shiny happy hearts

My husband and I don’t make a big deal of Valentine’s Day. Maybe a card and maybe a chocolate fondue (I am usually pretty insistent on that last point) but no gifts. I can be a pretty sappy romantic but a holiday that makes so many people feel like something is lacking seems a little out of whack. And that is not even taking into account the money-grab so many stores make of it. Bah humbug, right?

That being said, though, although Dan and I don’t make a big deal of the day, the kids and I have so much fun with it. Winter is long and cold around here, February being one of the worst offending months, so we make the most of the excuse to decorate the house, craft with red and pink, bake fattening sweets and share the love with some of our favourite people.

We are thick into Valentine’s dreams and planning around here this week – the last two mornings I have come down to hearts galore, red construction paper and a tableful of kids who love to gift (how great is that?). The trick is for me to keep up with all the elaborate plans that they (and I) have put together for gifts, crafts, decorations and goodies.

Today we checked some names off our lists of valentines with these super fun and easy cards. I had debated about including glitter, paint and, glitter paint, but maybe the best part of these valentines was the lack of anything too messy. I caught a break there.

The idea came from this great book.

First I cut tin foil squares. I started out using an craft knife but found that tearing it off on the edge of the ruler made for a much smoother cut.

Then using Sharpies in pink and silver we drew hearts and swirls over our foil squares. We chose light colours more to give the impression of a design without overwhelming the foil with colour.

I kept snapping pictures because I couldn’t get enough of the little fingers grasping markers and little heads bent over their work. (On a side note, someone needs to put some clips in this kid’s hair – more on that later.)

We ended up with lots of foils like these.

We punched out lots and lots of hearts (and argued a little over whose turn it was to use the punch).

While they were swirling and punching I cut and folded cards like these from red card stock.

Then free license reigned and the kids decorated hearts, glued hearts and amazingly didn’t decorate themselves with Sharpies!

This girl was serious about completing her valentines.

This boy was serious about the punches.

This girl was serious about the glue.

Oh we had fun – and all while little brother was napping. I caught another break there.

I kind of want to do it again tomorrow.

Another Valentine’s Day craft to share tomorrow! I’ll give you a hint – there was more red, pink, hearts and glue – who would’ve guessed?!