as you shape and coil it. You’ll see the circular rug begin to take shape.
• Sew the ends together.

 CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

How I Made My Wood Post Table DIY

When it comes to furnishing my new home, I like to find unique pieces. Often times, I like to make them. From pillows and curtains, to decorative signs and decor, I've made quite a few already. Here's how I made this wood post table:

I like to look for things in nature or things that might've been discarded and try to create something beautiful or useful out of them. I hate wasting anything!

When we designed our wood wall, I made sure to save all the cut-off triangles left over from the boards. Wasn't exactly sure what I would do with them, but knew there was a project waiting for me.

I decided to puzzle them together to create a pattern. I dry-fit them first, then glued in place. They weren't perfect and I was ok with that!

Gene found some old posts on a job site he knew I would love...whattaguy! He cut them down to size, so I could make a small table.

I would use a portion of the patterned wood piece I created to cover the top of the post. I displayed it like this for awhile until I got another idea to add some metal corner brackets to it.

I couldn't find the size I wanted so Gene cut those down to size and drilled some holes.

I must've spent a good half hour at Lowe's trying to figure out what kind of bolts or screws I wanted. I settled on brass, because I thought the contrast would be a bit different than what you usually see. Also, the color went well with the gold chairs it would be placed in between.

Not bad for something that could've been thrown away. Hmm, what can I make next?

Facci Designs Featured on Etsy!

Woo hoo! I had no idea I was featured until a fellow felter mentioned it. What an honor. Click here to see the full article.

DIY: Tips on How to Paint a Vintage Sign

I needed a piece of art for a narrow space right at the top of my staircase, so I decided to make one and have some fun with it.

Being that we've been renovating our home and a cottage on the same property, there was some old wood to be had. Actually, a perfect piece was found. It was long and narrow and painted white (in some of the pictures, it looks like raw wood, but it's not) and was definitely worn and a bit dirty. I didn't even clean it before painting it! I wanted it to look as old and rustic as it could.

I had a bunch of different things I was going to paint on it. First, it was "Turn Left", with an arrow, then it was "Bedroom, Turn Left". I settled on "Upstairs Bedroom Turn Left" because of the way the letters laid out when stacked.

Being a graphic designer, I had the ability to lay out the design in Illustrator. I tried several fonts, but settled on a simple one that was reminiscent of a vintage sign.

Before, laying down the letters, I lightly sponged some watered down black paint over the wood to just give it more "texture". I printed out the letters full size, cut them out, taped them down in place and traced around each one in pencil. I drew in the outline of the larger letters myself. To create the drop shadow, before taping down the letters again, I moved them over a bit to the right and then down and traced around each one.

I used acrylic paints and some leftover Farrow and Ball paint I had. Once everything was painted, I let it dry completely before distressing it. I did that by lightly sanding over the letters. I also added a bit more of the watered-down paint to the sign.