Valentine Gifts, by Ryann

It's so easy to have gifts for the Grandparents when you have a 2 year old with sweet little hands and one who likes to do crafts! We had our first adventure with finger painting, which went very well. She was ok with getting her hands dirty but did prefer to use a foam paint brush, as she could get more paint on there at once. She did a great job, had lots of patience and completed 4 masterpieces (one for Granny & Poppy, One for Daddy and one for Momma, which will ultimately end up in her scrapbook). The card was an idea that I got from?! Pinterest. You guessed it! (http://www.allfreekidscrafts.com/Kids-Valentines-Day-Crafts/Hand-Print-on-My-Heart-Card#). Inside the heart, it says "You've left a handprint on my heart". I used a K&Co. blank card (4x6), traced her hand onto the outside of the card, used a paint brush to apply the glue (even though the instructions say to put the kids hand into the glue - I figured that would be a crazy mess), sprinkled it with red glitter and then used super glue (was hard to get anything else to stick!) to attach the cute accordion piece to the palm of the hand. To mail these cards, I paper clipped the accordion together so that it didn't tear as it was coming out of the envelope. The final gift is another print out like the one I used one of our tea party crafts. This one is an adorable owl, my personal fave. We used purple finger paint, per Ryann's request and used her hand prints for the wings. Added the words "Owl love you forever" and viola! Super easy, Ryann had fun and because they were made my our adorable princess, they will gifts that all of the grandparents will treasure!

Two super simple cards

I have tons of stamps, that, until recently, I didn't use very much. What I've come to realize is that they make it super easy to put together a hand made card! These 2 are super easy - a couple of stamps and one has a piece of ribbon. No big deal though I think they are cute, especially for cards that didn't take any time at all to make!

"Special Dates"

I saw this idea on Pinterest and the link on there took me to an etsy store. On etsy, the lady was charging $14.95! I couldn't believe it! I used her idea, printed it out on some cardstock and put it in a $5 frame from Wal-Mart. I feel that mine is just as fancy and it didn't cost a fortune to make! Only problem is, I have no idea where I'm going to hang this, as my walls are FULL plus they are plaster walls, which makes it next to impossible to put a nail in. I'll figure it out. "

Kids' Valentine/Tea Party

Valentine party invitations: Of course, they are way cuter than what the camera can capture! Red card stock base, red & pink heart paper, edges cut with scalloped scissors, red heart punched out on glitter card stock, small epoxy heart sticker in middle, "you're invited" on a small piece of pink card stock. The heart & "you're invited" are raised with pop dots for effect.  I found this cute idea for glow stick Valentine's (http://spoonful.com/crafts/hearts-aglow).  SUPER easy (and cheap!) to make!  I printed the bigger hearts from a Word document, using the AutoShape function and the 'Jellyka - Love and Passion font that I got for free.(http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/) The heart says "Your Friendship makes my heart glow" on the front and "Happy Valentine's Day, Love Ryann" on the back. I used a Stampin' Up heart punch for the "arrow" pieces.  I have only used Tombow adhesive to keep them attached to the glow stick, which isn't working out as well as I'd hoped, but I figure the kids won't keep them on for long anyway. I also made gift bags for each girl - I used a Sizzix die for the hearts, on plain pink bags and wrote the girls' names with glitter glue. Nothing fancy.

The menu?! Pink hot chocolate,(http://barbarabeerykidscooking.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/kids-valentine-recipe-pink-hot-chocolate/), popcorn chicken, BBQ wienies, jalapeno roll-ups, Mexican dip, pink (yello) cupcakes, heart-shaped cut out cookies. The hot chocolate wasn't as great as I wanted it to be! The girls did drink some, but it is not something I will be making again in the future. Live & learn, right?! The best part of it was that we had little espresso cups for them to drink out of, which was great for photos!

The party was a great success! All of the girls had so much fun! We made one easy craft - a pre-cut foam owl and a print out of an elephant that we used Washable Crayola finger paint to make a hand print for the elephant's ear. Fun and so easy to do!

Valentine Tea Party 2/9/2013 - slideshow maker

Baby Girl card

One of my very good friends was just blessed to adopt a baby girl!! I am so excited for their family! I have a small box of things to send to them and made this card to go along with it. I used the Sizzix Baby Bottle die, Versamark Glue stamp pad with green and pink glitter and a "Princess" stamp with crown and metallic chalk for the shading. The glitter isn't as thick as I'd hoped, but I thought it was cute, in spite of that