Valentine's Day Crafts

Being a stay at home mom has really given me more freedom to be creative and craft things with my children, something I have always WANTED to do. Arts and crafts were some of my favorite activities as a child (along with reading) and its fun to watch my kids enjoy crafting, too. For Luc's school Valentine's party, I decided to create a virtually free present for his teachers. Two weeks before the party, I sent a letter home to all parents--enclosed were two hearts I had cut out on my Cricut. I asked each parent to do some "homework" and talk to their child and find out what they loved about their teachers and write this on the hearts. Then the children were free to sign the hearts and decorate them however they wanted. This was all supposed to be a surprise for the teachers, so the parents were asked to put the hearts in a sealed envelope and return it to me. I got pretty decent participation (although not 100%, which always makes me sad...clearly those parents are not very invested in their children) and then bought a jar at hobby lobby (got it half off, although I could have gone super cheap and used a big pickle jar) and decorated it and labeled it the "Jar of Joy." I added a few pieces of candy and a letter explaining that whenever the teachers needed a pick me up, just open the jar of joy, pull out a heart, and read something nice about themselves. I think it turned out pretty cute and the teachers seemed really touched.

Lucas and I also had a lot of snow day time on our hands recently, so we hand made his Valentine's cards. Again, I used my Cricut and stole and idea from my friend Veronica. Her daughter makes a different animal out of hearts each year. I settled on the easy butterfly for our activity. Lucas painted the Popsicle sticks, added the pipe cleaners for antennas, and signed his name. Due to complications with glue dots (not recommended for impatient toddlers!!) I had to glue on all the squiggly eyes. The boys all got cards that read "You are so fly!" and the girls got cards that read "You make my heart flutter."

Our final Vday craft was for a cookie exchange at Leigh's. This was fun and super simple--and it used up left over candy canes from Christmas, so I will probably be doing this again--it would make good treats for the holidays, as well. You simply take two candy canes and pop them in the oven for about ten minutes--just long enough to get them slightly melted. Then you immediately put a lollipop stick at the base and pinch it to seal it together (the dried REALLY fast, so you must work quickly!) Then you can use melted chocolate to spread in the middle--I used white chocolate and then added fun red sprinkles, but you could do variations--dark chocolate, milk chocolate, assorted nuts, sprinkles, crushed peppermints, candy, or dried fruit--anything could go in the middle. Then just let them set, wrap, and they are ready to go! I got this idea from Family Fun magazine, and have also seen it on one of the blogs I stalk.