paint cut paste

when i saw the rainbowy goodness emanating from these doily hearts on 4 crazy kings, i knew novi would love to make some to proudly display in our window for valentine’s day!

i found some doilies in the shape of hearts at michael’s – a pack of 12 for $2.50. after i finished asking myself, “who am i??? am i seriously buying doilies!!?!” novi and i headed to the register with my 40% off coupon. cheap. i got over it.

after naptime, novi got right to work watercoloring the doily paper. we taped it down to her art board with one little roll of scotch tape in the center, so as not to move the doilies around too much while painting. i advise using a very soft-bristled brush for these for the same reason.

after we saw the pretty, lacy patterns the paint was making on the art board when we peeled the heart away, we thought it’d be fun to tape the doilies to paper to savor those lace prints.

and those papers turned out super-cool and will make nice valentines on their own.

once the hearts were finished, we put them in our front window. even though painted only on one side, they make pretty suncatchers. (the pic below is actually the back of them – the unpainted side – with dusk light showing through.) if we had used watered-down acrylic or tempera paints, the paint might have bled through to the other side even more for a double-sided look, and might have been more vibrant like the one i saw on the blog that inspired this art task. i feel like if we found smaller doilies at the store, they would make beautiful garland when strung together.

what a cheery way to say “happy valentine’s day!” to our neighbors passing by… (and a way to publicly admit that i bought doilies…??)

even a lovely pink flowering tree for valentine's day!

one year ago, novi and i made a bunch of cool valentines to send to all of our friends and family. it was super easy and very cute. thought i’d share this idea with you in time to get yours in the mailbox… (and take a stroll through memory lane with these old photos.)

first (a very tiny!) novi had fun painting in reds and purples and pinks all over several sheets of heavy card stock.

then i cut them into heart shapes while she napped (scissors were outta the question. she was just turning 2 then.)

i glued them onto papers that would complement the paint in each one, and cut the backing into heart shapes, too. i wrote little messages on the back of each heart.

we displayed them in our house (awww, our old house) for a few days before stuffing envelopes to send love into the mailboxes and hearts of our friends and family far and wide.

when i was a little girl, i used to love melting down my old crayons into new and improved crayon shapes, so i thought this would be fun to do with novi this year. (for some reason, my childhood memories of melted wax involve styrofoam meat trays…??) we have a heart mini-muffin pan, which is fitting for the season. my ubercrafty friend over at pink and green mama did this with her daughter last year, as well, so i checked out her blog to learn about the oven settings.

all year, novi and i have saved up broken crayons and crayons from restaurants.

novi helped me to peel off the paper and break them into small chunks. (fyi: peeling cheap restaurant crayons is not the most fun task.)

we divvied the chunks up into the heart pan.

then we baked them at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. i CAREFULLY had to carry the tray across the kitchen (minimal wax drippage onto new kitchen sisal rug. ick.) to the fridge where i set them to cool for about 15 minutes. to my surprise, they popped out of the tray very easily.

we put each one into a little valentine bag with a nametag on it and a note in it saying “i heART you” for all of novi’s friends. (hey, puns are okay for toddlers.)

though some of the baby siblings of novi’s friends, who are not yet in the crayon stage, got some felt hearts that i sewed for them instead.

put a little ART in your heART, valentine!