Last-Minute Valentine's Day Crafts

Happy Friday the 13th! So, the one and only way that we get anything done around this place is by taking everything in several small steps. That said, it's no surprise that I just finished our Valentine's Day crafts last night. Under the wire, yeah!

I love what we did SO much and for several reasons. One, they're completely handmade. Two, they're 100% F-R-E-E. Three, they're easy enough that even H and I could do them (albeit over several days). Four, and most importantly, they're downright adorable.

Here are the Valentines we'll be giving the special ladies in H's life:

All I did was give him a white piece of construction paper to paint. We stuck the paintbrush in a mix of white and red, then random splotches of magenta which ultimately gave for mostly pink splotchfest artwork. Then, just last night, I cut the art into three strips and free-handed Xs and Os (as you can tell...fancy) that I then glued to more folded white construction paper. Instant card!

The fact that he wears my old theater shirt from my high school senior year as a smock melts my heart. That thing has splatters from every set I ever painted, and now splatters from every piece of art he has done.

Anyhoo, I love that this art was free form and simple. The only instruction he needed was "here's some paint, go at it!" He's still not great at taking directions, so the fact that I took what he created and made it into something practical is pretty rad. Oh, and it has a total Eric Carle vibe to it, which I absolutely adore.

In that last picture you'll also notice a rainbow heart stack. We started with this tutorial and simplified it to only a few colors. Simply put, I cut down a diaper box into 1", 2", 3", 4" and 5" squares, had him paint them, cut them into hearts and glued them together. Then, I punctured holes on the top and strung them with some kitchen twine, and ta-da! Cute little decoration and gift in one.

So, that's it! Cards and hanging hearts, but they were made with pudgy little fingers and love.

Did you make anything homemade to celebrate V-Day? Food? Gift? Do tell!
(I'll be back tomorrow with my clean eating challenge. Half way, folks!)

Our Lil' Pumpkins

I wanted to fit this post in before Halloween, but because I've got tons of posts piled up, it gets its own day! Hurrah!

Pumpkin time! Dave's gonna get into the pumpkin carving and everything, so I figured I'd just share a few pictures and chat more about the painting. Yep, we did one large "family" pumpkin to carve (we asked Hadley what kind of jack-o'-lantern he wanted {a HAPPY one!} and what shapes he wanted for the eyes and nose, and whether he wanted it to have teeth, etc) AND took three mini "pie" pumpkins to the next level with some paint.

Just 'cause. Plus, he's never painted, so I figured it was time. (I know, I'm hanging my mommy blogger head right now. He had never touched paint!)

So, here are a few action shots of the pumpkin carving planning, reaction and the spooky fun effect...

Awesome, right? He picked the shapes (hence the animated picture of him with "round eyes, Mama!"). After staring at it for a few minutes, it starts to look like a Sesame Street Muppet. Totally appropriate.

Anyhoo, on to the messy stuff!!!

 
So, adorned in Daddy's old t-shirt, we plopped him into his "high chair" (the SpaceSaver kind), handed him a pumpkin and a brush and he went to town. Pretty much. I mean, I asked him what colors he'd like (purple and red for one, blue and green for another, and he was mute about the last choice, so we rounded it out with orange and yellow), loaded up the brush for him, and he much more enjoyed painting his hands than the pumpkin. But, then he'd massage the heck out of the pumpkin, so they each ended up with some amount of color.

I also gave him a piece of paper at the end to continue practicing his new-found artistic skills.

One of my favorite things about the painted pumpkins is that they add a nifty bit of color to the stoop -- AND they totally go with our new welcome mat. Hooray for happy accidents! I even got a teal pumpkin out of the deal! Plus, they make me grin when I see them. So cheery. So Hadley.

I ended up spraying them with several coats of a satin sealer since this type of paint tends to come off in the rain.  Oh, and you know I totally whisked him away to the bathtub immediately (Dave had it ready to go for us). It was hardly a mess at all, which makes me think we can do something like this more often. Probably for the next big holiday. TURKEYS!!!

To Pinterest I go...

Anyhoo, here's the final cheery product...

In the interest of full disclosure, our carved pumpkin bit the big one within a day of this picture. I think the humidity (and the fact that the pumpkin was a couple weeks old) meant its days were numbered. Oh, well. We had the fun experience and at least Daddy got a great picture for the ol' memory file. Now I'm REALLY glad we painted a few little ones!