Valentine's Day Crafts

Looking for something fun to do with your little one for Valentine's Day? I have a few ideas that I've discovered and have tried with my young son.

First: Toilet Paper Roll Heart Stamp. All you need is an empty toilet paper roll, paper and paint.

We actually started out by doing another craft with cereal and glue. I took a piece of paper, put on glue in the shape of a heart and had my son trace it with cereal. The hardest part was that the glue wasn't sticky enough at first, so I had to help him a bit to be sure they didn't fall off. Once it was dry, they were secure, but it had to be dry.

After we got the cereal all on in the heart shape, we decided to fill it in with more cereal. So, I put more glue on the inside of the heart and Cade had a great time laying cereal down in the heart-confined area. And, you may notice that in both pictures it appears that he was also snacking at the time. What could be better than snacking and crafting with your craft!

Cade was quite pleased with his masterpiece.

But, moments later, he was bored with this masterpiece and wanted to improve upon it. Hence, the adding of toilet paper roll heart stamps. Thankfully, we had just run through a roll and I hadn't done my housewifely duties of throwing the empty roll away. Finally, my laziness paid off! I bent the toilet paper roll into a heart shape, which was super easy. Seriously, fold it in half - that'll basically do the trick.

Some blogs I read recommend putting tape across the top of the heart on the TP roll, but Cade didn't have a lot of trouble and it didn't get too badly bent out of the shape I had put it in, but you could try putting tape across to make sure it's secured for more than five minutes of use. 

After that, all you do is put some paint on a paper plate, make sure to coat the heart with paint thoroughly. Then, start stamping!

Once completed, you will have a beautiful, gawdied up piece of art that you will want to treasure forever because it was made by your littles. :) 

Next Valentine's Day Craft: Heart Puppy Dog

You may remember that I posted about something similar to this last valentine's day. But this is a simpler version for the younger kiddos. My friend, Michaela, gave me this idea when I saw her picture on Facebook, so I just had to replicate it as best I could with my boy.

All you need is some construction paper and glue - and anything else you want to use to bedazzle your pup. I didn't use a pattern at all, so just free hand cut out hearts. You will need a large heart for the face, a medium heart for the ears (that is then cut in half), a medium heart for the nose, two little hearts for the eyes and little tiny hearts for the pupils, and a oval-ish shape for the tongue.

Now all the hard work is done. Cade badly wanted to glue everything on himself, but that actually meant gluing everything on himself. So, that was unsuccessful. However, I did help him and then it worked out beautifully.

Once everything was glued on, Cade got to put stickers all over his heart puppy and then he got to paint it too. We don't do anything half-hearted...you either gawdy it up, or you go home! haha. Anyway, this was a very quick project, it took very little time but was loads of fun for my son....the nudist.

There you have it! Two (or quite possibly three) simple, fun, easy crafts to do with your little ones that will be entertaining and sweet and something you can treasure forever. And you don't even have to be very crafty to do it! Woohoo!

So, from me and my family, and especially Cade (my little wannabe cupid) - Happy Valentine's Day!

Puppy Valentine!

It's a double-blogger day!! Woot woot!

My nephew came over yesterday, and, since I couldn't let him get by with just helping me with my Valentine's Day Sun Catchers as there wasn't much he could do with it, I had to do another little something for him. This project was so easy - he really did the whole thing himself, needing very little supervision (until the cutting...always supervise the cutting...). There was no blog for this dog...get it? hehe. But, there is a print out that you can get by going here.

I actually think I remember making something like this in kindergarten, he's a bit older than that, but he still had fun with it.

He colored all of the hearts of the dog and then cut it out and used double sided tape to assemble it. I gave him the option of glue as well, but he chose tape which was not quite as messy and still worked, so I'd recommend going that route.

He decided to angle the ears of his pup differently than it was in the picture, which I loved. I love how unique and creative his little mind is. When I was young I would've been frustrated to not have it be just like the picture. Heck, I'm still like that. But, I'm happy that he's not because I admire that trait in him.

His goal was to get the ears to look a little like Bolt - do you see it? One ear up and the other floppy/down.

His completed work of art was given to Grandma as a Valentine complete with a note on the back of it. Like I said before, this was such a simple little project, you could set your kids (or grandkids or nieces, nephews, neighbors, what-have-you) in front of this with some crayons and you may just have a couple of minutes for some you and your love time. Granted, it won't be very long, but any time is better than no time, right??

Or, if you are feeling really crafty and like you'd rather be more involved (which is also fantastic), you could get out your glue and some glitter or pipe cleaners or scraps of paper and really have a hay day. Let your child's imagination take flight!

This is simple, easy and doesn't require a lot of adult supervision. I'd recommend this, for sure!

Valentine's Day Sun Catchers

A friend of mine asked me to try this out for my blog and I willingly obliged, after all, they are quite beautiful! And, how fun to try to make them on your own! To find out how to make these beautiful sun catchers on your own, check it out here. I'm gonna tell you how it all went down for me.

To be completely honest, this project was a little more trouble than it was worth. I really didn't expect it to be all that hard, but just getting the string to lay down properly was a challenge. The swirly hearts were a bit easier to lay down and form the string, but the one where you are connecting lines - forgeddaboudit.

Look at the #2 "heart" - yeah...not easy at all, I tell ya. Maybe it's just me though??

After the glue dried, my son got ahold of the hearts and threw them on the floor and danced on top of them (let's hope this isn't a sign of what he'll do in the future). So, the only one that was salvageable was the curly heart - the one with the stripes was utterly destroyed and obviously, the #2 heart wasn't even worth attempting. Also, because my son had removed all of the hearts from the wax paper, they may not have been able to peel away from the wax paper the way they were supposed to be able to.

The next part was fun, though. My nephew was over so he and I added the glue and a little red (and later blue) water color to the mixture. My nephew was a little annoyed with the next part as it was a LOOOOONG waiting game - which the blog does say. The blog says it can take 24 hours or more to dry. So, unfortunately, my nephew didn't get to see this project through to the end, but he had fun with what he was able to do. 

This is what it looked like when it was all done. I actually thought it looked pretty neat! However, trying to pry it from wax paper ended up tearing it more than anything. 

So, I decided to just cut out the wax paper instead and that seemed to work just as well. 

I'm happy with the end result, but I doubt I will make these again. The frustration of trying to get the string to lay just so proved to be too much for someone as impatient as I. 

However, if you would still like to try this project, I have a few recommendations: be prepared to spend a significant amount of time shaping the string where you want it to lay. Also, be sure to leave the string on the wax paper once it's dry - that may help with the tearing when you are trying to remove it from the wax paper. Lastly, don't do this with a toddler - you may go crazy. 

And, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Candy With Love!

Awww, love is in the air. Well, at least lots of red and pink candy hearts and jewelry and mushy cards and all that jazz are in the stores. I like the chance to give gifts. And, if I'm being honest, I also like the chance to receive gifts. Heartfelt, loving, sentimental gifts. Those are my favorite kind to give. Although, sometimes the cheesy, silly, cute gifts are fun too. Last year, one of the gifts I gave to my husband was a giant candy card. I stole the idea from Pinterest, but alas, there is no blog to refer you to. Here is a picture though:

Photo from Pinterest

I thought this was a cute idea, but found it to be quite challenging to find a piece of paper large enough and strong enough to hold the message and the candy, without spending more money on poster board and whatnot. I ended up using some scrap cardboard that was in my recycling and covered it in paper (a Pampers box doesn't exactly work for writing a message and it certainly doesn't make you think of Valentine's Day - unless you think of the little diapered or diaperless angel baby, Cupid.)

I also adjusted some of the phrasing so that it would fit with the candies my husband might enjoy most. Here's what I ended up with.

Super corny, but also kinda cute in a not-as-put-together-as-I-would've-liked sort of way.

If you are looking to make your own gifts (for pretty much anything) and you'd be interested in using candy, I found this on Pinterest too: a blog that has a gazillion sayings for different candies!

Hopefully this little post will get your creative juices flowing and you'll be able to have a whopper of a good time making something that your sweet will enjoy (whether candy-related or otherwise)...if nothing else, at least it's a good reminder that Valentine's Day is on Thursday!