Done.

It's 9:00pm. We have officially finished up our valentines-for-classmates preparations. Things I'm thinking: 1) I have a lot of children. 2) Those children have a lot of classmates. It turns out Colorado has bigger class sizes than New York. It took me until Valentines Day to notice.


We used this clever idea on Kirtsy — via 24-7-365. I think they turned out great. We couldn't get Betty to stop looking at her fist. And Oscar refused to wear anything red. But we rolled with it.

To those who are up late making stuff: I salute you with my exacto knife.

I'm Wild For You Valentine

This is what we've been working on for 8-year-old Olive's valentines this year. I think they're turning out cute, no? My favorite is the hippo shouting "Hippo Valentine's Day!" But I need your opinion: do we prefer the wild animals featured in the little cellophane bags? Or do we like them attached directly to the card with craft thread? I can't decide.

UPDATE: Your wish is my command. Click here to download a 4-page pdf featuring both versions. (Nothing fancy. Not even crop marks. But hey, they're free.)




Also. I'm coming up short on a little valentine message for these animals: rhino, tiger, zebra, giraffe. So I'm going with a neutral "I'm wild about you Valentine" for those four. If you think of anything brilliant, I'd love to hear it.



Need some other last minute ideas? Here are some cute valentine ideas on Kirtsy this week:

-FREE labels and gifttags for your valentine mix cds.
-These vintage valentine images are free to print and use in your own projects.
-Really clever idea for classmate/friend valentines — and totally doable in an hour or so.
-Make this cake. It is the prettiest valentine cake in all the land.
-Inexpensive, but gorgeous table ideas for your valentine meal (at our house, we like to have a big Valentine Day Breakfast with little (token) gifts for the kids).
-Rosebud valentines made from crepe paper. Sweet!

XOXO

Two more ideas for kids to give to classmates: these perfect XOXO pencils from Simple Song Designs.



And these barely pink Lovemallows by Kelly.

Making Valentines

Number one on my task list this week: making Valentines with my kids. You too? But first, I'm going to scour the interwebs for ideas. Olive really wants to give out candy so I think we'll go with these beautiful chocolate bar wrappers from Benign Objects (they offer tea wrap templates as well — perfect for your child's teacher!).



If you're looking for ideas, here are three of the most successful Valentines we've made in year's past:
1) Mad Libs (our most popular — a real hit for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders)
2) Friendship Bracelets
3) Bookmarks

Other fun ideas from my archives:
1) Japanese lollipop tags
2) Little apple pies for your sweetie pies
3) Mini treat boxes (from Inchmark)

This is the first year that Ralph won't be exchanging valentines with his classmates (sigh. middle school.) but I told Ralph if there was someone special he wanted to recognize we would come up with a good gift. I remember my brother giving his 6th grade sweetheart a goldfish for Valentine's Day. Adorable.

What will you be making for Valentine's Day? Any fantastic ideas I might have missed?

Valentine Goodness that has caught my eye over the past week or so

-Pretty tags from The Letter K Design Shop. Lots of choices.



-Child-like messages from Minted.


-Sophisticated, hand-written Valentine from Hello Handmade Paperie. Via Poppytalk.


-Nuts over this Nuts For You card by Jeanie & Jewell.


-Limited edition framed prints by Coulson MacLeod. Via Caroline.


-Pretty designs from Hello Lucky.


-The world's smallest postal service is offering the world's smallest package — cute as a button.


-Sweet tea towels by Elizabeth Wentz (they are sold out, but she's restocking soon). Via Chelsea.


-Clever thoughts from JackCards.

CardsInk

It's fun to see the clever stationery that pops up for Valentine's Day. This letterpress card from Cards Ink made me smile. Do you send love notes for Valentine's Day?

Nightlight

There's another gift that Maude made this Christmas that I didn't get a chance to share. It's a nightlight that she made for Oscar. She used modpodge, small squares of patterned scrapbooking paper and a nightlight form. The technique was similar to the sketchbook she made for Ralph. But the nightlight turned out sort of quilt-like.





Maude did a great job and Oscar LOVES his nightlight.

How about you, Dear Readers? Did your kids make gifts for each other this year? Any projects they were particularly proud of?

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Want more ideas? Here are some links to other sibling gifts we've made:
- Potato Print clothing
- Embellished gloves
- Jumpropes
- Ribbon flowers (as belts, clips and hairpins)
- Glitter Initials
- Decoupaged Sketchbook
- Tutu, decoupaged bucket for matchbox cars, after-school bags, tiedye tees
- Flower headbands
- Wool mittens from recycled sweaters, embellished dragon mittens, sculpey bracelets, bibs, snowglobes and romper stompers made from cans

- Bubble bath, circle loom scarf
- Ribbon barrettes, painted t-shirt
- Bean bags, heating pad, hand chalk (for gymnastics), iPod cover

Merry Christmas!

Unto you a child is born!

I hope you're all enjoying a day full of family and friends and cookies and presents and twinkle lights and good music. Because it's Christmastime!

P.S. — Remember our Christmas card photos from a couple of years ago. They still make me happy.

Christmas Circa 1974

Monday night, we joined friends for a family night of caroling and visiting a couple of uber-lit houses in the area — our friends call them the Crazy Light houses. The houses are both very modest, but their holiday light displays are out-of-control-fantastic. (Doesn't every town in America have a couple of Crazy Light houses?)

Santa came by for a visit and dropped off slinkys and cans of silly string. Four-year-old Oscar has no Santa fear and likes to have long conversations with him. Three-year-old Betty is simultaneously fascinated and terrified of Santa.

This photo is 4 of the Stanley siblings — Rachel, Sara, Josh & me. I'm the baby. Oscar saw the picture and said I look "very much like a boy."

How great is this idea (that I heard about at our ultrasound on Friday)?

Every year, Kim (the ultrasound technician) and her husband and two kids, spend a night camping out under their Christmas tree. She said it typically happens early-to-mid December — the night the tree goes up. Extra fun: while the kids take their nightly bath, Santa leaves new holiday pj's on their bed with a short note (Sleep tight! love, Santa)

I am so in love with this tradition. It's the exact sort of thing that makes Christmas magical. You just know if you managed this even a few years in a row it would be THE thing your kids remember about the holidays — how the whole family slept under the twinkly Christmas lights and Santa came early to leave some cozy pajamas. So great! I'm saving this idea for next year.

What about you Dear Readers? Any favorite traditions that your kids especially adore?

image from SMN's flickr stream

Potato Print Clothing

Olive made potato print clothes for her siblings this year. We bought supplies on Friday and Saturday (clothing items and fabric paint) and on Sunday afternoon we carved our potatoes and got to printing.





We put pink and gold hearts on a little corduroy dress for Betty (these pics are before the gold hearts were added). They curve around the side of the dress.



We put red and silver smiley faces on a navy tee for Oscar.




We put brown and black skulls on the back of a grey t-shirt for Ralph.





We knew Maude really wanted a hoodie, and we found a lovely cable-knit, pullover, hooded sweater in grey that we thought she would love. But. We knew we wouldn't be able to print directly on it very well. So we printed on a washed piece of canvas instead (bird, stars and dots), then used big stitches to attach the canvas to the grey sweater. I think it's my favorite.

As long as we were printing, Olive wanted something for herself as well. So we put pink and purple hearts on a turquoise sweatshirt just for her. (For those who are curious, we bought all 5 items of clothing at Old Navy on Friday night and the total cost was about $30.)

Embellished Gloves

This was Betty's first year making gifts and I really wasn't sure what she should make. But we were in the checkout line at JoAnn's on Saturday and saw these "one-size" gloves for $1 each. We bought 4 pairs and figured we would come up with something to do with them when we got home. This is what we did:





1) For Olive, we used a green pair and applied purple glitter with mod podge on the cuffs. I can't imagine the glitter will stay permanently affixed, but Betty really wanted to do something with glitter and I figured why not. At least they'll be cute coming out of the box.



2) For Maude, we used a grey pair and sewed on a small bow with a black button. 3-year-old Betty can't sew — but she could pull the needle when I pushed it through the button. And she thought that was delightful.



3) For Ralph, we used a black pair. We cut circles out of felt and hot glued them to the cuff. Betty could trace the circles using a stencil and a marker.



4) For Oscar, we used a navy pair and letter stencils and fabric paint to write his name across the gloves.

Since we already had all the supplies (except the gloves) in the craft cupboard, this was definitely our least expensive sibling gift project at $4. Whenever the kids ask Betty what she made, she answers, "Ssssshhh. I can't tell you it's gloves. It's a surprise."

Want more ideas? Here are some links to other sibling gifts we've made:
- Jumpropes
- Ribbon flowers (as belts, clips and hairpins)
- Glitter Initials
- Decoupaged Sketchbook
- Tutu, decoupaged bucket for matchbox cars, after-school bags, tiedye tees
- Flower headbands
- Wool mittens from recycled sweaters, embellished dragon mittens, sculpey bracelets, bibs, snowglobes and romper stompers made from cans

- Bubble bath, circle loom scarf
- Ribbon barrettes, painted t-shirt
- Bean bags, heating pad, hand chalk (for gymnastics), iPod cover

Tiny Gingerbread Houses

A fantastic day all around on the interwebs. Did you see NotMartha's tiny gingerbread houses? Seriously. How happy are these? (Click through for lots more photos.)

Pretty Holiday Packaging

Baking cookies for the neighbors this year? Check out this pretty packaging tutorial.

Jump Ropes

One item on my girls' Christmas list is 2 long jump ropes — long enough to try double-dutch, to jump in back doors and front doors (remember how awesome jump roping is?). So that's what Ralph made. One for Maude and one for Olive.

I had pretty much nothing to do with this. The project was handed off to Ben Blair with the following explanation: Ralph is thinking about making jump ropes for Maude and Olive. But I have no idea how to make the handles. Will you please work with Ralph and figure something out?

They pow-wowed and came up with the idea of bike handles. Which worked perfectly.

Nice work, Ralph! Nice work Ben Blair!

Want more ideas? Here are some links to other sibling gifts we've made:
- Ribbon flowers (as belts, clips and hairpins)
- Glitter Initials
- Decoupaged Sketchbook
- Tutu, decoupaged bucket for matchbox cars, after-school bags, tiedye tees
- Flower headbands
- Wool mittens from recycled sweaters, embellished dragon mittens, sculpey bracelets, bibs, snowglobes and romper stompers made from cans

- Bubble bath, circle loom scarf
- Ribbon barrettes, painted t-shirt
- Bean bags, heating pad, hand chalk (for gymnastics), iPod cover