Getting Our Valentine's Craftiness On!

We had a fun craft session this afternoon when Katie got home from school. It started with a craft we were making for our friend who just had a baby. Katie got bored quickly and moved on to making her Valentine Party, uh Friendship Party mailbox to hold her Valentines. I gave her a bag of lace bits and she went to town taping and gluing pieces to an empty Kleenex box. It turned out pretty darn cute.

I made the lace pipe cleaner heart on the front, but she did everything else - including writing her name on wooden circles to glue to the top plus her stamped photo on the sides of the box.

Before Jackson's nap time today, we made a quick stop at Leftovers and got some crafting supplies. At the last minute, I dug into the box of broken crayons there and brought them home to try out this craft, which I made while Jackson napped. (This link also has a great idea for other shapes.)

I tried this once a few years ago with a silicone IKEA ice cube mold, but it didn't work well. This time, I used nonstick spray and it worked like a charm. I will make one suggestion, though: you might want to use Crayola brand crayons. I made a batch of circle ones with off-brand crayons, and the Crayola ones were more pure. The no-names worked okay, but it seems the colors sank to the bottom of the muffin cup and the paraffin wax settled on top. Can you see the separation in this photo?

I am pretty sure it won't affect performance, but it's an odd little effect. I made enough little hearts for Jackson to give to the kids in his class.

Almost as an afterthought, I came up with another item for Jackson to give to his classmates: Hug and Kiss Coins. I had blank wooden discs that I got at Leftovers a while back, and decided to stamp one side with an "X" and one side with an "O." The idea is that you flip the coin and do whichever side lands up: a hug or a kiss. Fun, huh? You can also find these circles new at craft stores, so you might want to make a batch yourself.

Last week, I finally sewed up the Tissue Cozies that I wrote about here. I made 26 of them - enough for Katie's class, and I'm hoping there are enough for Jackson's class too. They really turned out so cute and were amazingly easy. I ordered wallet size photos from Shutterfly with the "ah-choose you" saying printed on them, and I'm waiting for those to arrive so I can finish up the cozies.

My final project is one I read about on Color Me Katie's blog. It's a kiss flip book that my Katie and I might make for our #1 Valentine! Here's the photo she posed for, and I used Microsoft Paint to add a heart. I'll have to print a bunch of them without the heart so she can draw her own!