Owl Valentine Box

Valentine owl box for K*'s class party today.

We had fun turning a corn flakes box into something so cute!

I showed her the idea, she picked the paper from her alphabet soup girl paper pad and then we got to work. First we wrapped the box in brown craft paper like wrapping paper form target.  Other than the eyes & beak, we only needed two 12 x 12 pieces of paper.

We did wait until the night before {and there were several other things going on} so I cut things out according to her instructions and she taped them on with double sided sticky tape. Pretty easy {scallops, circles & hearts} for all that cuteness.  She loves it.

Original owl idea from Simple As That.

Inspiration for our version mainly from here and here.

AHOY MATEY be my valentine

Valentines inspired by the ones found on Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke.

Pink and blue chevron paper from Hobby Lobby.  Blue and red anchors cut with my silhouette.  AHOY MATEY is maiandra and be my valentine is scrap calligraphy.  K* is still deciding if she wants to staple them to the bags or tie them on with string.  Simple valentines that K* feels like she's making because she gets to glue the anchors on. 

Love & Hearts Wooden Blocks

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

{One of my favorite holidays}

After packing these from a house to an apartment (storage) to a house (and over a year later),

 I've finally finished them!

Wooden conversation hearts from the wooden connection (Utah, thanks sis).  Blocks from a friend and LOVE from Michaels.  Paper is Je t'adore by making memories (I've had it in my stash for awhile).

On their way in the mail are some more conversation hearts, maybe I'll get them done for next year ;)

Valentine's 2013

 

o "fish" ally the best idea from eighteen25.

I formatted my own, but she made a printable you can use. 

And a great compilation of valentine ideas at simply kierste.

ah-MAZE-ing valentine printable from balancing home. 

This is what S* & K handed out to their classes.  K* wanted to add hearts to the pencils to make them look like arrows {like they do on balancing home} but I was feeling a bit lazy, so we just did plain pencils.  I did happen to have 4 boxes of 12 pencils already in my office supply stash, so no running to the store was necessary to make these.

 

And some more fun Valentine decor my mom made:

Chore Card booklets

 

During January, we talked with S* & K* a lot about being responsible.

 

{I deleted a long winded few paragraphs here.  It felt good to type some thoughts out, but then I decided to keep them to myself so this post wouldn't be so long and boring.  Mainly, the classic struggle of parenting and that I don't want to disservice my children by not letting them learn to be responsible and motivated in life.}

 

So, I made up these chore card booklets for them.

 

I thought it would be helpful to have down what is really expected of them each morning, afternoon, evening, daily, weekly, etc.... I also thought that they might like to have a place listing various activities they have, what time they need to be ready so we can leave and what they need to have with them to be prepared.  I don't have to tell them, they can look ahead and know.  Hopefully this will mean I won't be "nagging" or "refereeing" as much.  And that I will have to let the natural consequences of not being prepared teach them lessons instead of me always trying to make it all perfect.  This of course assumes they will even look at the booklet and want to mark things off.  The booklet lists several things in certain areas because I want them to feel like they are making progress each day by being able to check things off.  Who doesn't love checking things off on a "to do" list !?! And hopefully in the future, they'll do these things automatically out of habit{most of the time anyway}.

 

 

With some of the leftover paper scraps I made these bookmarks with my silhouette and a Patty Young bookmark file.

 

Which, I then placed in these Valentine's mailbags{another item found in storage!!} that I made previously.  I tie them on the backs of S* & K*'s kitchen chairs at the beginning of February and they have fun putting little notes in there for each other. I try to put little things in there for them to find after school most days.  I just LOVE Valentine's Day.

Ribbon Heart Wreath

 

My mom made this ribbon heart wreath for Valentine's this year; inspired by pins on pinterest, like this one.

Goldfish Valentines

got the idea for these goldfish valentines at faboolous

Last week I bought some mini bags of goldfish at Target for the kids to hand out at school on Valentine's day.  I was looking for swedish fish, but decided this would be a better option.  On Friday I figured I better get going on the valentine part, so I turned these drawings into silhouette files for my silhouette to cut out using the trace function.  I've never done that before and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I finally created my own silhouette file!  I started out with it as a fishbowl card, but that was going to use up a lot more white paper, so I made tags instead.  And it was really nice to not cut out 40 fishbowls & water and 80+ small goldfish by hand.  The font for "glad we're in the same school" is pea noodles.

Saturday, I had the kids write their classmates names on the front and then their own name on the back under the "school" saying.

Staple them to a valentine mini bag of goldfish and we're set.

Some free printable ideas here, here and here.  I know there are loads of other ideas and freebies out there, but I thought I'd just mention these few since they were found through the site I got the goldfish idea from.

Oh Yeah.  I also made these two valentine cards really quick Thursday (15 minutes before school got out) so my kids could mail them to their aunt on our way home from piano.  I copied a pin on pinterest to make them(or see below).  I can see how red (or any color) not white is a better choice for the paper the peeks through the hearts.  But they were quick, easy and cute as I was heading out the door.

Family name {conversation hearts}

Family name conversation hearts

Last week when I was painting the birthday blocks, I also painted these conversation hearts.  I copied the idea from a pin on pinterest from the peanut paint shop.  I found the hearts at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each.  I have been trying to be good and use the crafty supplies I already have.  So, I picked the paint colors I had on hand that would work best and didn't spend time trying to mix colors together to get a better color, I just went with it.  The colors are: lemon chiffon, heather, baby blue, and think pink.  I cut our names out of burgundy vinyl using the font poornut.  Then I used C*'s stapler from the garage to attach white grosgrain ribbon to the backs of the hearts, my grommet thingy to make a place in the ribbon to hang it on a nail and pinned a bow on it. Ta da!  It was fun to make (and pretty simple too).  It's hanging in our little hallway near the kitchen, so it was a bit tricky to get a decent picture.

After hanging it up, I think I should have made the names a bit bigger and I wish the vinyl was a bit redder/brighter so a red ribbon would match.  Oh well, I can always change it next year.

Aren't tulips just so happy!

A friend gave these to me for my birthday and I just love them.  They make my kitchen/table look happier and add to my Valentine decor.

Valentine's Mailbags

Made these Valentine's mailbags for the kids this year. Got the fabric kit & pattern for K*'s from make life sweet. I just love their new fabric line "sunkissed". I bought fabric for S*'s at JoAnn's. For next year, I'll finish them up by adding their names or initials, haven't decided yet. Perfect for tucking little Valentine notes into each day.

PinkFig Girly Skirts

I made some skirts using PinkFig's girly skirt pattern.

The skirt on the left was for Valentine's Day. I made it with an under layer and sewed the pink hem band to the under layer to give it a layered look. The middle skirt was the first one I made; followed the pattern exactly for it. The skirt on the right is for St. Patrick's Day. It sort of looks like green flowers in the photo, but they are shamrocks. I made an under layer for it to add a bit more twirl, and I thought the white might be too thin. Happy with how they all turned out, will be making this pattern again. It was easy, basically sewing rectangles together with straight lines. I'm sure you can find a free tutorial online somewhere if you're interested, probably no need to buy a pattern like I did.

I also attempted my first applique tee to go with the Valentine's skirt. A shamrock tee is next.

Valentine's heart stripe fabric from JoAnn's. All other fabric from Hobby Lobby.