Love is in the air!

I have a bad habit of telling my kids about something long before it is time to do it. It seems like I started talking Valentines decorations as soon as we took the Christmas decor down. Well, my 4 year old gets very excited by such things and so once I mentioned Valentines decor she started asking me EVERYDAY if we could make Valentines decorations. So finally one day I decided I should at least do something amidst my super busy and hectic schedule. So, we made this super easy banner.

Isn't it cute? It was so fast and easy to make!

1. Buy 2 packets of heart doilies, 1 red and 1 white, at the store ($1 each).

2. Pick 7 different fonts (or a just a couple to alternate) and print out the "LOVE YOU letters". These are the fonts that I used:

L - I'm Bored - Find it HERE

O - Rage - HERE

V - Shardee - HERE

E - Big Top - HERE

Y - Rosewood - HERE

O - Chocolate Box - HERE

U - Rage - See Above

3. Cut them out and glue them to a contrasting color of card stock. I used red and shimmery silver (the silver was a wide ribbon).

4. Punch holes in the letters and thread ribbon through the doilies and the letters. I didn't glue the letters to the doilies. I just let the ribbon hold it all together.

If you have little ones who are anxious to help this is a good project for them! Let them glue the letters, have them tell you which color comes next (this helps them to learn patterns), or let them help thread the ribbon through if you are extra patient. My kids are 3 and 4 and both were able to do some of the things to help with this project.

I'm gonna a make a couple more of these since I still have doilies left. Cost per banner, less than $1! Can't beat it!

5 minute Christmas Wreath!

So I LOVE LOVE all of the wreaths that I have seen made out of ornaments. I was putting unused Christmas stuff away the other day and saw that I had 2 things of small silver unbreakable bulbs. I had 100 things to do yet I decided to just hurry and make a wreath out of all of those silver bulbs. Generally I would research all of the many tutorials online first but I didn't have 5 hours for that. So I just did my own sloppy version.

I had some 16 gauge galvanized wire so I cut of a fairly large piece. Then I just started threading the bulbs onto it via the little attachment at the top. After getting quite a few on there I decided it needed some color. So I pulled out some of the larger red and green bulbs that I had excess of and popped off the top silver attachments. I then drilled a hole into the opposite side of the ornament so that I could thread the whole thing onto the wire. Remember these are plastic unbreakable ornaments so it was easy to drill into. I really liked what was happening with it.

It really did take me about 5 minutes...ok maybe ten to put this whole thing together. When I reached the end of the wire and a place where the colors looked somewhat evenly spaced I simply twisted the ends together. Well I hadn't really thought the whole thing through so I didn't have a plan to cover the spot where the wire was sloppily attached. Just then my 3 year old game running into the kitchen with a piece of silver ribbon that he had pulled from the Christmas tree, behavior that would normally merit a time out. But it gave me an idea...not a very original one either. I went and got some of that extra silver ribbon and tied a bow to cover it up. I am very proud of my 5 minute project! I have it hanging over my big black garage sale mirror and it looks great. It felt good to do a non painting project too!

Pinwheel as promised!

Here is a fun idea for a stocking stuffer or something to add to gifts. Pinwheels are our family favorite. Since we have made so many (and destroyed so many by smacking them on sister's head) I think I have finally come up with a mostly toddler proof version. Please note: I have found that there is almost nothing that is completely toddler proof.

1 - First drill a hole about 1/2 inch from the end of a 1/4 " dowel. I bought the long dowels at Wal-Mart and then cut them into 10-12 inch pieces. Sand the dowel down and then paint it if you want to.

2-Find some cute double sided 12x12 scrapbook paper. Cut it into 4 6x6 squares. Then cover each square on both sides with contact paper (this is the secret ingredient for durability).

3-Trim the edges of the square. If you want to make it really cute use scalloped scissors or pinking shears. Then find the center of the square by folding the paper lightly from the corners. Punch a hole in the center. Cut the paper from the corners toward the middle leaving about 1/2 " before you reach the hole in the center. Finally punch holes in alternating corners as shown with the black circles in the picture above. Ok, so there's a hole in my hand...I was just trying to show the location on the paper.

4-Fold the punched holes into the center but don't crease the paper. Fasten the ends together with an eyelet. You don't have to use the eyelet but it really helps reduce resistance when the pinwheel spins on the wire. It does work without but just not as well.

5 - Choose an aluminum wire. Floral wire works great if doubled up. I loved this cloth wire. Whatever wire you choose make sure it is 18 gauge or it will bend to easily in your little toddlers hands.

6 - Bend the wire in half and slip a button, jingle bell, or bead on the end to keep the pinwheel in place. Then use some pliers to tighten the bead on the end.

7 - Slide a bead on after the button or bell (this just helps the pinwheel have less friction in order to spin better). Slide the pinwheel on followed by another bead. Test the spin factor by blowing the pinwheel.

8 - Thread one end of the wire through the hole in the dowel and wrap around the dowel 3 or 4 times. Before you start wrapping the wire make sure that there is plenty of space on the wire for the pinwheel to spin freely. Trim the wire with some wire cutters and then use the pliers to push the end of the wire as close to the dowel as possible so that no sharp edges are sticking out. Then do the same with the other end of the wire that isn't threaded through the hole but wrap in the opposite direction of the other wire like in the picture below.

Then whalah! You have a somewhat indestructible pinwheel.

Additional ideas:

You could wrap ribbon or floral tape around the wire to cover it's sharp edges.

You could also attach a dowel cap with a hot glue gun at the the bottom of the dowel to add some style (and safety).

To make it a project for kids pre-cut the paper and then let them help punch holes and assemble the pinwheel using pipe cleaner instead of wire. It's not as sturdy and definitely not as indestructible but it does work and the kids LOVE to help. You could always replace the pipe cleaner with the other wire later.

Bits and Pieces!

So I have 100 MILLION crayons and especially pieces of crayons all over my home.  Today when my little guy dumped the whole bag of crayons all over I knew I had to do something about all of those little pieces.  So, we made circle colors as my kids call them.

 

We pulled all of the paper off of each little piece.  (HINT:  Do this part by yourself if you don't want your 2 year old to start peeling every crayon he sees...believe me HE WILL).  Then we broke them up into pieces and sorted them by color into a mini muffin tin.  (Really this is fun for the kids but again... the 2 year old is now making all of our crayons itty bitty crayons after he helped with this activity).  We set the oven to 200 and stuck them inside.  I turned on the oven light so the kids could watch the melting happen.  They had just learned about why things melt from Sid the Science Kid.

Once they were totally melted I pulled them out and first let them cool a bit on the counter top.  Then I stuffed them into the freezer to cool a little quicker...kids don't understand patience.  I should have just let them learn about patience but I wasn't feeling too patient with their impatience.  When they were totally cool they popped right out of the muffin tins.

 

As it turns out they are fun for more than just coloring.  My kids used them as blocks for about an hour.

 

Then it gave the little guy some ideas of more things he could stack and build with.

 

Finally the circle colors fulfilled their purpose and the artists enjoyed their new collection.

Fun stuff!