Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and at my daughter’s school they did something pretty cool this year.  They wanted their students to decorate and bring in a valentine holder for their valentine cards and treats.

My kindergartener and I decided to decorate an empty graze snack box (graze.com) because it was already partially decorated for Valentine’s Day (red hearts) and it was the perfect size to transform into a purse/clutch valentine holder! 🙂

We just added my daughter’s name in the front (covering the graze name) along with some 3D valentine stickers

and glued a piece of purple construction paper in the back and decorated it with a variety of stickers.

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I secured the box with a little bit of clear tape and made a slot, which we decorated with a fabric, flower ribbon, for the valentine cards and treats to go in.

We recycled the clear plastic backing, which you can probably see in the first 2 pics, of the glitter tape decoration that we placed around the box (not shown in the pics) for the purse strap.  I then showed my daughter how she could hold the box two ways:  as a clutch with her hand or a shoulder purse with the strap.  The giddiness that ensued after transforming that box into her valentine holder will stay with me forever. 🙂

As for my third grader, she had a vision and it involved one of her favorite cartoon characters, SpongeBob Squarepants.  She loves that little dude!

She didn’t want to do plain, old SpongeBob though.  No, she wanted to make SpongeBob in his Kuddly Krab work uniform.   This uniform is featured in the episode titled “Bossy Boots.”

We printed out some pics of SpongeBob wearing the uniform so we could easily reference it.

I also made a template of the purple flower design that’s on the uniform so my daughter could easily trace, cut, and glue the design onto the box.

The materials we used were a cereal box, construction paper (pink, yellow, purple, white, and neon green card stock paper), and pipe cleaners.  We also printed out a small spatula and a “Krabby Patty,” which we taped onto his hands.

        

From a cereal box to “Kuddly Krab SpongeBob Squarepants!”

           

Here’s the breakdown: We gift wrapped the box with pink construction paper using tape and glue.  My daughter traced a big circle out of yellow construction paper for his face and two small circles for his eyes with white paper as well as two little squares for his front teeth.  She then drew the details herself.  She used the template for the purple flower designs and we glued those down as well as his face.  The pipe cleaners were used to make the antennas, arms, legs, socks, and shoes.  She wanted to place two pink hearts on the antennas instead of the red K’s.  For his yellow hands I copy and pasted a picture of SpongeBob and cropped the pic until his hands were the only things on the screen, then printed and glued onto the pipe cleaner.  We did the image two sided so it was easier to glue.  A slot at the top of the box ensures that valentine cards and treats will go in nicely!

There you have it!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Will you be my Valentine?

Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and my daughter’s school is going to have a Valentine’s Celebration.  She was asked to bring a treat for her classmates and this is what I came up with.

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During a sale at Party City about a year ago, I came across these Princess Valentine cards.  They were Buy 1, Get 1 Free so I thought, “Hey, why not?  They might come in handy for the future.”  Hello handy valentines, it’s the future!  I packaged a princess card with a fruit snack in a candy bag and sealed it with a heart sticker that came with the cards.  These are for the girls in her class because I thought it would be perfectly ok to give the princess cards to everyone in the class, but that wasn’t the case.  My daughter and my husband, both, proclaimed that you couldn’t give the boys a princess card.  So I asked my daughter, “Who should be on the card for the boys?” and she replied, “Batman!”  Ok.  I did a quick AOL search and I found this cute clip art with Batman.  It does have a pink background, but I couldn’t change that and it’s still Batman.  I put together a total of 21, 12 girls and 9 boys.  I really hope they enjoy this treat.

I’m going to change the subject now because I wanted to share a quick dialogue I had with my oldest daughter last night.  She is learning our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, and I showed her several YouTube videos with the music and lyrics.  We came across Whitney Houston’s rendition at the Super Bowl in 1991 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHmdu_I_0zI).

Me: Her name is Whitney Houston.  This video is old, but famous because Whitney sang the Star Spangled Banner beautifully.  Unfortunately, she’s not with us anymore.

Olivia: Why?

Me: She had an accident and was hurt really bad.  She died.

Olivia: (Gasps)

Me: It’s ok.

Olivia: She’s beautiful.

Me: Yes, she was very beautiful.

I know that I didn’t have to tell her that Whitney passed away, but I want her to start getting an idea of death.  It’s definitely part of life and I want to introduce these aspects little by little as opposed to not having any knowledge of it at all.  Since she started school, she has come home asking me and telling me about things that we necessarily haven’t spoken to her about so whenever an opportunity presents itself, such as someone who has died, I mention something so she can know a little bit of it, for now.  We finished watching Whitney sing and my daughter asked to see and hear her again.  I loved how she said that she was beautiful.  Just like that.  Through a child’s eye, we can learn so much.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY Valentine Cards

Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I love sending mail to my family and friends.  It’s almost Valentine’s Day and I’m going to be sending out valentines along with a couple of pictures of my daughters to them all.  I could always go to Target and buy a set of valentines, but where’s the fun in that?  Here’s what I came up with this year for my own Valentine cards:

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Using Microsoft Word, I made a quick design with a heart and our well wishes for Valentine’s Day.

I made four to a page and printed it out on white cardstock.

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Then using Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint in True Red and a little bit of water mixed in, I painted the hearts and let it dry.  Then I outlined the hearts with studio g Glitter Glue (I couldn’t find the name of the color but it’s sort of yellow/gold).

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I cut out the cards using my trusty cricut paper-cutter.  It makes things so much easier and neater.

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Here are my valentines!  Ready to be accompanied by a picture and shipped off to my loved ones.

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This craft project was quick and I can’t wait to ship them out.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY VALENTINE DECORATIONS

Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I love decorating for Valentine’s Day especially for my girls.  They love seeing all the hearts and pastel colors sprucing up our home.

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Using my heart puncher, I like taping hearts in various places like my china cabinet, the TV unit, the door, etc.  My daughters always seem to find all the little decorations I put up.  It’s like a game for them and I love seeing their smiles when they discover hearts here and there.

I love decorating with banners and I made these two last year using felt and my heart puncher.

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I purchased purple, hot pink, light, pink, and glitter red felt in order to do my banners.

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I cut out the triangles (freehand) and then sewed them together right at the corner.  For the heart banner, the glitter red felt was a bit thicker and I was able to punch out hearts and string them together.

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I put the pennant banner outside my doorway with this cute little guy declaring his love for you!

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I decorated my picture shelf in my living room with the heart banner.  I want to make a couple more and overlap them, but I ran out of the glitter red felt so it’s off to the craft store.  Yippee!

Take good care all.

Until next time…