my funny little valentines....

pinterest, will you be mine?

isn't valentine's day just the happiest little holiday? i vividly recall sitting on the yellow shag carpet in our family room, many many moons ago, helping my mom address valentines for my classmates. we had a box of cards adorned with bright zoo animals and hearts, and i remember how exciting it was to pick out the perfect card for each friend. of course, that was waaaay back in the dark pre-pinterest era, when moms were confined to a very small section of valentine choices at the local t.g.& y. these days, however, the endless creative projects on pinterest make it possible to steal fun ideas from creative moms (while simultaneously wasting a colossal amount of time)... this easy idea was all over pinterest this year, and since we already had a pack of valentine suckers from sam's, we decided to make them for lucy's kindergarten class. i took a picture of lucy with her arm outstretched (she loved posing for it) and printed a valentine message on it. i made two slits in each picture with a pocket knife, slid the suckers through, and secured them on the back with tape. the pictures were too flimsy to hold the heavy suckers alone, so we attached them to some cardstock scrapbook paper i had in the scrapbook cabinet. (i just so happened to have heart shaped metal brads...i may have mentioned i have a slight scrapbook-supply-hoarding issue?) we also had had a pile of red and pink paint swatch cards from lowe's, which lucy cut into hearts, and personalized with a sharpie. we punched holes (are all six year olds hole-punch addicts, or is it just mine?) then attached the hearts with pink curling ribbon, and our project was complete. this was easy and cheap, and could of course be adapted to other occasions...halloween treats, birthday party favors, etc... thank you, pinterest, for a well-spent saturday morning!

a valentine's crush...

i loved this valentine idea so much, i think i'll repeat it this year! i saw it on the design aglow website, and thought it would be perfect for the kiddos of all ages in our close-knit hood. we bought several four packs of strawberry crush bottles - i love their vintage flair. i made tags from copies of a happy black and white picture of the girls. i printed in red across the front:"the best kind of crush is the kind you drink! happy valentine's day! xoxo lulu & roo". we punched holes in the corners tied them on the bottles with red & white grosgrain ribbon. on valentine's day, we loaded them in the radio flyer. the girls were so excited to deliver their treats! we made the rounds with lucy pulling the wagon and ruthie riding along in her little red car. we didn't have to go far to find everyone. it was one of those glorious afternoons where you get an early taste of spring. on days like that, you'll find most of our neighborhood, adults, kids & dogs, gathered in the street and yards of our circle. the kids chase and scooter and bike until the sun lowers and the winter chill sets in again. the girls handed out their goodies, and got smiles and squeezes in return, and hopefully a little something to store in their happy memory vaults...

cabin fever? pep up your valentines....

i love the old fashioned conversation hearts on valentine's day! not much has changed about them since i received my first box back in mrs. squire's preschool class. there still is a little "to and from" area on the back, but i prefer to personalize these darling little boxes a bit more than a ball point pen can offer. this is such an inexpensive little project, and my five year old really had fun with it. we picked up several 4 packs of the candy boxes at hobby lobby, where the cashiers all know us by name. we picked up some thin red grosgrain ribbon, felt heart stickers and my fave vintage valentine scrapbook paper. i use it every year. i will cry if it ever gets discontinued.

we then printed out small pictures of lucy on cardstock, complete with a valentine's message (i printed mine on the photo, but it would be cute handwritten too). i cut these into tags a bit smaller than the candy boxes. lucy punched a hole in the top of each. we twisted chenille pipe cleaner at the top of each tag (i had a bunch of this in my craft cabinet - why do i love pipe cleaner so much??) we then cut the scrapbook paper into strips wide and long enough to cover the middle of each box. we wrapped them around each box, using tape to secure the paper. we slid the picture greeting tag underneath the scrapbook paper on the front of the box, with the pipe cleaner sticking out of the top.

lucy drew, colored and cut out hearts and pasted them on the back of each box.

we added a felt heart to the front, and tied a small piece of grosgrain ribbon around the middle. for a small amount of kiddos, i would hand-stamp their names on the front. for an entire classroom, however, i will leave them as is..... a little box of love for lucy's little friends!

a valentine from baby....

this was such a fun little valentine project - a gift from lucy to her daddy. it cracks me up when i look at it, though. lucy had just turned one, and i had her in a diaper on some newspaper on the kitchen floor fingerpainting!  so far my second little imp, ruthie, has eaten a few markers, scribbled on the tile and wall with crayons and used an open stamp pad as a pretend cell phone. i will NOT be giving her free reign with the paint box any time soon.

anyway, this was easy & cheap and still looks cute on our playroom wall. i had found some old album frames gathering dust under the bed. i removed a willie nelson record cover from one of them and decided to put it to use again. (the square scrapbook frames now available at hobby lobby and michael's would work even better, however.)

i put lucy on some newspaper and gave her a paper plate filled with globs of primary, washable fingerpaint. by the time it was over, she had happily painted on several sheets of white fingerpaint paper (any paper would work), on her diaper, her hair, on the newspaper, on the tile and a little on the cabinets. i of course took about 325 photos.

i took a sheet of red & white gingham scrapbook paper and chose a colorful portion of one of lucy's paintings. i tore it to fit onto the scrapbook sheet without covering all of it, and pasted it on. i made a small print of one of the photos from the paint session, matted it, and pasted it to the scrapbook page. i added a couple little accessories i had in my scrapbook cabinet, then stamped some hearts and "daddy be mine" across the bottom. i used craft paint for the stamping instead of an ink pad, so the letters would adhere to the photo & shiny paper. i wrote the occasion and year along the side, and wrapped it up for valentine's day. i used another one of the frames for a father's day gift a few months later. i framed lucy's little hand print (pictured above), then added an overlay that said, "my finger may be small, but i can still wrap daddy's finger around it" (there are tons of choices at hobby lobby & michael's!) i decided to come up with something different for the next gifting occasion -there's only so much space on our playroom walls...

i cut the remaining paintings into smaller rectangles, used pinking shears to cut out more small pix of lucy, and created valentine's cards for friends and family. a few years later, they continue to adorn fridge fronts in texas and oklahoma. i love how the simplest of gifts can be everlasting symbols of love.

valentine's day is just around the corner...

need a sweet valentine's gift idea?
okay, i realize that some of you are really going to barf at this one. and that is a risk i'm willing to take. that's how much i loved this project. when my hubby and i were newlyweds, i wanted to do something really special for our first valentine's day together. i started jotting down little things i liked about him in a notebook. i kept the notebook with me at work, in the car, etc. i recorded very simple sentiments, such as how i like the way he always did the laundry (still do, honey!!!), how i think it's cute that he's not too manly to cry at old movies. or new movies. or weddings. or graduations. or baptisms. you get the idea. anyway, i started out with the idea to type up my little handful of affirmations, cut them out, and put them in a little jar or something. however, my notebook really began to fill up. in a few days, i had about 100 little notes. i decided to try to come up with 365 sweet nothings, and he could open one every day of the year. (need a barf bag yet? like i said - we were newlyweds.......). i typed up my thoughts and cut them out in strips. i found the coolest vintage martini shaker in a flea market to hold them all. when he finally opened his valentine's gift, he really was pretty speechless. and he didn't wait to pull one out each morning, either. he dumped out the shaker and read them all on the spot. then, he put the strips back in, wiped his tears (hahaha! just kiddin', shane!!) and the container sat on the corner of our dresser, reminding him of how darn cool his new wife was. a year later, i noticed the jar was missing from the dresser. i was the one shedding a tear or two when i opened up my valentine's gift from him. he had refilled the shaker with little statements about me! it is truly one of the sweetest gifts i've ever recieved. this could of course be modified in so many ways for children, parents or grandparents, etc. it's a cool project. you'll be surprised at how many little, every day things you appreciate and love about the special people in your life. so open your notebook, get your pen, and start taking notes.....