Handmade School Valentines

The February of my son's first year of school, an announcement was sent home that the children would have the opportunity to exchange Valentines with their classmates. Each child was to bring a Valentine signed (or with some marking) by the child, one for each student. My mind welled with nostalgic thoughts of exchanging Valentines with my own classmates as a child.

I went down to the local big box retailer and purchased a box of the sheets of pre-printed perforated little Valentines of my youth, brought them home and filled them out. I then sent my little guys to school with a bag of them ready to disperse among his school friends. Later that day he arrived home with a huge handmade envelope stuffed with Valentines. Upon hitting the door, the ran for the kitchen, spilling the contents of the envelope across the table. I stood in utter shock and amazement at what I saw. Clearly, I was the "newbie" at this Valentines stuff. There, spread out before me, was a kaliedoscope of beautifully handmade Valentines in all colors, shapes and sizes, sparkling with glitter, sequins and  pom-poms. So much for my Snoopy cards! This was my initiation into the inspiring world of handmade cards. In subsequent years, we have gotten with the program and crafted lovely little love notes out of things we already have at home. Here as some of our favorites!

1.) Foam Hearts: Using sheets of colorful craft foam (construction paper, card stock  or felt can be used as well) cut 5" x 5" squares. Fold the square in half. Cutting from the center fold, cut (half) of a heart shape. Leave yourself a small border in the foam square, as you can use this in other projects. Unfold the heart and lay it flat on the table. Select a second color of foam and cut a smaller 3" x 3"  square. Repeat the above steps, cutting a  smaller square. Using craft glue ( Elmer's works fine) glue the smaller heart to the larger. Decorate with glitter glue, sequins and pom-pons. Experiment cutting different size and color hearts, and using the 'negative' pieces as well.

2.) Book Marks: Again these can be made from anything you have at home already: foam craft sheets, construction paper, card stock or felt.  Cut 5" x 2 1/2 " rectangular strips. Decorate the front with tokens of glittery love, leaving the back undecorated for your message/ name.

3.) Heat Photo Frames: Using the 'negative' piece from Project 1, take the border / frame of the heart that you previously cut out and decorate it with glitter. After it dries, glue a photo to the back, turning the heart into a heart shaped frame around your little ones. Sorry, this may sound confusing, but if you cut out a heart as described in Project 1, you'll see what I mean. Below is a photo of how we used our "extra pieces".

4.) Necklaces and Hearts: Who said Valentines had to be in card form? Cut little hearts out of your preferred medium, or even use the salt dough recipe from one of my previous posts to make heart pendants. Remember to poke a hole in the top for threading. Decorate and thread the necklaces with ribbons or yarn. Bracelets can be threaded with pipe cleaners.

5.) Heart Magnets: Again, cut heart shapes from your favorite medium and turn it into refrigerator "flare" by gluing a magnet to the back. Magnets can be found at many hardware stores or big box stores priced very reasonably.

6.) Wax Crayon Hearts: These are fun and pretty fast, since you can make a sheet all at once. Take your old crayons and remove the paper wrappers. Place on a cutting board (that you don't mind temporarily destroying) and chop the crayons with a large knife, like you would carrots or something. The wax will stain your cutting board , but after a few washes, will come out. Make a colorful assortment of chopped crayons and mix it well in a large bowl. Lay a sheet of transparent waxed paper on your counter and sprinkle the wax over it, making sure to cover it evenly (don't leave a lot of gaps). Place a second sheet of waxed paper on top and a kitchen towel over that. With your iron on med - low, iron on top of the towel until all the wax is melted. Once you have ironed the whole thing and melted all the wax, leave it to cool for a few minutes. When it's ready, the whole sheet will be hard and rigid. It should look like a stained glass ornament. Using kitchen sheers, cut heart shapes out of the sheet. Since it doesn't need further decoration, just use a Sharpie marker (permanent) to write on the back. You can also punch a hole through the top and thread it with yarn. Hang it in a window where the light will shine through and highlight your beautiful work!

I hope you will try some of these ideas, and that it will inspire you to create your own beautiful, handmade Valentines!

Nature Themed Treasure Hunt Birthday

When looking for a theme for our daughter's first birthday, I was challenged to find something simple, age appropriate and fun for the wide age range of our guests which ranged from one to seven. Putting together my daughter's limited interests, (which at this point include animals, music and putting things in and taking them back out of boxes and bags) along with my desire to give her a handmade gift, I settled on the Nature Themed Treasure Hunt birthday party, and was so happy with the results!

For the Treasure Hunt, I chose the following:

Feathered Birds ( make sure they are safe for one year olds - no choking hazards or sharp pieces)

Peacock and Ostrich feathers

Robins eggs (should be larger to avoid choking- can be wood, plastic or felt)

Seashell Whistles

Treasure boxes to collect all the goodies

I found all of this at Oriental Trading Company. I was happy with everything except the birds that I found there because their eyes came off easily and they came with floral wire that we had to cut off. I should have chosen felt or fabric birds instead.)  Make sure to get enough that everyone can have a few feathers, eggs and even the birds if you wish.


Before the party:

Hide the objects in safe, relatively easy places to find (depending on the age of the seekers). You can make the activity last longer if you spread out the hiding areas though out the yard!   Placing the birds and feathers  in among plants and shrubs is a fun way to disguise them, while the eggs and shell whistles can be hidden under plants or among landscaping.

Once you have your hiding areas, make "clues"  for each object, to assist the children in finding them. For example, the clue we made a clue for the eggs was:

I am fragile and round and can be found in a nest. I am an _____.
You will find me in the North where flowers look like fairy dresses.  (the eggs were hidden under a fuchsia plant.)

Activity:

1.) Decorate the treasure boxes with glitter glue, paint, markers, stickers and any other embellishments you have.

2.) Once the boxes are ready, have the children gather  for the treasure hunt. Give the clues to either an adult or if there is an older child in attendance who can read, it is so fun to have them lead the treasure hunt.

The children will have a blast hunting around the yard and making their own treasure boxes of things found in nature (though perhaps in a sturdier version! ) and the smaller ones will enjoy taking all their treasures out of the box and putting them back in over and over again!

Top off a fun party with cake, ice cream and presents!

Sun Tracking Project for Children

The new year is upon us, the Winter Solstice come and gone, and though the days are getting longer, it will still be a while before we feel the full effect. With young, school aged children, we are waking in the dark and coming home near sun set. Many of our car rides are filled with discussions about why it's dark in the morning and why we are eating dinner in the dark now, but are able to sit out on the deck eating dinner in the sun during the summer.

We have gotten out the globe and held a flashlight to it many times to show how the Sun and Earth move together and it's quite a fun display, especially if you do it just after turning out the lights at bedtime. That way you also get to explain why it's night time on the other side of the world, and can even stray into the territory of the time-zone discussion, though that's still a tough one for many young children.

All of these discussions of the Sun and its movement, along with my own desire for those warm sunny days of summer reminded me of a super cool project I did in an Astronomy course in college. We were assigned to track the sun over a period of months by taking photos and then displaying the results together on a poster board (I know - high tech stuff here! ). It may sound ridiculous, but it was actually really amazing to see how the sun changes position during the year. We all know it happens, but this project really drives the point home. So since it's the beginning of the year, I've decided to do this with my five year old with the hope that we will make it the full year. At the end, I hope we'll have a full "sun cycle" and that my son will be as amazed at the results as I was!

Specifically, this is what you do:

1.) Choose a day and time when you will have a good view of the sun. Make it a time that will be convenient for your family since you will need to take each months photo at the same time of day.

2.) Find a spot to take the photo from that has "reference points". For example, we chose to take our photo at 4 pm from the back deck (south facing) so that the sun was at the tree tops. Having the sun near the trees will become out reference point over the course of the year.

3.) Mark the spot you will take the photo with electrical tape, a rock, stick or whatever you have that will remind you exactly where to stand each time (since you need to be in exactly the same spot to make this work) and yet survive the elements.

4.)  Take your sun photo, print it out and mark it with the date and time. You can start your poster board display by affixing the first months photo.

5) Do it all over again next month, and the next, and the next. You never know- you might make it the whole year too!

This is a fun, easy project to do that the children can participate in (they could take the photo themselves) and that also is a hands on lesson on the sun cycle. You could also start this project for your child's birthday and do it for a full year. By their next birthday they will be able to SEE how the earth has circled the sun one whole time since their last birthday - AMAZING stuff!