This Year's Valentines.

It feels to me like our Valentines get less and less complicated/fancy each year.

Which is really OK with me.  That's probably partly because the girls take part a little more each year, and there's some general parental malaise as well.

This year, both girls are doing the exact same thing on account of an insane deal I got over the summer on these adorable rulers from Studio Calico.  It was one of those weekly deals and it was a set of four rulers for $1.00.  You really can't go wrong with 25 cent valentines!

Pretty easy.  I first cut pieces of cardstock 4" x 2 1/4", then I used my paper trimmer 1/2" in from the top and bottom to cut a slit that I could slide the ruler through.  As an aside, I've been considering upgrading my paper trimmer to a Tonic, but this is one thing I can do with my trusty paper trimmer that I wouldn't be able to do with a guillotine.

Once I had the pieces cut, I put together the sentiment with the little ruler stamp and using the MISTI stamped a gazillion little tags.  I heart the MISTI.  That is all.

The girls are in charge of the rest (adding names and coloring in).  Super easy and I like that my portion of the projects diminishes each year.

That's all for today.  

I'm back here tomorrow with my project for the Neat & Tangled/My Sweet Petunia collaboration.  Did I mention how much I love my MISTI?  Did you know that you have a chance to win one on the Neat & Tangled blog and that you could win $100 to the N&T store on the My Sweet Petunia blog?  

Why are you still here????!!!!

This Year's Valentines

Thought I would quickly pop in and share the girls' valentines with you.

I feel like the older they are, the less time I spend on these.  Ha!



This year  Carina is in the Flamingos class, so earlier this year I picked up Reverse Confetti's Fabulous Flamingo set.  I also found these flamingo cupcake/pencil decorations.  Carina actually helped with these attaching all the decorations to the pencils, and then I added a really simple tag.

If anyone out there does not own a Lawn Fawn alphabet set you are missing out.  Milo's Alphas are my favorite.  I love how many extra letters there are, and this alpha (like all LF alphas) are designed for ease of use.  All of the stamps are the same height so you just line the stamps up, and the letters are perfectly aligned.



Ellie's class this year is the Adventurers.  This one was a little harder to figure out theme wise, but I happened upon these mini compasses and I thought they fit with the idea of adventure.  The Origami Map is stamped tone on tone, and I again used Milo's alphas for the sentiment.  The compass was adhered with a thin Zot.

So nothing earth shattering here, but if you're still stumped, or behind on Valentines (and if your school district is all anti-candy like mine), maybe this will give you some ideas.

Side note, at the last minute (after I did all the stamping) I got all anxious about the sentiment on the Flamingo valentines.  I kept thinking (and still kind of do) that it should be al-write as opposed to all write.  After asking Andrew about it he stated that 1) it's a pun and 2) this is for preschoolers.  So, I'm setting my OCD tendencies aside and calling it done.

Valentines for Friends with Flair

Well, we were supposed to be handing out these Valentines at school today, but alas, school was cancelled yet again due to the weather.  At least I get to share them here with you guys!

Our school district is rather communist strict, so we aren't allowed to bring in sweets for Valentine's day.  Since Ellie seems to be obsessed with all sorts of key chains/zipper pulls these days we decided to create them for her and Carina's classes, the Penguins and Puffins respectively.  Now let me tell you, I was really nervous we wouldn't find a Puffin stamp, but Unity came through for me.  In fact, I just saw that Paul the Puffin is on sale for $1 this weekend!

Anyway, the keychains were pretty straightforward to make, I used regular white shrinky dink material, stamping with Stazon.  The shrinky dink material is slippery, so be prepared for some duds, and you have to give it some time to dry too.  For Ellie's penguins, once the ink was set, I let her color the hats with Sharpie markers.  Note - the Sharpies will reactivate the Stazon, so color quickly and try not to touch any of the Stazon or it starts to get muddled.  I also used the Sharpies for touch up where the Stazon didn't fully cover.



Once the birds were dry, I added a hole punch, carefully cut around the figures and the hole punch, and baked them.  Then it was just a matter of adding the clip/ring.

The hearts were actually last week's free Silhouette cut file (heart marquee, Design #54960).  It was perfect since it has the holes for stitching.  I used Lawn Fawn's Milo's alphas for the sentiment, the to/from are written on the back of the valentine.  A little natural Divine Twine finished these off.

Hope that you have a happy Valentine's Day and a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Holiday Red Yardstick
Stamps:  Unity - Paul the Puffin, You're Cool Itty Bitty; Lawn Fawn - Milo's Aphas
Ink:  Stazon; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Divine Twine - Natural Twine; Sharpie Markers; Jewelry findings; Silhouette cut file #54960

This Year's Valentines

 

 

Thought I would quickly pop in to show you guys the Valentines the girls will be sharing with their friends on Thursday.  My goal for Valentines is not to spend a ton of time on them, but to make something that they (or at least Ellie) can help with and be excited about taking in.  I think these fit the bill.

You've probably seen the one on the left on the web/pinterest already, but since Ellie's Kindergarten class is the Goldfish, it just didn't seem right not to make those.

To create the fishbowl, I used the free printable found here, and then added some text in Powerpoint.  I cut them out, and Ellie colored them.  She also addressed them on the backside.  The little bags I found at Tuesday Morning, and I added just a bit of twine to seal it off.

The valentine on the right is for Carina's class.  Carina is always wanting to glue things, so I thought it would be a great idea for her friends.  I created them in Powerpoint, and the JPEG version is below if you want to use it.  The glue stick is held on with a glue dot, and I added some twine that is strung through the back of the valentine just for show.



Hope that your Valentine preparations are going smoothly!

Valentines with Ellie - 2012

One of my favorite developments over the last six months is Ellie's new found interest in doing arts and crafts. Last year at this time arts and crafts mostly consisted of her taking a stack of white paper, scribbling a few lines on one, and moving onto the next piece of paper.

These days she's so much more coordinated. She loves to do projects. She has a great fondness for scissors, but is only using them on paper now and not her hair. She can color in the lines, and draws lots and lots of pictures of our family.

Last year she helped with her school valentines treats. We got the store-bought ones, Dora the Explorer. I labeled them, she added some extra color, and then helped to stuff the bags.

This year, since she is so into all things crafty, I wanted to do something more ambitious.

It involved my trusty Cricut, my new toy (5" creative station courtesy of Beth Kingston/Xyron - thanks Beth!),



and Pinterest. I found this idea on Pinterest and wanted to do something similar.

I pulled out my Art Philosophy cartridge book and flipped through settling on Flower 8, which I thought was perfect since the petals resemble hearts. I cut the flowers at 3" and then a bunch of hearts at 1". I ran the hearts through my new Xyron to create this lovely carpet of heart stickers.



I used Leaf 4 from the AP cartridge, cut at 4 1/2". The sentiment is two stamps from Say it in Style. It's a little bit large, and if it was just for me, I would have cut them a little smaller, but since Ellie was going to be doing all the writing, I thought she could use a little more space.



If you have a gypsy, you can add a little circle in the center of the heart and corner of the leaf for the lollipop stick - it needs to be bigger than the stick so it can make it over the wrapper. I don't have a gypsy yet, so I just used my piercing tool to approximate the center and then pierce a circle around it, it really doesn't have to be exact. (I tried using my hole punch, but it wasn't long enough to get in there....a cropodile would work well too.)





We had a GREAT time making these, and Ellie is SO excited to take them into school next week. I picked up this little metal bucket and a styrofoam ball at Michael's the other day, so this is how she's going to be taking them into school.



This was so easy to do, with just a little bit of prep time. If you have more time or your kids are older, you can always add some additional stamping to the mix, but this was just the right level of effort for us this year.



Supplies Used
Cardstock: Recollections, various colors
Stamps: Say it in Style
Ink: Black
Other: Xyron 5" Creative Station, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, Piercing Tool