Valentine's crafting

We've had quite a bit of Valentine crafting happening over the last few weeks, all with the kids, nothing on my own this year. I decided to save all of our V-day crafting for one post, but now I have a zillion pictures to share and think that maybe I should have broken it up a bit. Alas, here it goes!

Finn and I decided to use some of his watercolor paintings to make conversation heart valentines for his friends at school. We (ahem, I) decided on different words or phrases to put on each heart. Finn signed each heart on the back. The perfect preschool valentine, I think.

We traced a heart that I printed on the watercolor sheets then cut them out and wrote the phrases in a combination of block and regular beeswax crayons.

The multiple colors on each word helped them stand out on the watercolor paintings. Finn would get so excited as I told him the word I was writing on each heart.

Every one of his 12 school friends has a unique word on their conversation heart. Finn's school requires nameless valentines so the children can just go down the row placing a valentine in each bag. I like to think that the perfect word will end up with each child. :)

A few weeks ago, the kids and I decided to make scented playdough. We got the idea from 5 Orange Potatoes, although we didn't add the herbs, only lavender essential oil. I made a batch of lavender dough and the kids shaped the dough into a dozen or so hearts.

We used a pencil tip to make holes in the hearts for stringing. I love how individual each of these hearts turned out.

When the hearts finally dried, which took 2+ weeks, the color had faded to a pink with a hint of purple and a faint lavender scent. I found some leftover pink alpaca yarn which matched nicely and we strung each heart.

The kids have decided that they'll each wear a dough heart tomorrow and the rest will be given to their teachers. I'd love to see how long a lavender-scented heart lasts on my 5th grade boy's neck. ;)

Another project that Finn and I tackled was celery stamp roses. After seeing pictures from a friend, I decided that celery stamp roses could be the perfect project for Finn to make cards for his teachers.

We stamped a rose on each card, after a few practice stamps, of course.

Then we wrote a nice little message, which Finn signed. Another perfect card idea for a preschooler, in my opinion. Quick, easy and a nice amount of creativity thrown in.

Elizabeth did not take the quick and easy route with her cards this year. She decided to make a personalized card for each of her classmates with a mix of blank cardstock, glue, glitter, Valentine transfers, and colored pencils. She worked diligently over several nights and put an amazing amount of effort into each card. I hope her friends appreciate their one-of-a-kind cards!

Valentine's Day cards seemed like the perfect opportunity to break out her newly acquired hot glue gun wax stamps. Just before her birthday, I stumbled upon these sparkly colored wax sticks that fit into a hot glue gun and work with a wax seal. What fun!

I forgot to take any pictures of her actually squirting the wax through her hot glue gun, but the final product is a blob of hot wax that cools for just a few seconds before being stamped with a metal seal.

Tween girl heaven, right?! It's glittery, heart-y and involves a slight amount of danger.

Sealed with her love!

I hope everyone has a wonderfully crafty and loving Valentine's Day, however you choose to celebrate!