Valentine's Gifts and Doll Party Supplies

 Disclosure: I was sent these craft lots to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Yesterday I shared Hazel's lucky ducky Valentine cards for her classmates and teacher with free printables. It is a little hard to put a card with a rubber duck into an envelope. However we wrapped them in a piece of red construction paper and then used these great We Know What Love Is stickers to seal them.  They are not pretty, but at least the card is hidden and the stickers have a Scripture and Valentine theme. (Hazel goes to a Christian school.)

Lucky Ducky Valentines with Free Printables

Now I know I have talked about Hazel's Ducky before. When I saw this idea for a Valentine, I knew we had to do it. Of course, I cannot find where I saw it. Sorry!! However, I found red and pink mini rubber ducks at Michaels and bought two packages of 8.

Exploring Cherries and Japan

Today I am going to share our exploration of cherries and the end of our exploration of Japan. At Hazel's request we have been exploring different fruit. She pulls out her magnifying glass and fruit journal and colored pencils for our exploration. We look at the outside of the fruit and record our observations and then I cut them open and we look at the inside and record our observations. Then of course we taste the fruit. We did this with the cherry.

Free Valentine Printables for Cards and Gifts

Today I am going to share a few ideas for Valentines which we made this year as well as teacher gifts. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of our main Valentines for Hazel's class and her party was yesterday since tomorrow is a teacher conference day. However we had some foam hearts and sparkle letters to write the names and then on the other side we used a label that says "Make no mistake, you are my Valentine." and we used glue dots to put heart erasers in the middle. The labels are available here and we used Avery 8663 (clear shipping labels).

For teacher gifts Hazel decorated some small jar candles. I took the labels off them first. Then she glued on some hearts from scrapbook paper. Next she glued on tissue paper. We used Mod Podge glue for these. Next we used one of the scripture stickers that Current sent me. Then I did a thin coat of Mod Podge over all of it. We used the high gloss Mod Podge. We left them to dry overnight. The next morning I tied on bows and added heart labels. One side of the label said, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and the other side said, "You light up my world! Love," and Hazel wrote her name. We also made labels for some Lindt Chocolates that I bought on clearance at Christmas time for all of her teachers (she has three specialty teachers--music, gym and library) that on the back said, "Thank you for being so sweet! Love," and she wrote her name. All of these labels are available here. I printed them on card stock and glued the fronts and backs together.

Since Hazel does not have school and she has been asking for a playdate with her four best friends at school, I thought we would do it on Valentine's Day. Only two of the friends can make it (next week is vacation week so a few are taking advantage of the extra day to leave). Hazel insisted on exchanging Valentines with them again. So this time we used some Valentine themed pencils and made these:

 

Hazel is writing her name on them and decorating them. These Valentines are available here.  She also wanted to have a book swap so we asked the girls to bring an unwrapped book as well. I thought it was perfect for International Book Giving Day. And since it is International Book Giving Day, I got a book to give Hazel--one of her favorites, The Little Moon Princess by YJ Lee. We also gave a book to her classroom, Jan Brett's Mossy, and will be giving The Colors of Us by Karen Katz to our public library. We made a donation earlier this week at the library for their book drive for this day as well. I love the tradition of giving her a book for Valentine's Day since it is not something wasted or candy. What do you do for Valentine's Day with your kids?

Simple Valentines--Made by a Preschooler

Well for the past few days, Hazel has had a low-grade fever. We have spent several days now cooped up inside cancelling all of our plans. On Monday night, I got an email from her teacher with the class Valentine guidelines. I figured it was the perfect thing to do while she was sick. We pulled out some supplies that she could use. The guidelines are simple, no computer generated images, characters, glitter or candy, child-made and since they cannot read and write yet, we were to use their class symbols for names. Hazel is the lady bug. Luckily I had stamps for most of the symbols. I gave her wooden beads, doilies, felt hearts and flowers, paper flowers, yarn and ribbon plus a variety of rubber stamps and paper punches. And of course a box of crayons. Here are a few she came up with above. The pink cards are for the girls and the brown cards are for the boys. She started with the girls and teachers and then realized with the brown cards that she could fold them to have more surfaces to decorate. I think all the boys' ended up with a giant felt flower on the front now.

Then today we started making some for family members. I gave her heart cards this time and gave her the idea of gluing on tissue paper squares. Inside she rubber stamped "Happy Valentine's Day" and an "I love you" stamp.

I know I bought these double heart cards for a dollar at one of the craft stores. I love picking up cards we can use for our crafts to mail people. She also made a few birthday cards. One belated for my goddaughter and then one for her grandmother and her daddy since their birthdays are coming up. She mostly just rubber stamped them.

One last thing we did today was make a paper chain. She brought home the supplies from Sunday School, but they ran out of time to finish them. She had not made a paper chain before, so she was very interested. We worked on sequencing while doing it. And she is modeling her newest Mommy-made pajamas. She loves them since they have a princess on them (and I have to say I love them because it is a nice thick flannel)! She also wanted to be funny by wearing the paper chain on her head. We eventually hung it on her seasonal tree.

How are your Valentines coming?

Merry Christmas!!

I will be taking some time to spend with my family, but wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas! Here are our Christmas cards this year:

The top one was done at Sears when we went for Hazel's photo shoot. The package we chose came with 10 cards. We used them to send to our non-Christian friends. The bottom one we used the finger print light idea that I saw on Pinterest and of course cannot find the pin to give proper credit, so if it was your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit!

Easter/Spring Fingerprint Pictures and Cards

Today Hazel and I made some thumbprint pictures. I had three of these small frames I bought ages ago and framed three of mine. I have seen them all over the place, but used Amy's at One Artsy Mama for inspiration. I also added a pom pom to one of the bunnies to be the back side. Hazel had fun making fingerprints and adding to them, but didn't quite get the idea of a picture from them. We made hers into cards and included one of mine on each.

Card for Aunt Beth and Ian

Card for Mimi and Pop

Card for Nonni

Nonni got multiple pictures (five total) of Hazel's. Aunt Amy's card got lots of stickers and one of my fingerprint pictures since Hazel got distracted by the scallop edge scissors and cut the rest of the paper instead of making more fingerprint pictures.

We will share more Easter projects soon!! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Sharing Saturday will start tonight and I will be co-hosting a new style link party on Tuesday so come check it out!!

This is where I link up...