Hearts and Flowers

So, Valentines Day is upon us once again!

Valentines Day in Canada is a much bigger deal than it is in Scotland, the kids all hand out Valentines to each of their classmates every year (In Scotland, it's Christmas cards, but they don't do that here in Canada - aye well, each to their own!)

The last 3 years I am ashamed to say they have handed out piddling little shop bought cards, so this year I decided to plan ahead and get them to make their own.  Here is what we came up with:

Paint sample bookmarks!  The above is but a glimpse, there are a few more...

I have to point out that I take absolutely no credit for this idea - I came across a website with paint chip valentines (sorry, I can't remember where) a while ago and then did some research - there are LOADS of sites on the internet where crafty people have made all sorts of different valentines using paint samples, some of them very clever and oh so sweet.  We decided (with 4 kids in the family!) to keep it simple and make bookmarks!

 

I broke out the hole punch, plus some other little punches (heart, flower, star), some different shaped stamps and red ink, valentine stickers, a few different glitter glues and some dollar store ribbon, and let the kids run amok.

Some of them are downright GLAM (my daughter has discovered a love of glitter glue which I'm sure will last a lifetime!!) while others are quite minimalist - it really depended on their mood while creating.

 

They had really great fun making these, I tried to limit them to 2 or 3 per day over the last couple of weeks so as not to make it too much of a chore, but most days when they got home from school the first thing out of their mouths (even before asking for something to eat, and THAT'S rare) was "Can we make some Valentines??"

FYI - these paint samples were collected over a few weeks and from different stores, I didn't clean any of the chain stores out of their samples.  Just sayin'.

Almost as an afterthought, the day before Valentines Day, it occured to me that the teachers should have something too.  I am really into using paper at the moment (see my Manga Dresser) in various ways, and I saw these really cool paper roses made from book pages at Market Nine Home, so thought I would give them a go!

I dug out an old romance novel (fitting, don't you think?) and followed the tutorial (and of course, had to add some of that GLAM glitter) and here is what I ended up with:

 

Personally, I like the unglittered look, but hey, they are for the kids teachers, and the kids can have their say...

Lucas chose "TARDIS" blue (of course) for his teacher...

Brodie went with traditional red...

 

Naomi has 2 teachers who job-share, so she went with silver and pink.  The pink is glitter glue while the blue, red and silver were done by painting white glue on the petals and then pouring over loose glitter.  My kitchen was very sparkly!

I had some containers that we got chinese food in a while ago, and they were perfect for these flowers!  We don't want them getting smooshed on the way to school...

 

Nikki x

Linked with:

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell 
Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #104 
Sew Much Ado - We Did It!  Wednesday 
Domestically Speaking link party 
The Trendy Treehouse 
Creations by Kara - Look What I Made link party 
Free Pretty Things For You - Whatever You Want Wednesday #64 
DIY By Design - Winter Blues Wednesday - It's a Party #52 
My Girlish Whims - Your Whims Wednesday #46 
Handy Man, Crafty Woman - Wicked Awesome Wednesday #50 
House of Hepworths - Hookin Up With HoH #87 
Somewhat Simple - Blog Link Party 
Tales From Bloggeritaville - Thrifty Thursday #148 
Katie's Nesting Spot - A Crafty Soiree #77 
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Link Party 
Beyond The Picket Fence - Under $100 Linky Party 
Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom - Commercial Break Thursday 
Between U & Me - Crazy Cute Link Party #38 
Thrifty 101 - DIY Thrifty Thursday #54 
The Brambleberry Cottage - Time Travel Thursday #84 
Allie Makes - Making It With Allie 
A Glimpse Inside - Catch A Glimpse Party #67 
Fabulously Flawed - Super Sweet Thursday Par-tay! 
Crafty Scrappy Happy - HUGE link party!