Hand Crafted Valentine's Ideas

Only a few more days until Valentine's Day. Are you ready? I thought that we were all finished with our Valentine's cards and projects until ..... my daughter and I went to a Valentine's playdate/party the other day and I fell in love with the craft that the hostess (and fellow party lover) had waiting for us. I almost immediately came home and googled my way to its original source, Fiskars, and was delighted to find the craft instructions as well as a few other fun ideas.


{Image: Fiskars}

Charlotte and I made the "I'm bananas for you!" craft together at our Valentine's playdate and we both had fun doing it. It wasn't one of those crafts where the child has to basically sit back and watch while the adult does all of the work. It was age appropiate (she is 3 years old) and the final result was so cute. My friend had all of the shapes for making the monkey pre-cut and ready to assemble before we got there. She also provided banana chips in place of the candy bananas which I thought was a wonderful idea, especially when you are dealing with a group of 3 year olds that already have more energy than they know what to do with. Thanks Nicole! You can find the DIY instructions over at Fiskars, here.

{Image: Fiskars}

Check out this "You're Grrrrrreat!" Lion Lollipop cover from Fiskars. I mean, really! These would be so cute for a younger group of children, like a preschool class or playgroup.

{Image: Fiskars}

And what about this "You Rock" Valentine's idea? I know that my oldest son (8) would LOVE getting a package of Pop Rocks to try out and I feel like the presentation of this Valentine's craft isn't as juvenile looking, perfect for your grade-schoolers.

{Image: Fiskars}

For all of these craft ideas and more, visit Fiskars, here. Have fun!

A Valentine's Heart Day Celebration

I love planning parties for my children and their friends. With Valentine's Day just a few days away, I decided to design a Valentine's Heart Day Celebration for my youngest two to share with a few of their friends. I used the traditional Valentine's color scheme of red, pink, and white along with the traditional heart elements and tried to give it my own SHEEK twist. I created a pom pom backdrop for the favor table and another for "artwork" behind the food table. Hearts were sprinkled throught the decor, along with a little happiness and LOVE!

Here is the favor table. I made a pom pom backdrop to add LOTS of color. A small white tree held hearts filled with valentine's beads for the kids to make a Valentine's necklace. The favor bags held a special treat for each child to take home.

The food table also featured a white tree with hearts as well as a felt heart adorning each chair, heart place settings, heart drink stirrers, chocolate-covered pretzels, individual mailboxes for each child to personalize, and another favor bag for each child.

These Chocolate-covered pretzels are super easy to make. Here's how it did it.

Happy Valentine's Day to you and all of your Sweeties!

{Sneak Peek} Valentine's Heart Celebration

Here's a quick little peek at the Valentine's Heart Celebration that I designed. Stay tuned...more to come soon!

{Valentine's Day} I DIG You, Valentine!

How cute would these be for a preschool Valentine's Day party! With spring right around the corner (I hope!) these would be great for little ones to stash away for a warmer day after they are finished with their Valentine's treats.



Here are the instructions provided by Family Fun:

To make, you will need:

Small bag of candy
Twist tie
Ribbon
Toy sand shovel
Paint pen

Instructions:

Close a small bag of candy with a twist tie. With a ribbon, tie it to the handle of a toy sand shovel. Use a paint pen or permanent marker to write your message at the base of the shovel, just below the candy bag.

Easy Valentine's Treats (NO BAKING REQUIRED!)

Don't have a ton of time to get your bake on this Valentine's? Here are a few EASY and FAST Valentine's Treats that are sure to satisfy your little ones and their friends without requiring too much time from you. That's right, NO BAKING REQUIRED. Here's what you will need for all three recipes:

• Pre-made Rice Krispie Treat Snacks (You could make these yourself but I just used the store-bought, pre-packaged ones)
• Milk or Dark Chocolate and Colored Chocolate (I used red, pink, and white)
• Small Pretzels
• Sprinkles
• Lollipop Sticks
• Wooden Popsicle Sticks

Rice Krispie Treat Heart Pops

These heart pops would be great as cupcake toppers or just wrapped up as a Valentine's treat. To make, take pre-made Rice Krispie Treats and flatten them out to about half their original thickness. Next, take a small heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes. Insert a small lollipop stick into each heart and dip into colored chocolate (I used red. Pink would be cute, too). Let extra chocolate drip off and then set on wax paper and refrigerate for a few minutes until chocolate hardens. ** If you wanted to embelish your heart with sprinkles, you would do this before you place them in the refrigerator *

Chocolate-Covered Rice Krispie Treat "Popsicles"

The perfect "popsicle" for the month of February! These chocolate-covered Rice Krispie treats are almost effortless to make. Simply take a pre-made Rice Krispie Treat and insert a wooden popsicle stick into one end. Next, dip the entire Krispie Treat into a deep bowl of melted chocolate. Tap off excess chocolate and place onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Sprinkle with your favorite Valentine's sprinkles and refrigerate until chocolate hardens.

Chocolate-Covered Valentine's Pretzels

Everyone loves a little sweet and salty. These chocolate-covered valentine's pretzels will satisfy AND are super easy to make. To make, simply dip pretzels into melted chocolate (I used white chocolate but you could use milk, dark or colored). Tap off excess chocolate and place on wax paper. Drizzle pretzels with melted colored chocolate and/or decorate with sprinkles. Place in the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened.



I hope that you and your sweeties enjoy!

{DIY} Valentine's Gumball Necklaces

Here is an ADORABLE Valentine's gumball craft from One Charming Party. Not only would these be great to hand out at a Valentine's Day party, but they would be cute as party favors for a little girl's birthday as well.



Here are the instructions provided by One Charming Party:

1. Using a metal skewer, pierce one side of the gumball. Hold the top of the gumball steady as you guide the skewer (see photo). This will prevent the skewer from slipping off the slick surface of the gumball.

2. Flip the gumball over and pierce another hole directly opposite to the first hole. If you try to poke a hole straight through both sides at once, the gumball will crack.

3. The hardest part is stringing the ribbon. Use a large needle to thread the ribbon through the gumballs. Thinner ribbon is easier to string. Tie a knot between each gumball as you string it.

Tip: Look for bags of single colored gumballs at your local party supply store.



Click here to visit One Charming Party and see more of their fabulous ideas!

"Bee My Valentine" Party Printables for Operation Give Thanks

I am so happy to be able to share some great Valentine's Day Party Printables that are not only cute, but are part of a nation-wide fund-raising party for an extremely worthy cause as well. Miss Bird of Bird's Party Blog (L-O-V-E her!) created this adorable "Bee My Valentine" party printable collection for Operation Give Thanks.


Operation Give Thanks is a nation-wide fund-raising party to help the amazing organization, Operation Shower, continue on its mission to throw amazing baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment. I had the privilege of volunteering with Operation Shower back in October and was able to see first-hand how wonderful this organization is and how important its mission is to so many deserving families. By making an online donation of $5 or greater to Operation Shower, you can help spread some LOVE this Valentine's Day to many deserving military families AND download some Fabulous printables as well! Did I mention that the "Bee Mine" Valentine's Party Printable collection includes: Fill-in party invites, 2" cupcake toppers (or round favor tags), party icons and cut-outs (bees and beehive) that you can use as cake toppers too, napkin rings or jar and bottle wrappers, place-cards or dessert buffet labels (Bee My Cupcake and Pink Lemonade), candy jar fancy labels and a 5" x 7" super cute party sign - Instructions and list of materials are included. How great is that!






BUZZ on over to Bird's Party Blog to show your support and DOWNLOAD these great printables. Tell Bird that I sent you ;)

Don't Forget to Enter the Simply Silhouettes GIVEAWAY!

Only a little more than 24 hours left to enter for your chance to win this week's GIVEAWAY sponsored by Simply Silhouettes. Follow this link to enter now.

{Valentine's Day} Give a "Green" Gift

Here is a great gift alternative to a dozen roses this Valentine's Day: give a plant instead. There are so many beautiful indoor varieties (including some that can be planted outside in the spring) and they will last much longer than a cut bouquet. I found this great DIY idea from Martha Stewart on how to dress your plant gift up:



Tools and Materials
5 1/8-by-3 1/8-by-10 5/8-inch brown-paper lunch bags
Standard scissors
Flowering plant in plastic container
Decorative scissors
Ribbon (optional)
Double-sided tape or glue
Cardboard
Skewer (optional)

Valentine's Day Plant Gift How-To
1. Cut off the top portion of a paper bag so that it stands slightly taller than the plant. Cut and embellish the bag as desired. If desired, cut out hearts at the corners. (You can easily do this by folding the bag so all the corners meet up. Then, cut half of a heart so that when you open the bag, there are hearts at the four corners.) For a threaded-ribbon version, lay the cut bottom part of the bag flat. Pick up the center of the bag, and make a fold. Find the center of the fold, and make a vertical cut on either side. Continue cutting in even increments until you've made six cuts across. Open up the bag, and thread it with ribbon.

2. Use a second paper bag to cut out the handle, doubling the paper for strength and gluing or taping together the two paper layers. Tape or glue each end of the handle to the bag to make a basket. Cut a piece of cardboard to line the bottom for support. Write your greeting on the bag. Or, with excess paper, cut out a heart, and write a Valentine's Day greeting on it; then tape to a skewer, and stick it in the plant.

Wouldn't these be great for teachers' gifts! And the kids would enjoy helping out with this craft as well. Enjoy!

{Valentine's Day} Sweetheart Pops

These sugar cookie lollipops from Martha Stewart make me smile. I know several little hearts that I could win over with these!



Here are Martha's directions: Using a tiny cookie cutter, make heart-shaped cutouts into unbaked round cookies, and press lollipop sticks into the underside of the dough. After baking, let the cookies cool on the pan. Then, fill the hearts with hot sugar syrup; the syrup will harden as it cools. For sandwich cookies, position lollipop sticks between pairs of baked cookies, and join with filling. Meanwhile, bake the cut-out hearts; use frosting to glue them onto the sandwiches. Decorate with royal icing.

Enjoy!

Fab Find: Affordable Valentine's Accessories

It's time to start getting ready for those Valentine's Day celebrations! This week's Fab Find will help you accessorize your Love Day celebration without breaking the bank! Target's Dollar Spot is a great source for favors and party accessories any time of the year. I was so happy to find that my favorite Valentine accessory from last year was back in the Dollar Spot the other day. Last year I used these cute little mailboxes at my Valentine's Day party. The kids LOVED them! In fact, my daughter still plays with her's from last year.



These will be returning in one of this year's Love Day celebrations. Each child will be asked to bring a valentine for every child attending. We will decorate mailboxes, line them up, and let everyone "deliver" their mail. At only $1 per box, they are a great find!

I also found these cute "Live, Laugh, Love" vases in the Dollar Spot. They would be perfect on the party table with flowers, candy, or just as they are.



What fun accessories are you using this Valentine's Day? I would love to hear from you!

Valentine's Day: A Little LOVE Potion

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I LOVE all of the happy colors, hearts, and sweet ideas that come to mind when celebrating this special day. Sheek Shindigs has been busy designing two different Valentine's parties which I will share with you in the coming weeks. Until then, here is a fun idea for your Valentine's Day celebration: Mix up a Love Potion for your guests to enjoy!


Both young and old can enjoy this fun little drink. For the kids, you can use pink lemondae, fruit punch, cranberry juice, or even Shirley Temples. For the adults, you can mix up some Cosmos a Red Heart, or any of these other fun RED mixed drinks. Add in some red (or pink) heart- shaped ice cubes and your potion is complete!

To make, purchase heart-shaped molds at your local craft store and a package of Kool-Aid (I choose a red flavor).




Follow the directions for preparing the Kool-Aid and pour into heart molds. Freeze. Use heart shaped ice cubes to mix with your LOVE Potion and serve chilled. Enjoy!

DIY: A "Recycled" Valentine's Wreath

Here is a super easy and inexpensive way to add a touch of LOVE to your house as you gear up for Valentine's Day. Every year I use several fresh wreaths to decorate our house for the holidays. I always hate to throw them away after Christmas because even though they are usually pretty dried out, they still look pretty. This year I decided to hold on to one of my boxwood wreaths and reuse it for Valentine's.



I found these cute heart ornaments a Michaels for $2.99.



With the help of a little twine and some leftover ribbon from the hoidays, I was able to make a cute wreath to add to our Valentine's Day decor this year.

Gotta love an easy, inexpensive, eco-friendly project!