paint cut paste

we’ve yet to really begin valentine creation over here. generally, we wait for N’s birthday party to be over before we go on to prepare for valentine’s day. but there is one little heart craft i’ve indulged in, because, as my pinboard says, i’m a sucker for garland. and paint chips. and hearts. and easy things to sew.

i pinned this about 6 months ago, originally from ohcrafts.net. so i’ve been psyched to do it for a while, and tiz the season now. i grabbed my trusty heart hole punch and some paint chips from my stash (yes, all of us crafty mom bloggers have paint chip stashes. we’re a weird breed.)

i punched away until there were hearts of many rainbowy colors.

even just this heart confetti is splendid to look at and to play with!

the little one had fun using the punched out paint chips as stencils.

cute as they were on their own, i still took it to the sewing machine and fed each one through while keeping a fairly steady, slow pace with the needle. it was easier than i thought, and the machine was forgiving if i had a few stitches in between each heart. for me, that was an experiment, as i am still learning how to sew.

stitched together

i heart this!

then i got heart-happy and stitched a few more hearts to some colorful paper. i think i’ll add these to some valentine’s day cards soon!

this garland looks festive in our kitchen right now, but notice that hearts are top heavy… expect some twists and turns, or maybe opt for sewing them up double-sided.

this also might make a cute addition to our february mantel, which i’ll share when the time comes (after birthday season!)

strung along

every year, i wrap our holiday gifts in natural kraft paper, which makes them sort of like a blank canvas for whatever ribbons and adornment we select. this year, i’m thinking butcher twine and these wonderful handmade tree tags.

i saw this idea on pinterest (of course because i live on there! wth?!) and had to try it out! i’m always the chick who’s pocketing paint chips at the hardware store, so that part was easy. i have a large stash of buttons and ribbon, and a glue gun, so we were set to go. N was excited to cut the paint chips into triangles together, and was a huge help in doing so.

after she cut these lovely green ombre triangles, i hot glued a loop of ribbon under a button to the top of each one. N instructed me NOT to put a brown trunk on each one, so we left the trees as they were.

they turned out to be so cute! now i just need to get the actual GIFTS made!

paint chips are so naturally amazing — in what sorts of artistic ways have you used paint chips?

this is a crazy-simple post. we love our watercolors around here like nothing else, and we may rival hallmark in the quantity of cards that are created under this roof. so here’s sweet little idea for some greeting cards for any occasion.

before N set out to create her abstract watercolor painting, we placed heart stickers on watercolor paper. (you can use any shape of sticker, of course.) then she enjoyed some time watching the colors ooze and blend together on the page. so relaxing.

we let the page dry completely.

after that, i tore the large sheet of watercolor paper into smaller sections against a metal edged ruler. i prefer this to cutting watercolor paper because it makes beautiful naturally rustic edges.

we peeled away the heart stickers (which came off easily) to reveal a white heart in the midst of rainbowy paint.

N chose colorful blank cards to glue the paintings to (i buy packs of them at michael’s when they offer discounts,) and she sent them out for father’s day and the end of the school year teacher cards in june.

easy and heARTful

just a quick little entry to show one easy idea for homemade valentines…

all you need is a stamp pad, paper, a pen, and your own finger or thumb (well, your kid’s digits to be precise.) we saw this idea for fingerprint valentines on babble.com, and decided to try it. they used thumbs. N chose her pointer finger.

i wrote “happy valentine’s day” on each one, and N signed them all herself.

stay tuned to see the refreshing valentine treat N will be gifting with these cards…

have a sweet one!

i just had to share the sweetest card that came home from preschool with N. again, a great idea from her preschool teacher to do an upside-down handprint santa.

and what’s inside is truly heartwarming.

a picture of us all around the christmas tree

ho ho ho!

with thanksgiving upon us, our wee little greeting card factory has been in turkey mode. now, we usually don’t send cards for thanksgiving, but N made some cool turkeys this year that were certainly card-worthy. also, we don’t eat turkey for thanksgiving (all vegetarians over here) so we befriend the turkeys on thanksgiving… and apparently we keep them safe at our house..? oh, read on.

these handprint turkeys had be at “gobble gobble” when they came home with N from preschool.

i love the multi-colored tail feathers and the wattle detail.

this is such a simple, yet adorable, project for any age! just when we were good and ready to write some sweet notes to family members on the inside of the cards, N decided she wanted to keep them for our fridge at home. she couldn’t part with these turkeys! so she got to work at her art table, drawing new turkeys with crayons on small unlined index cards.

but then, she would only agree to send one of them to gwee (my mom)… she wanted to keep the rest for – you guessed it – the display on our fridge. (we’re having an art-hoarding issue over here.) the red turkey managed to make it into the mailbox with this sweet handwritten (by N) note inside.

it reads: "i am thankful for you! love, N"

at least this is a digital age where the rest of the family can get a really nicely homemade e-card of these turkeys on thanksgiving day! (sorry family and friends, we’re saving turkeys over here… literally!)

i am grateful for you, dear readers.

happy tofurkey day to all!

so, i let my 3 year old use a sharpie today. yeah, i know they’re not for kids, but she is a drawing FIEND and loves to draw with a regular pencil because she enjoys the black and white contrast. i figured i could show her how to use one of my new retractable ultra-fine point sharpie markers, and she LOVED it. she drew and drew.

my personal favorite media combo to use is sharpie and watercolors, so i put out the paints, and let her paint on her drawings. ah, markers that aren’t water-based don’t run. the joy!

yellow raincoats

true to form, N cranked out some greeting (mostly birthday) cards. (her middle name should have been hallmark. seriously. does the fact that she makes every card that goes out of our house and most of the gifts qualify as child labor?)

for my mom's ("gwee") birthday

i just love these!

she did some other non-card sharpie drawing, too. welcome to my favorite media, little one.