Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not a huge proponent of Valentine's Day. I don't have a problem with it or anything; I just don't make a big deal out of it. I like telling the people I love how much I love them on V-Day, but I try to do that all the time. It's important to let people know you love them. It makes them feel good, and it makes you feel good too.

Emma has a bit of a cold, so she and I stayed home from church today (so as not to infect all the other kiddos). Plus she was a sneezy, snotty mess this morning. And it gave me a chance to [start and] finish Valentines for some special people.

Emma's Valentines for her classmates were already finished. She and I made them a week or two ago, using Perler beads (a great rainy day, sick day, artsy day, ANY day craft):

I had Emma write the Valentine greeting once on a piece of paper. Then I scanned it and printed it on colored paper (her fave color, orange), so she only had to write it the one time.

Pretty good, right? She has very nice handwriting, considering she is just learning how to do it. I will say that I wrote what she was supposed to say on another piece of paper, and she copied it onto her own paper. But she still did a great job.

Onto the Valentines I did today... We still hadn't made a card for Emma's wonderful preschool teacher, Mrs. Schnaiter; so I printed out two identical coloring pictures (in case the first one got messed up somehow... it happens) and Emma colored them. She didn't make a mistake on either of them, so she had to choose one for the card. I did not get a photo of the one she picked, but here is the other one (that she gave to me):

I follow this really great blog of a super crafty lady. The blog is A Little Hut by Patricia Zapata. I have attempted to make a few of the items she has posted, and they have each turned out really well. The one I made for the front of Mrs. Schnaiter's card, the wrapped heart, is found here. I printed the template on white cardstock and wrapped it with dark pink yarn. I thought it turned out really cute.

The picture Emma colored and signed her name on is on the inside.

And finally, here is the card I made for the grandparents. (Made two just like this for my parents and Chris's parents, then I made a smaller one on a white folded card for Chris's sister and her fiance.)

I got this idea from another blog that my friend Amy told me about the other day. I would link to it if I could find it again, but sadly I am at a loss at the moment. How flipping adorable is that?! The original one was an actual photo with a Tootsie Pop in the child's fist. I took the idea and tweaked it a little. That's my sick child in her jammies in the front room of our house (notice our dog on top of the sofa in the window). I printed it on cardstock on my laser printer in black and white and cut slits at the top and bottom of her fist for the red pipe cleaner. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!
XOXO