Free valentines to print, kid edition

COUGH! SNIFFLE! COUGH! COUGH! I'm not feeling too hot. I intended to have a Valentine's Day roundup posted so much earlier this week but oh well. COUGH! Here it is. If you're like me though, it's not too late. Me and the boys will be crafting our valentines this weekend. 

Not sure where I saw the bouncy ball valentines first but I like the designs from Paging Supermom, pictured above, and Tip Junkie.

Love bugs!!! From Dandee Designs

Is there an award for prettiest arrow? They deliver pencils (groan, COUGH).
From Sweet Muffin Suite

Even pirates can show some love. From Mer Mag

Butterfly lollipops, Will's choice this year. From Skip to My Lou

Joseph will either be delivering bear hugs aka Teddy Grahams (from Family Fun magazine) or fish aka Goldfish (from Happy Clippings). Fish? Why fish? The saying is "Of all the fish in the sea, I'm glad we swim in the same school." Awwwww!

The now-classic kid holding lollipop. From 24-7-365

You can find even more inspiration on my Valentine's ideas Pinterest board.

Valentine's Day 2011

Somewhere in a box long packed away are two manilla envelopes holding valentines from 2nd and 3rd grade ... I loved getting valentines back then. And now, I love helping the boys make and give valentines.

Will's valentine was easy to decide. He spied the "I 'WHEELIE' LIKE YOU" valentine as I was working on my Valentine printables roundup (that you can find here) and immediately picked it. We packed small snack bags with fruit snacks, candy and Hot Wheels (bought during Black Friday sales). It was fun watching Will pick out the cars for his classmates with comments about why that particular car was for that particular friend. A big thank you to Mique of 30 Handmade Days for sharing this!

For Joseph's little classmates, we went with recycled crayon hearts. I already had the heart muffin pan because this idea is also recycled from last year. This craft is so easy and gets lots of oohs and aahs. Will again helped me get the crayons ready to melt. A big thank you to Ellen of The Long Thread for sharing the idea and the valentine. I've used it two years now ... and I'm sure it will not be the last.

What about you? What are you making at your house?

Hearts for Valentine's Day

When I saw Made by Joel's felt heart garland I knew I wanted one too. I liked his red, white and black color scheme. Looking through my stack of felt, I chose red, orange and yellow with a little black thrown in. Since I'm not friends with my sewing machine, I hand-stiched everything. If you were machine stitching, you could probably make this in a couple of hours. But this took me a couple of days working in front of the TV after the kiddos were tucked safely in bed. 

I tried it out first on my mantle and it was okay. But I lack the mantle-decorating gene. So I moved it to the dining room wall. It at least looks festive there. I would guess the cost was under $3 ... four pieces of felt and maybe 1 1/2 yards of ribbon.

 

The print says "Be happy for this moment this moment is your life."

Amanda at Kind Over Matter very kindly shared it with her readers. 

I especially need the reminder when the boys are driving me nuts. 

I need the reminder a lot.

Pink, red and free

Valentine's Day will be here soon. Here are some (free) printables and ideas 

to get you in the mood ... to craft and decorate!

Garland

At Second Street

Spell LOVE and BE MINE ... At Second Street

Simple felt heart garland ... Made by Joel ...  I love the black/white/red color scheme

Valentine Snowflake Garland ... Peppermint Plum

Subway Art/Posters

Sprik Space

I love you spelled out ... Sprik Space

Keep Calm and Kiss On ... The Hands-On Housewife

Subway art that can be so much more ... It is what it is

A reminder what LOVE is ... Betty Crocker Wannabe

Owl Always Love You ... It's a Crafty Life

Kids' Valentines

30 days

For the boys (and girls) obsessed with cars ... 30days ... Will just asked to make these

Everything you need for a classroom party ... It's Always a Party at the Parkers

Or you could use this one ... Catch My Party (they have lots of free party printables!)

12 ideas to make for classmates ... Skip to My Lou

For presents

Hello, Good Gravy!

Bright and cheery tags ... Hello, Good Gravy!

XOXO ... Take the Side Street

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Not enough ideas for you? Tatertots and Jello has a huge roundup.)

 Linked to Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello
and the Hugs and Kisses Valentine's Party at It's a Blog Party

DIY: Happy Valentine's Day, Part Two

I told you I went overboard. Here are two more crafty things we did for Valentine's Day.



It's not that I hadn't heard of melting broken/leftover crayons into new shapes; it's just a project I kept forgetting about. But a post on The Long Thread reminded me and I quickly put heart crayons on the to-do list. That she shares her Valentine for the crayons was icing on the cake.

Finding the heart pan was the hardest part but I finally found one at Wal-Mart hiding not with the baking supplies or the seasonal candy but with the Valentine's teddy bears. Go figure. I'm not a ruffly girl, but I like the ruffle.



Here's my helper. Normally, Will would have lasted just a few minutes. But this particular day was different. He was very serious about taking the paper off the crayons. When I left the table to check the instructions, he was quick to tell me I had not finished my share. Quite the task-master! He enjoyed making the crayons and delivering them to friends and neighbors. I think we'll do this again.

The second project I'm sharing today also involves a free printable, this one from Hello, Good Gravy!



Hard to see in this picture, but that is a really adorable pillow box that was easy to fold together and fun to fill. I put Cheerios and fruit puffs in one for Joseph and strawberry Valentine candy corn in one for Will. In the future, these would be easy to fill with jelly beans or conversation hearts for classmates. I'm thinking pillow boxes for Easter baskets or party favors too.

(Don't you love that bag, especially the arrow handle. Chris found those last Valentine's Day and filled two with goodies for Will and I. Which is nice that we have two bags since we got the two kiddos.)

How was your Valentine's Day?

DIY: Happy Valentine's Day, Part One

I went a little overboard this Valentine's Day. There were just sooooo many cute ideas out there. I tip my hat to all the talented folks who put their talent out there for me to print. I already have an idea for my own free printable next year as a way of payback.

First we made these thumbprint hearts, getting the idea from several places. The message says happy (heart) day with the boys initials underneath. These went to special folks like grandmas. After seeing the thumbprints did not show well on the textured paper, I drew hearts on white card stock and let Will go to town with the ink. Joseph was not into putting his fingers on the stamp pad. But he did like grabbing the stamp pad. You can't tell from the picture, but the hearts are on pop dots to give dimension. Besides, pop dots are fun. I really like how they turned out and would have kept them all. I am a sucker for anything that has my babies' sweet little prints.



For our out-of-town cousins, I printed the elephants from Up, Up Creative. And the puppy dogs from Hotcakes. I especially like the red elephant with the blue water. I tried HARD to get Will to give it to me but he sent that one to cousin Kirkland. Which is fitting because red and blue are Kirkland's favorite colors (HOTTY TODDY!).



Here's what my rock star is taking to school Tuesday. He would have taken them to school Friday but we got a snow day instead of a Valentine's Day party. I found the guitar lollipop cover on Zakka Life and the bag topper is from Fancy Pants Prints. I think they work great together. I added M&Ms and a bubble wand to fill the snack-size bag. It's a small class so we and our fellow moms tend to do more. This is nothing compared to Christmas!

Coming in Part Two, heart crayons and pillow boxes. Happy Valentine's Day!