Valentine Craft Fail

Happy Valentine's Day!

Over the weekend we tried a little valentine craft. I enjoy thinking up these little crafts for Jude. Hopefully someday he might spend longer than 5 minutes actually doing them, but nevertheless I get a kick out of it.

We sent valentines to our grandparents and great-grandmothers this year. My little craft idea was pretty simple - print hearts (4.25" x 5.5"), outline in white crayon, let Jude paint with watercolor and cut them out.

It was pretty successful for a toddler project. Well, minus the fact that he kept choosing black paint over and over again! How are you supposed to wish someone a Happy Valentine's Day with a black heart?!

Oh well. You can't micromanage the creative process, right?

After the watercolors we also tried some potato stamping.

As you can see I cut the heart stamp a little too short and fat. Unfortunately it looked more like a butt when you stamped it on the paper. Bummer.

Black hearts and butts. Welcome to valentine's day at the Tinks.

Jude smeared it all around anyway. Course, when you think about it, smearing red paint on cards is not exactly a great solution. Turns out smeared red paint looks like blood. (You would think I would have learned my lesson last year?)

Wow, I am just now realizing in this very second, we reached a whole new low with this project - black hearts, butts AND blood.

Official Valentine FAIL.

Yes, we did actually send them.

Hmmm ... how do I redeem valentine's day after such a craft fail?  Oh, I know, how 'bout an adorable picture of our 3 month old . . .

Yes, those are heart sweater tights. Phew ... valentine's day is saved by sweater tights. Thank God for little girls.

Clothespins and Twine

While feeding Ellie sometime last week I came up with an easy idea for adding one more element to her room.

I had originally planned to hang the poppies here, but decided against it at the last minute because I didn't want to hang something so heavy above the changing table - made me a little nervous. So, this wall was left empty and it felt that way. 

I already had the twine and clothespins on hand, so this project came together quickly and free! I printed out the letters of her name on half sheets of paper. Then put some nails in the wall (measured and leveled, of course), tied the string and added the clothespins. Easy peasy.

I like it!

Twiggy Starburst

I found this post in my queue and, although it's from Christmas, I thought I would post it. I have no shame. Hey, things move slowly around here with two littles in my midst and I'm not afraid to admit that!

Before Christmas I made this twig wreath and hung it in my dining room. Cost me nothing and I think it's quite fun.

I saw this picture through pinterest and thought it would be a fun project to tackle. I found the twigs while walking with the kids through the neighborhood. Took a couple of trips to the park to collect enough.

I felt rather sheepish being the crazy lady with the sticks in her stroller, but I try to convince myself that when I'm eliciting judgmental stares it's usually worth it. (The chalkboard for Jude's room is a perfect example.) Sometimes you just have to be the crazy lady, you know?

It came together rather easily with some cardboard, twine and lots of hot glue. The hardest part was cutting the twigs to the right length. Part of my problem, though, was not having the right kind of shears on hand. I made do with a handsaw. Is that one word or two? Hmm.

With a few scraps I created a couple twig stars too and stuck them in the the Christmas tree.

I think it looks good in the dining room right now because it fills the wall nicely. But, I'll probably move it to the eat-in area of my kitchen for the rest of the year. Merry Christmas! (errr . . . February?)