Valentines Rosette

Do you ever wonder what to do with all the gorgeous art pieces your little one creates? Maybe you went to town one day with some fun process art time and now your faced with a whole lot of painted paper. Not to worry there is no need to trash those gorgeous colors today we are turning them into some pretty Valentines to give away - note preschool teachers these would also make an ace valentine for Mom if you want to make them with your kiddos. Want to find out what we are making? Read on...

You will need:

Your kids painted artwork

Some Valentine colored/patterned paper

Our printable center can be downloaded here - or make your own message 

Scissors

Glue

Step 1

Cut a piece of artwork paper in half, always remember to get a young artists permission first!

Fold the piece of paper back and forth concertina style. Repeat for the second piece.

Step 2

Take one of the concertina papers and fold in half. Glue the two sides that face each other together. Repeat this step with the second half and leave to dry.

Once the two halves are dry open them up to create a fan shape, now glue the two fans together along the straight side to create a wheel.

Step 3

Taking the colored/patterned paper cut a heart that will sit in the center of the rosette. Also cut two long rectangle shapes with a triangle removed from one ends it resembles a ribbon.

Step 4

Glue the heart to the front and center of the wheel.

Glue the ribbons to the back - make sure you have the ribbons hanging down when you turn it over.

Tape a safety pin to the back of the rosette so your recipient can wear it with pride.

Step 5

Print off our sheet of rosette centers and cut out the circles.

Glue the circle onto the center of the heart.

A beautiful rosette to hand the person you wish to give your heart to and all made from that old stack of process art.

Happy Valentines day, the world needs more love

Rubber Band Stamps

We are back, I hope you all had a great Christmas and are ready to dive back into the New Year bring on 2018! I woke up News Years day with lots of awesome plans for the year ahead, don't you just love that one day different and you feel like you get to start over? Well I did until we were hit by those extreme cold temps here in the North East and suddenly my 'take care of yourself' goals had to be paused a moment while I had four kids home from school for an extra 5 days. We made the best of it, ice skating, fort building and lots of hot coco and crafting.

These easy stamps are one of the crafts we did when the weather outside was frightful. They were fun to make and a great reuse for some of those elastic bands you get tied around your broccoli. For some reason I can never throw them out because 'they might be useful' so now I have lots.

What you will need:

School glue
Small pieces of cardboard - they don't have to be circles
Elastic bands - ours came off our veggies but if you buy some the thicker the better
Ink pads or paint for printing

Step 1

Draw the shape or picture you want to create onto your cardboard cut out. Then begin to cut the elastic bands to fit it. If you need them long and skinny and only have these super recycled thick ones then you can cut them lengthwise.

Step 2

Paint a layer of glue over the cardboard using a brush. Then begin to stick your elastic bands down. You can see here my daughter using lots of little pieces to create the curve in her heart - if the pieces are too long and you are trying to bend them into a curve they can curl up as they dry.

Step 3

Leave your stamp to dry. Once dry break out the ink pads and get printing. If you don't have ink pads try paint on a sponge so the stamp doesn't get swamped in paint as you go to make a print.

Have fun, can you build a picture using your new stamps? Maybe you could create a stamp and print your own thank you cards or invitations. Or what about coming up with your own custom collage paper?