Pile of tissue paper hearts
Despite all you naysayers, Valentine’s Day is what you make of it. Yes, it can be romantic, but it can simply be sweet as well. It’s a time to use pink and hearts to excess, which is so un-me. It is a time to let friends know you care. And it’s especially endearing to celebrate it with children.
As my oldest is now three I’m also creating future expectations with every holiday. My first goal is to avoid the commercial side of the spectrum and focus on simple homemade fun. My second is to not get carried away.
Last year we just put up hearts on the windows made out of construction paper decorated with crayon and glitter glue. This year I decided to go for home made Valentines. After several failed attempts we finally settled on our card design. I was inspired by this project noted by The Artful Parent, who in turn got it from the book Scribble Art by MaryAnn Kohls. We created faux stained glass out of wax paper, liquid starch and tissue paper hearts left over from one of the said failed projects. We then cut out sections and glued them onto cards I had precut & folded.
Making “stained glass”
Seth really enjoyed painting with the starch but didn’t have enough interest to create enough for both his cards and his baby sister’s so I finished up. Once dry I cut down the larger sheets to pieces a little smaller than our cards. Seth helped glue them to the cards; green for him, pink for Eleanor. He also colored, with green crayon of course, on the inside of each of his cards. I’m very happy with the results. So happy in fact, that I plan on doing the project again for actual window decorations similar to the one on The Artful Parent.
very fun! valentine’s day is the most fun when you’re a kid. i loved the crafts: making card boxes out of old kleenex boxes, making decorations, making cards. the day itself never really had much significance romantically, but i will admit i miss my mom giving me a valentine in the morning. that was the best part.
WOW – you are talented. You find time to work (and getting there and back in this weather is half the battle), do crafts with your kids, take pictures of your kids and keep this really fun blog (I feel like such a voyuer but I guess that’s the point at the beginning?) EVERY day! I applaud myself when I actually get dressed. I’m not kidding.
But don’t tell me your secret ’cause then I’ll have no excuses to take conference calls while working at home in my pajamas.
I hope you had a great Valentine’s day with your kids. It’s definitely all for them.
Part of my motivation for doing this blog is to do all the things floating around in my head. You see, if I actually do them, I can post them. Oops! I wasn’t suppose to tell my secret.
Now that I’ve seen how you made them it makes me love my valentines even more. They are very beautiful and it was fun to get one from Eleanor and Seth. Thank you for being a great MOM!
Awwwe! I’m glad you like them.