Valentine Sucker Fun!! Who is the coolest mom?!

Aren't these just too much?!  Hilarious!

I found a printable template for a "photo booth" at Printable Tip Junkie (credit to the Paper Dolls Shoppe) and instead used them to make my Valentine Suckers "way cooler"!


You can download it here.

I printed the pdf and decided the template was a bit too small so I folded each one in half and then cut them larger to suit my needs.  I then traced them onto foam sheets, cut them out and attached my suckers by poking them through.

Love it!  Oh, yes Mrs. RQ...you can have one too, these tricks aren't just for the kids.

xox
Dish

Valentine Candy Kabobs

Easy, fun and beautiful.  Not much more to say about this great idea. 

Package them with love.

xox
Dish

Animal Valentines....No Candy. Yeah!

I love Valentines that don't have candy attached to them and these are especially fun as all kids love animals to play with.  I got the idea from designmom.com but I wanted to make a few changes to their designs and here's why. 
1.  I thought the animals were a bit too small (my kids like the above),
2.  I had some animal card stock I wanted to use up instead of printing the pdf they had in colour and
3.  as I don't have a colour laser at home I didn't have to go anywhere to make this project happen.

So with all that what I needed to do was create the wording bubble sheet so I could paste them onto the Valentines.  Notice I did many orientations to allow for you to decide how to best display your animals.

You can download it here.

Please let me know what you think.

xox
Dish

Valentine Printable Stamps

To me it's the small things that are important especially when expressing how much you care about someone.  A girlfriend asked me to create some "stamp-like" embellishments for her to attach to her Valentines this year.  We were both so happy with how they turned out I wanted to make them available to you as well.   

You can download them here.

Special Note:  Due to their smaller size if possible try for a good quality colour laser printer to print these up.  I went to our local Printer and he also printed them on sticker paper for me which was perfect for attaching them to my envelopes (alternatively you can use double sided tape).

To be clear....these are not "real" postal stamps.

Hope you enjoy.

xox
Dish

Chalkboard Valentines...Perfect Teacher Valentine!

I think the Chalkboard Valentine idea is brilliant for teachers and certainly one of a kind!  Who doesn't love the fact that you can buy a little chalkboard paint (Martha Stewart has a full line in several different colours) and turn anything you desire into a board of endless possibilities. 

To create the above I made the cards out of card stock and used the Cricut to cut the shapes that I wanted to put onto the front of the cards.  Instead of using the Cricut cutouts I actually used the scrap boarders and taped them down onto the card stock to use as a stencil.  I can tell you honestly this particular craft is not very forgiving so certainly make more cards than you need.  Once the first coat dried I applied another and then removed the stencils.  I left them to dry overnight and wrote my messages with chalk.

A perfect opportunity to be creative over and over again!

Have fun.

Dish
xox

We Love You THIS Much. A Valentine Handful.

Isn't this a great idea?!  I saw something similar on-line and had to create my own with a Swell Dish twist.  These are the hands of my two little boys placed on top of each other and assembled to make this Valentine for their daddy.  It folds up and fits into a 5x7 envelope very well. 

I personally don't have the greatest or most pleasing penmanship so I created these little hearts with the tag lines via software.  You can download it here for your own use.  I used the pink and white hearts above but I did also create a red version should you prefer that (note "I Love You" is also on the pdf).

A total keepsake, hope you enjoy.

Dish
xox

Oh...I should mention this was my second attempt at this craft.  The first time I used two different patterns for the boys hands and well lets just say it was a bit much.  Definitely keep it simple especially if you are stacking more than one hand. xo

Download Tags Here

Love These "Love Bug" Valentines

I came across this awesome idea from Dandee Designs while searching for "boy" valentines for my sons and I just had to try it.  Dandee was sweet enough to put the PDF for these jars on her site so you simply need to download it, print, cut and assemble.  The hardest part believe it or not was actually finding the "bugs" to attach to these valentines and after much running around I picked them up at our local party store (skip the dollar and craft stores on this one...I must have tried a million of them with no luck).  I attached the bugs to the card stock by tying them down using a needle and thread as I was certain the hot glue would not cut it on this one.

Aren't they fantastic?!  Well done Dandee.  Thanks.  This is one Valentine all boys would want to take home...oh and I'm keeping one for myself.

Personalized Valentine Candy Bags; Thank you Martha

I saw this idea on the Martha Stewart website and thought I would give it a try. Can you really ever do anything as well as Martha does?  Really?  Respectfully Martha, to my own surprise I don't think these turned out too badly. 

I did a bit of photo editing and had the two images set up so that once I folded the 4x6 each side would look like those above.  I had multiple copies printed, stuffed the bags with candy and then taped the "labels" onto the bags.  Originally I stapled the photo labels but the staples stood out like a sore thumb so the double-sided tape was the preferred option.  If you don't have the ability to photoshop try making the labels in other ways i.e. having your kids colour pictures, make the labels with white paper and then paste on faces that you cut out from other photos etc.

A bit of work but I am sure the recipients will cherish them!

Valentine Pinwheels and Pencils

I love pinwheels although they can be a bit challenging when it comes to safety.  If you want them to be operational it inevitably involves some sort of pin or tack which for obvious reasons limits age groups.  With that however because I love the idea of handing out Valentine pencils with a pinwheel attached I have also included here a kid safer version (notice I said "safer" due to the fact that a small button is used) but the pinwheel is fixed.  Some have used a brass fastener and have had success....I didn't have any on hand.

1.  Square piece of paper, I used a 4x4 above.
2.  Put a pencil dot in the centre of the square and draw lines from the four corners of  your square towards the centre leaving an inch gap. 
3.  Make pencil marks on every other corner of the pinwheel and poke all dots with a straight pin.
4.  Cut the lines and start to bring every other coroner into the middle and onto the straight pin.
5.  Push the straight pin into the eraser of the pencil.

Test it out!! 

Version Two:

In the "kid safer" version I used a needle, thread and button to hold the pinwheel together. When completed I taped the pencil to the back of the wheel.

Pretty!

Valentine Fortune Cookies

A girlfriend of mine gave me a birthday fortune cookie (thanks JS) a couple of days ago and she and I both fell in love with the idea of being able to make these with our own personalised messages.  So I figured it out and here they are.  I will say that until you get the hang of evenly folding these suckers practise on cheap white paper as it takes some getting used to.   
You need a paper circle (I used a 5 inch diameter but you could just trace a CD), double sided tape, a fortune (I printed my at a 14pt font) and ribbon.
1.  Bring two edges of your circle together and make sure everything lines up.
2.  Lightly press or tack the centre of your circle.
3.  Hold the circle edges together with one hand and use the other to push up on the centre of the circle and down on the two wings of the soon to be cookie.
4.  Bring the two wings of the cookie together.
5 & 6.  Put in the fortune cookie and the ribbon.
7.  Use a piece of tape between the two wings and proceed to hold it together.

Just adorable.