Valentines Day 2009 Crafts Recap

Hello everybody! It is time to get ready and start thinking about Valentines Day. But first… Did you know that Roots and Wings Co posted our very first post on January 9th of 2009? If you have been with us since the beginning you will know that back then we had a different name for our blog. It was “Favorite Things From Our Family to Yours” or something very close to that. Back then it was just Anjeanette and Rebecca busting out crafts every day of the week. In fact they did 14 days of Valentines crafts. Ok it started out as just 14 days of Valentines Day crafts but they had so many ideas for their new blog that they threw in a whole bunch of bonus crafts as well. Today I am just going to high light a few. You can keep watching for my next Valentines day 2009 Recap or check out all our Valentines Day crafts HERE

MAKE VALENTINES DAY SPECIAL FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. Rebecca gives you a peak into how she makes the day special for her family. Some of those crafts she had been making through out the whole “14 days of Valentines crafts “ were used to set the scene here. Talk about WOW! Can you believe she does this sort of thing for every holiday? She and the kids make paper placemats every month. Each one ties in with a theme or lesson she is teaching for the month.

TEACHER GIFT BAGS. Don’t forget to show the love to teachers. It does not have to be something huge and expensive. Here Rebecca shows us how to dress up some homemade heart suckers (those are for another recap) for a special treat for teachers. So cute!

VALENTINES DAY TEACHING TOOLS. As long as they are getting all the sweet treats, why not use them to teach pre-schooler’s their colors, sorting, and counting and graphing. When they are done they get a sweet reward at the end of the lesson. For older kids why not use them as visual aides for the math problems. 1 pink candy heart + 3 purple candy hearts = 4 candy hearts and YUM! There all all kinds of things you could use these for. How about fine motor skills for toddlers like stacking. How high can they make a tower of hearts? Put a rubber band around the end of some chop sticks to hold them together. Little hands can use them to pick up the candy hearts from a bowl and place them into another bowl. Again this develops fine motor control that will be needed for writing later on.

HANGING PAPER HEARTS. I know you have scrapbook paper just waiting for a purpose. If you are a crafter I am pretty sure you have scrapbooked. If you have scrapbooked I know you have purchased one of those GIGANTIC pads of scrapbook paper. I can tell you I have and since I have boys I have no clue how to use up all those pink papers. Last year Rebecca made these and I KNEW what I wanted to do with all my pink papers. If you have the paper already, I know you have brads. Paper, brads, ribbon and a cutter that is it! Make just a few or make a ton for a garland. Check out our FLICKR GROUP to see how I used these in my archway. Of course back then I was just a follower. Looking back over the year you probably have noticed that Rebecca is big time into paper crafts and Fimo clay. You can bet that her craft room is filled with paper and clay crafting tools.

THIS IS NO ORDINARY FOAM HEART GARLAND. Rebecca wasn’t the only one busting out with the Valentines crafts. Anjeanette did just as many. You have heard her say it before (all the time), Anjeanette dreams and thinks about sewing projects most of the time when she is crafting. She sews just about everything. I would be surprised if she didn’t use her sewing machine back when she was really into scrapbooking. ;) She is also a big fan of doing her own cut outs. She finds the shape she wants and starts cutting away. She is her own die cutting machine.

EMBROIDERY MACHINE HEART PENCIL TOPPERS Rebecca put her embroidery machine to good use for this craft. Don’t have an embroidery machine? No problem, she gives you some other ideas on how to make felt pencil toppers with out the fancy embroidery. However, you can still get this look by doing a blanket stitch all the way around. For the initials you can get iron on embroidered letters at the craft store or use pre cut foam or felt letters. There is also good old puffy paint. Rebecca put these at each of her kid’s place setting on Valentine’s day. In the top picture you will notice that they pencils she put them on were actually Valentine’s themed pencils. A great way to make the homework station a little more “special” during the month of February.

LOVE LETTER FELT ENVELOPES. I think is has been one of the most popular posts of the year. Anjeanette put together a tutorial for you on how to make this adorable felt envelope. I can think of so many uses for this little envelope. First it can be used to give some one a love letter and maybe a small treat. Then your child can use it all year long for pretend play. He or she can write “notes” and then play mail carrier and deliver the mail. This is the first of many posts Anjeanette did with felt. You have probably learned by now that she LOVES felt.

We have come a long way in a year. It has been fun going through our oldest posts to give you this recap. I know I said I was taking a step back this month and I am. I just couldn’t resist doing a recap or two of some of our favorite Valentine’s Day posts.

Happy Anniversary Girls!

Hugs!

Katrina

Linking to Somewhat Simple.