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Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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How-to: Seed Starter Valentine

January 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Valentines are an excuse to show your appreciation for someone just for the sake of showing it. If you want to give your Valentine something unique this year, try giving them a seed starter that can later double as a votive holder. Wondering where this idea came from? February is generally when I start planning my spring garden, so as I planned my Valentine’s Day-related projects, I had seedlings on the brain. Why not combine my love of gardening, the husb’s love of Michael Jackson (this will make sense in a minute…), and our mutual love of basil into a Valentine worthy of more than the paper recycling bin?

Supplies

mini mason jar
rubbing alcohol
potting soil
seeds for your Valentine’s favorite plant
coffee beans and/or small pebbles
glass adhesive, heart-shaped stencil
glass paint
stiff bristle paint brush
small piece of cardstock
thread
scissors
hole punch
spoon

Directions

Clean the jar you’re going to paint with a little bit of rubbing alcohol and place your adhesive stencil. I used the new Martha Stewart glass paint stencils for this project because they stick right to the glass itself.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Dab the glass paint over the stencil with a stiff-bristle brush until the stencil is filled completely. If your jar is see through, you can  turn it around to ensure full coverage of the stencil.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Let paint dry completely before carefully removing the adhesive stencil. If you use the Martha Stewart glass paint, it will air-cure over the course of three weeks and become dishwasher safe.

Now for the fun/messy/gardeny part. Cover the bottom of your jar with coffee beans or small pebbles. This facilitates the drainage necessary for seeds and plants. Mason jars aren’t necessarily the best container to start seeds in since there’s no drainage at the bottom of the container. Making sure to have pebbles/beans for drainage is therefore really important. I used coffee beans because coffee grounds make good fertilizer due to their high nitrogen content and because I had coffee beans on hand.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Next, add potting soil to your jar, leaving enough room for your seeds and the soil coverage they require. Check your seed packet to see how deep to plant your seeds, how many seeds to use, and how much soil to cover them with. My sweet basil seeds needed a decent amount of space, and 1/4-1/2 inch of fine soil coverage.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Give your seeds a good watering, but don’t overdo it! Different plants all need different amounts of water, but a good soaking is the first step to seed starting. Don’t completely saturate your poor plant. You first of all don’t want to be giving your Valentine a cup of mud as their gift. Secondly, a good rule of thumb – if your jar is see through – is to pour enough water so that just the soil is moist (not sopping) throughout with a little bit of water along the bottom with the beans/pebbles. My potting soil was really dried out, so I had to use a decent amount of water to get everything moist.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Finally, cut a little card out of some cute cardstock and punch a hole in the upper left. Valentines are the one medium in which it’s totally okay and encouraged to make lame puns, so to round out this Valentine, I added “You wanna be startin’ somethin'” to the tag. You can, of course write whatever message you like inside if you’re not as much of an MJ fan as we are. ;) If your Valentine is completely lost when it comes to plants, you might want to also include some instructions on the basic care and keeping of seeds:

  • water regularly but not too much
  • keep in a warm, light-filled area
  • remember to transplant to a bigger pot with good drainage once they’ve sprouted

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Tie your card to the jar with some embroidery floss wrapped twice around (once around just looked too thin to me), and secure it with a cute bow, trimming excess string from your bow tails. For easy transportation, put a lid on the jar, but remember to let your Valentine know that lid needs to come off asap to avoid a moldy jar of dirt.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

PS: After the seed has sprouted and been moved to a bigger pot to thrive, you can clean out the jar and have a cute votive candle holder to last year round.

How-to: Seed Starter Valentine | HandsOccupied.com

Filed Under: How-to, Valentine's Day Tagged With: glass paint, martha stewart, michael jackson, seed starter, valentine, valentine's day, wanna be startin somethin

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
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Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
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This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
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#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
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Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
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#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
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Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
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I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
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I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
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Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
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#handsoccupied #seamedsweater #kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #waldo #waldosweater #wip #yarncraft #yarn #knitting #knittersofinstagram #heidigustad #vintageknitting #sweaterknitting
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The biggest question I have is what to do with the “plates” - the open circles in the picture. Should I try to closely replicate the Universal Championship belt or go rogue and make it wool themed? Please advise in the comments. ☺️🧶🙏🏻🐑 
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Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
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#kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #punchneedle #rugmaking #primarycolors #punchneedlerughooking #punchneedlelove #wool #wip #yarncraft #yarn #yarnaddict
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