~diy hand stamped valentines~

i've been making my own valentines since i can remember.

as a kid i would use whatever we had available at home...

which wasn't much some years. a few years back i came

across one i'd made way way way back and

i had used pink toilet paper! 

what the?

do you remember when they used to make colored t.p.?

do they still? 

 

my mom always made ours too.

i'm sure that's where the seeds were planted for me.

i still have some of them that my mom made me.

i treasure them. 

 

some years i've gone all out and made spectacular valentines.

this year, i decided to keep it simple...at least for 

the ones i'll send my parents and siblings.

i have bigger plans for my own lil family's valentines this year.

 

i saw this idea awhile ago (i can't remember where) and 

thought the kids would have fun doing it.

i like it because it was super easy and cheap.

 

 heart shaped stamps with empty toilet paper rolls.

it looks something like this:

 

 just take the toilet paper rolls and bend them to

the shape you want, dip them in your paint and stamp away!

 

 

we did a couple different projects with this.

my kids each stamped a 12 x 12 piece of paper

and

we stamped these onto some blank pink and red greeting cards.

(i got the blank cards at target for $1/package)

 

 

 

these are the valentines we'll send out to our family.

for an art project that will appeal to kids (and adults) of every age,

try this!

we all had a blast with this!

it was cheap, easy, and believe it or not...

easy to clean up. 

i highly recommend using the washable paints for easy clean-up.

hope you all have fun getting your valentines craft on!

muah!

 

~Valentines for kids and Wire Heart Bangle Bracelet~

 It's possible that my creativity level is at

an all time low right now. 

Total bummer because making our Valentines each year

is usually a highlight for me.

For my son's Valentines I completely relied

on Pinterest for a little copy cat action. 

After pinning a few and showing them to my 

little guy, this is the one he chose to make for 

his class: 

Isn't it adorable? There's a free download/printable

for this and you can find it (HERE) at

design.wash.rinse.repeat..

We intended to do this for the whole class

but unfortunately when my printer got low

on ink, we had to come up with another

Valentine's game plan. 

We did this:

I made the note myself but I found the

idea for this Valentine at "Paging Supermom"...(HERE).

If we hadn't already done the Yoda Valentines we

would have done this for all the boys instead.

So-half the boys are getting Yoda-the other

half are getting the paratroopers.

The girls are getting this:

I got this free printable (HERE) at

Living, Loving, Learning Naturally. 

For the girls we attached a heart shaped ring pop

because.....duh-A girl's gotta get her some

jewelry for Valentine's Day....and her birthday....

and Christmas....and anniversaries....

On that note....

this is what I made for his teacher:

 Simple little heart bangles in contrasting metals.

She can wear each one alone or stack them.

They were super easy and I like the simplicity

of them. Guess what I'll also be making 

myself for Valentines? 

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled 

with lots of love and happiness.

~valentines for schoolmates & teacher~

 The valentines we ended up doing for my son's

class weren't any of the ideas I listed before.

I needed something fast, easy and cheap.

I found a free printable from Positively Splendid

and went with that. Check them out:

     You too can print these for free by clicking (here). 

This is what we did for his teacher: 

 As you can see, I made her a heart wire bracelet and

we traced his hand to attach it to.

I had him decorate it with stickers and sign it.

Now that it's done I think the proper way to say it

would have been "stolen my heart".....

but when I write that again it still doesn't seem right.  

What is it?   

However the proper way to say it may be....

I'm sure she gets the meaning behind it.

Are you done with your valentines?

Now I'm working on my family cards.

I'll share those later this week.    

~memory book with old valentines~

Are you one of those people who saves cards

for sentimental reasons but you never

really know what to do with them other

than stash them in a box?

 If so....here's an idea

for a Valentine or anniversary gift.

   

 Each year I try to top the Valentine I made the year prior.

After nearly 20 years of this, it's getting difficult and I'm 

running out of ideas and energy. Last year I

couldn't figure out what to make for Valentines so

I got to looking thru all the Valentines we've

exchanged over the years as inspiration. 

Yes......we have kept them in a little box along with

other cards and letters we've exchanged thru the

years. After that much time, it's become

quite a collection. Rather than make a Valentine

for him last year, I decided to make a memory book

with all of the Valentines we have exchanged over

the past 19 years. This is how it turned out.   

I used this hand made binder that my aunt (who's really

my 2nd cousin) gave us a couple years ago .

It's made from wood that she stained and constructed

herself. This was just the project I was waiting

for to fill this monogrammed binder!   

I gathered up all of the Valentines we've exchanged

over the years and put them in chronological order.

I bunched a few of them together and tied with

ribbon or tulle and placed that in pockets I 

sewed onto the page (cardstock).

Each page is a little different and you could

design them to your liking.      

 This folks, is the first Valentine I ever made him.

19 years ago......1994. We were so poor and the only

supplies I had were pictures, yellow legal paper,

crayons, tape and pink toilet paper (remember when they

used to make colored toilet paper?). I think they
stopped making it because it turned out the dyes
in it were a bit too "harsh" for some people's 
who ha's and nether regions.    

 

I decorated some of the "pockets" with smaller sized

Valentines I'd made. If the Valentine was double sided

I made a color copy of the back in order to see

both sides and the message.   

 Once I had the pages done, I put them in thick

plastic page protectors so the cards won't fall out.

 I always make my Valentines and write a simple 

message. My husband on the other hand, buys

the most beautiful, sappy and love sick card

he can find......and I absolutely love it!

 Another way to display them is to place them

on your cardstock and make a slit in the page

protector to slide the card thru. That way you

can actually open the card and see the message.  

 For those years when we had a long distance 

relationship and had to mail our Valentines....

I used the actual envelope as the pocket and stuck

that right to the cardstock with a bunch of 

Valentines in it.  As you can see, I also scattered

a few pictures of us together througout the years.  

 It's a bit thick and bulky but it's just fine for where it 

sits, on display in our window ledge.  

I will add a page to it each year with our Valentines.

You know what that means now......

I gotta figure out what the heck type of Valentine

to make this year.    

~Pinspiration....Valentines~

It's been awhile since I've done a

"Pinspiration" post......like...a year?

Trust me, it's not because I haven't spent

much time on Pinterest.

That site is a TIME SUCK TUNNEL....

I go for one idea and two hours later I'm sitting

in front of my computer trying to remember what

the hell I was looking for to begin with.

To answer your question from one of my pins

this morning Megan, "YES! I was pinning that early."

I was browsing Valentines ideas and boy did 

I find what I went looking for!

Click on the pictures to be 

re-directed to their sites.

  Susie.....I pinned this tutorial for Z...I 

know she loves owls and thought she might

want to make these for her friends.

This is from "joyfully jensen" blog.

I was mainly looking for ideas for my son's class.

I want to do something besides candy.

I'm so sick of fighting my kids about candy

and how much they can or cannot have.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only momma who

feels this way.                

From "like a pretty petunia" blog-

 I love these crazy straw valentines.

From one "crazy" kid to another..... 

 From "dandee" blog-

Friendship bracelets.....what a great idea!

These would be easy to make but I think it might

work better for kids a little older than my guy.

 

From "JacO'lyn Murphy" blog-

my little guy's favorite one.

Isn't it hilarious?

I think I will put on it,

"love is a battlefield....let's just be friends."  

 

 From "spoonful.com"-

Valentine message pencil toppers.

It's in the running too-my son loved these.

  From "thirtyhandmadedays.com"-

Another favorite of my son.

Looks like he may have a hard time choosing, No?

   From "thetomkatstudio.com"-

This will be fun if he wants to do something

different for the girls in the class-which would

totally be do-able because there are only 4 girls!

That would have been my idea of a dream class

when I was a kid :) Yes-I was boy crazy!

  Bubbles by "3fourandunder.com"-

Cute and inexpensive alternative to candy.

  From "sheekshindigs" blog-

Do pop-rocks count as candy?

This fits our style I think :)

 

    From "repeat crafter me" blog-

monster push pops valentines.....

My resolve to not give candy totally goes 

out the window when I see these. 

SO CUTE!

I would do these for my kids....would be too

pricey to do for the whole class I think.

From "Rook No. 17" blog-

luv bugs......

my little guy would have fun making these too.  

And just because I'm the "room parent" for my

son's class, I went ahead and pinned this:

   I know the picture quality isn't great but you 

get the idea right? A bag for the kids to put

their valentines in.  

This is from "apples 4 the teacher" blog.

I think this is going to be a hard decision.

I'll let you know what we decide on.