Valentine's Crafts

We've been crafting up a storm for Valentine's Day. It's not even February yet and our walls are packed with red, white and pink decor. These little projects go a long way in occupying our afternoons when it's too cold to go outside. Every time I see Tory's handiwork displayed around the house, it makes me smile because it's something we enjoyed doing together. I know she likes it too as she walks over to her artwork many times a day, points to it and says "ooh!" Here's some of our projects so far:

Valentine's Water Colors

Water colors are a hit with Tory because she can paint using the paintbrush and not her hands. Any project that involves paint on her hands or feet is a big disaster because she screams bloody murder the minute it touches her. She loves dipping a paintbrush into a little cup of water though, and water is much easier to clean up for me so WIN.

I took a few pieces of white cardstock paper and drew hearts with a black Sharpie marker. Tory paints until her heart's content and then I lay the paper to dry on the countertop. Once it's dry, I cut out the hearts (or other shapes) and display her hard work proudly on the refrigerator.

Sticker Hearts

Tory's really into stickers right now, so I bought a few sheets in the  Dollar Spot section at Target. I cut a few hearts out of red and purple construction paper (who says all those scrapbooking supplies were a waste? I'm using the crap out of that stuff now!) and let Tory go to town. She picks which sticker she wants off the sheet, I peel it for her and she places it on the heart. Then I try reeeally hard not to re-stick it in a non-crooked way. It's her creation, after all.

Be Mine Banner

I bought this Be Mine Valentine's banner in the Dollar Spot section at Target, too. The packet came with 8 heart shapes, each one with a BE MINE letter or heart design, and string to hang it up. I gave Tory a red marker and heart-shaped stickers to decorate each one. This project was a great investment because it took us at least a week to finish decorated it. We colored/stickered one heart a day. You can't really tell the banner says Be Mine, but that's ok. We hung up this Valentine's banner in her play room. If you wanted to save yourself the dollar, you could easily make a DIY version at home with construction paper, stickers, string and a hole punch.

Heart Necklace

This project was mostly Mommy in the assembly, but Tory plays and plays with it now. I cut out 8 heart shapes of various colors and poked two holes into the center of each one. Then I threaded a piece of yarn through each hole and tied the two ends of yarn together to make a necklace. Voila! Heart-shaped necklace.

Valentine's Peanut Butter Blossoms
Alright, these aren't really a craft but Tory and I did make them together. I used this recipe for peanut butter blossom cookies and placed a heart-shaped Dove chocolate in the center of each one instead of the traditional Hershey's kiss. These are Andi's favorite cookie, so I thought it'd be a nice surprise when he returned home from his big work event.