Found: new crafts for excess

As you read previously, I cut way too many hearts for the garland I made...

 

Those little piles were all the extras I had after laying out the garland.... what to do with them?

My first idea was to sew 2 together & stuff them...

And this is what I ended up with.

One idea I had was I could set them on the stairs going up as decoration.

And as you can see, my kids thought it was a great idea too! Which I kind of knew would happen.
At least they aren't filled with candy - LOL!

The little squirt is getting so tall at 18 months old.

Then, while laying in bed on those insomnia moments... I thought I could also do a tic-tac-toe board. 

I have the vision in my head... just need to make the board. 

I could use it kind of like a ring-toss tic-tac-toe board game. 

And of course, all of them will just end up all over the house and get toted around by the kids anyways.... but, if I do get the tic-tac-toe board made I'll post a photo. 

And then I came across another idea that I could use up some for the heart shapes.
I found this idea Lolly Jane's blog.

 I started out cutting the letters with the Cricut and tracing them on.... I tried several times to sew them on semi-free-hand, but it was never to my satisfaction. 

 So I pulled out some tear away adia clothe from my old cross stitch days and tacked it to the inside of the hearts and then at least my lines & letters were semi-straight.

 Here are the hearts just before sewing them together leaving a small opening.

 Then I filled them with M & M's, sew the opening shut with an easy open closure and now I can give them as little treats for Valentine's Day.

I'll tell you in the beginning I thought it was going to be quite time consuming, but once I got it figured out, it went pretty fast.

So I managed to use up all the extra hearts, X's and O's.... and actually had to cut a few more. LOL!

After stuffing them all I realized that I used up all the free batting I had received... so now there is another thing to add to my JoAnns list.
It is amazing how much I have used that bag of batting I picked up off freecycle or Craigslist.
But, now some of my other projects on the to-do list require it and this little side-project ate it all up.
Guess I'll be making another trip to the Jo-Ann's store.

What did you use up today?