valentine roundup

I was able to finish the heart pins for my girls, and since Mags wanted some special valentines to give her good friends and teacher at school, I decided to make a few more. These were so easy, and I got the idea at Twig and Thistle. Now I'm thinking of ways I could make pins for other occasions because these were so cute and fun!


And, as promised, my knock-off for a card seen in an Etsy shop. We gave this to B as well as the grandparents. I changed some of the words, etc. to make it fit better. Not my own idea, but such a cute one I couldn't help myself. I so often find things on blogs that leave me saying, "I could totally do that!" Such was the case with this card, and in a few minutes I had it all put together.

(front)

(inside)

I hope your valentine celebrations were wonderful. Ours was just as I had hoped it would be. We had a lovely brunch Sunday morning before church. I made crust-less quiche and crepes for my family. Here is our Valentine box on the table before we actually started eating. Brimful!

Happy February!

a start

Well, my baby is sick this week. Sigh. That certainly curbs my plans for creating fabulous valentines this week to fill our family valentine box. I have only created a few things so far, so I'll share those now and we'll see how much I get done the rest of this week. I may just end up using some of the cute downloads available out there in bloggerville if my week continues to be a hands-free one.

First of all, I created these cute valentine coupons. I just printed them on white card stock, cut them out, pulled them together with a decorative brad, and tied a ribbon around them. Maggie adores gifts of time, like a date night or a trip to Maggie Moo's. So I plan to fill her coupon books with things like that. And, since Captain Thoughtful most likely will not get his valentines made for this year (shocker!), I'll give him a book of coupons to fill out for Mags as well.

This one I made using vintage clip art from this site.


These are more simple coupons, but also cute for a little girl.


Also, I sewed up some funny little animal valentines from some leftover fleece and felt I had. One for each of the girls. Since I didn't have a pattern or anything, they turned out kind of goofy. Additionally, I had a grabbing, fussy munchkin on my lap as I was sewing. Hmmmmm. Still, it's a valentine in the box, so that's good.


Also, I snaked an idea from someone's Etsy shop and made my own eye chart valentine. This will be for B from all of us girls. I don't have a photo of that one yet, but I'll post it when I do. Tonight we will be busy putting together valentine's for Maggie's class party. So, these offerings may just have to be enough. Well, that's not true. I have one more project to make heart pins for the girls to wear to school and church. I'll get those made today. I had another idea for some hand-painted cards, but I think little Miss Fever here in my arms will usurp the time set aside for making those.

on valentines

I have so much to do this week. Regional arts festival submissions for Maggie's school, a thank-you luncheon to organize for activity days, the ever difficult task of entertaining a particular one-year-old. And Valentines Day, with all that entails, is just around the corner. I have done a bit of blog-stalking this morning as I've held the sleeping baby G in my arms. I dare say, the creativity out and about in the blog-o-sphere is uncanny. There is nothing like a holiday to bring out evidence of this in full force.

Last year we started the tradition of having a family Valentine box. In the days and weeks leading up to Valentine's day, everyone was invited to make cards and gifts for other family members, and sneak them into the box. I confess that I did most of the valentine-ing, though Mags kicked in a few of her super-cute six-year-old offerings. B failed on all counts. Boo! On Valentine's morning I made a nice brunch, we cracked open the box, and we read our valentines. We also opened a few small gifts contained therein...think Christmas morning, only mostly just the cards and proclamations of love. It was so much fun!

Last year we had a homemade box decorated by Mags. It was splendid and has a permanent, cherished place up in my closet. This year, though, I got a nice fabric covered box with a lid...to better facilitate receiving the valentines. Additionally, we can decorate it each year with a different ribbon creation, and hence use the same box over and over again. Yeah! I had planned to make a few valentines for my family to help fill the box, but I had nothing spectacular in mind. Nothing special. Then looking at all the valentine offerings people are making and giving, I begin to feel inspired. I have decided that my next assignment will be to make one extra-special valentine for each of my three darlings here at home. Something above and beyond the average cards I will still make. Something really worth opening Valentines Day morning over brunch. Something to make them say, "Wow!"

I'll post pictures once I figure out what the "wow!"-makers will be. Any ideas?