Fun Face Flowers

That's right - yet more Valentine's crafts, lol!  I actually waited until the big girl was home from school to do this one because I knew she'd want to join in :)

We made some very cute flowers, with heart shaped petals, and little smiling faces in the middle - simple, quick and easy, yay!

Here's what we used:
- pink scrapbook paper, which I cut into hearts

Sticking down the stem - deep in concentration!



- green construction paper - which I cut into leaves & a stem (I should have made the leaves heart-shaped too!)

- White cardstock - to stick the flowers onto

- Photos of your kids (or you, or granny & grandpa, or whoever you like) - which I cut into circles



- Sparkly stuff to stick on - because my kids are never satisfied unless they have sparkly stuff add to their creations!



Sparkles are serious business!!



Once I had cut all the shapes out I showed the kids how to make the flower from the hearts.  We put a big glob of glue on the cardstock where the flower was to be, and then went about sticking the petals on.  The little guy needed some guidance since he kept wanting to stick the "humps" of the heart in the middle of the flower - the big girl got it all on her own. 

After the petals were in place we added the photo of the kids to the middle.  They were both super amused by this!

Then we stuck on the stem & leaves, before going to town with the sparkles!

Fun Face Flowers - complete with LOTS of sparkles!

Lacing Heart Garland

In keeping with all the other Valentine themed crafts, we made a heart garland here a couple of days ago.  It was fun, and it turned out even better than I expected (which is always nice).

What you need:
* cardstock (I used an empty cheerios box)
* scissors
* paint & paintbrush (I used red, pink & purple paint, since we're doing this for Valentines Day)
* hole punch
* yarn (or something to lace the hearts onto)
* beads
* tape

What we did:

Painting the hearts

1) First I used a heart stencil to draw hearts on the back of the empty cheerios box (you could freehand them too) and then cut them out.

2) Then the little guy painted all 8 hearts - I was sure he'd lose interest, but he stuck with it and did all of them.

3) We let the hearts dry (and went and had a snack - always a good distraction)


Painted heart with the hole punched in the "humps"



4) Once they were dry I punch holes in the "humps" of the hearts and we began lacing them onto the yarn (I wrapped the end of the yarn in tape to make it easier for the little guy to thread through the hearts and beads).

5) I tied a knot on one end of the yarn and we laced in through one hole on the heart and out through the other, then we put 2 beads on, then a heart etc etc. until we were done.



Concentrating hard while lacing the hearts & beads



6) The results - a very cute heart garland hanging on my wall!

Very pretty heart garland

Valentine Trees

It's the beginning of Valentine arts & crafts season here :)  I've seen some really cute things around blogland and they inspired me to get my kids involved.  So our first Valentine themed activity was these little Valentine Trees



The little guy painting his "tree"



First we went outside to hunt for the perfect sticks to be our "trees".  Then I stuck the sticks in some styrofoam and let the kids paint them pink & red (outside in the beautiful sunshine we had that day).  While they were drying we came in and made some heart ornaments to hang on our trees - I just cut hearts out of scrapbook paper, and cardstock.  The big girl was able to cut her own, but the little guy obviously couldn't.  I punched a hole in the heart, put some thread through it and tied it (this was the hardest part for me, lol, I kept dropping the thread & couldn't tie a knot for anything!).



Decorating her "tree"



We also took the labels off some glass jars (ours were from premade formula samples way back when the little guy was actually little!) and poured in some red & white beans.  I put ribbon around the jars too, and let the kids decorate with heart stickers.

Then we brought in our pretty painted trees, "planted" them in the jars and hung our ornaments on them.  Ds decided to add the styrofoam bits to the top of his because they looked like snow to him....??



The little guy's Valentine Tree complete with styrofoam snow



The big girl's "Valentine Tree"



I think they turned out pretty cute!  They're now proudly displayed on top of my desk.