DIY Kids Despicable Me Minion Valentine's Day Crayon Wrap Gifts

Connor is currently obsessed with Despicable Me 2 and watches it at least a few times a week.  He calls it something like "Nin-yinks" instead of Minions, but it's cute!  For Valentine's Day, his daycare doesn't allow food to be brought in, so I thought it might be fun to do crayon Valentine's with Minions since they're his current favorite thing.

There's a lot of Minion printables floating around online right now, but none of them were quite right for what I needed.  I ended up resizing them to make them fit the crayon boxes I used, and then I added a little red note on the back.


I had to hide them from Connor until Valentine's Day so he doesn't destroy them, but I can't wait to see his face when he sees them!

Toddler Straw Valentines

Nothing like a last minute craft project!  I'm not a procrastinator at all, but when daycare told us on Monday night that Connor's class was having a Valentine's Day party, I only had a few days to prepare.  Connor had tubes surgery on Tuesday morning (second set) so we had some extra time in the afternoon to do some crafting.  

I decided on a simple Valentine's note with a non-food gift for each child since daycare is nut-free and it's hard to find snacks that all the kids can eat.  I printed out sheets of Valentines and then had Connor color on them with pink, red and purple crayons.

 Each circle is 2.5 inches and I used a hole punch to make hole on the top and bottom of each one.  It looked really complicated to get the paper on the straw without ripping it, but it ended up being pretty easy to do.

I ended up grabbing a little box of sticker for each child, so I just tied those on with a ribbon.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Toddler Painting

I think this Valentine's Day kids painting project has been all over the internet this year, but I wanted to share our version of it.

This was probably a little too advanced for a 17 month old, but I'm trying to pass on my crafty genes to him.  I used a toilet paper roll and shaped it into a heart.  The rubber band around it that you can see in the photo helped keep it shaped perfectly.  I got Connor undressed and he sat on Daddy's lap in the bathroom to do this craft.  I think it's easiest to do painting right next to the bathtub so he can go right in and get washed off when we're done.

Instead of just using a plain piece of paper, I thought it would be fun to design a little Valentine with a cute message.

The end result was adorable and we passed them out to family over the weekend!

Our love story

I saw this link party about Valentine's Day and thought it might be a fun way to get in the lovey dovey mood and celebrate one of my favorite holidays!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? 10 years and 6 days (I only know this because our 10 year date-aversary was 6 days ago!)

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} My friends and I were at a frat party dancing in their party room. I saw my friends chatting with some cute guys so I went over to join in and meet them. One of the guys shoved a cute guy with glasses towards me and said, "Hey, dance with him!" I thought he was cute so I figured I'd dance with him. We danced for awhile and then ended up going with our friends to another frat house later in the night. When the after party was over, he came back to my dorm and we stayed up most of the night talking. That was pretty much it and we've been together ever since that night!

This is a photo of us in my dorm room a few months after we met.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell} We've been married for 4.5 years.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?
We got married outdoors by a garden & waterfall and had the reception outside looking out onto the garden and lake.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
We have a lot of stupid nicknames that we randomly use such a Honeypoo, Sillypoo, Lubber (Lover said in a silly way)

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
He's respectful and polite to everyone - no matter who it is.

He's can always cheer me up when I'm sad or upset.

He's a great father.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?
It was a complete surprise because I wasn't expecting to get engaged for another few months. I had only been graduated from college for a month and he just started his first job after graduating. We were hanging out in my childhood bedroom and he pulled the ring out from under the bed.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
I don't consider him a stereotypical gift-giver, but if I had to pick one, it would be flowers and teddy bears. He knows I love getting flowers, but we both agree they're usually very overpriced and not worth it. He also knows I love soft and cute stuffed animals, so I've gotten my share of them during the past 10 years.

Flowers from Valentine's Day 2010

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Again, I don't think I'm really either of those. I would probably enjoy a sunset dinner on the beach more, but I love surprises much more than that. I absolutely love being surprised with something out of the ordinary!

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
We occasionally talk about how we'd love to go to Italy one day. We hardly ever go on vacation, so it would be a fun adventure for us. This photo was from our first vacation together when we went to Mexico. Holy sunburn!

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
I really don't know which kinda makes me sad. We've been so busy this year with a little baby to take care of! It's also on a Tuesday which makes things more difficult. Weekends would be much better! We've made homemade pizzas from scratch for several of the past Valentine's Day holidays, so we may do that again. This one is from 2008 when we made 2 kinds of pizza and dessert pizza that we learned in our pizza making class.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
Nothing specific, but I hope to at least get a card. I got a very generous holiday gift, so I don't expect too much this year.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Communication - Not that we're perfect with this, but I think it's the key to making a relationship work.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.
Nothing explains our love more than a photo of the person we would both do anything for. Our little Valentine!

Footprint Valentines

Connor is only 5 months old, but I'm already making him do crafts! We did something similar for Halloween and everyone loved it, so I figured we'd do one for his first Valentine's Day too.

Like we did last time, painting projects seem to work best in the bathroom and right by the bathtub. I sat him in his little tub on the bathroom counter and he giggled. My craftiness is rubbing off on him!

I used some fingerpaint and a foam brush to apply it to his feet.

It worked best to leave him sitting in the tub and bring the paper up to his foot to stamp it.

On the back side, I printed out a little poem that I found online. (Sorry, I forgot to write down the source, so if it's yours, let me know)

S.W.A.K. (Sealed with a kiss) and mailed out to some friends and family for the holiday!

Valentine's Day Decorating

I'm embarrassed to say I'm a little behind on the decorating this year. I love decorating for Valentine's Day because it's a holiday about love and has nothing to do with religion. I also think the decor & accessories are so cute, so it's tempting to want to buy & make it all!

Time to bring out some of my favorites!

Felt Heart Wreath
This was all the rage with my friends last year. I ended up making a bunch of them when they all wanted their own!

Glittery XO Letters
I love these and I can just stick them in random places in the house to make it look a little more festive.

Paper Hearts Banner
This was a quickie project I did while watching tv a couple years ago. I wish I would have laminated it, but it's still holding up pretty well.
Happy decorating! Hopefully, I'll get to mine this weekend!

Team T is growing!

I'm so happy to announce to all of you that I'm pregnant! A lot of you have followed my infertility journey and sent your thoughts and prayers as we endured a miscarriage and a year of fertility treatments. I appreciate all your kind words and our dreams finally came true!

Some of you may have noticed that I started taking a closer look at all your baby crafts, nursery designs, etc. and hinting that I might be needing these things soon. It's hard to keep a secret! I also have to admit that there were days I couldn't even stomach looking at food posts because they made me sick!

But now that the first trimester is over, I'm excited to have more energy to work on some new crafts and home decor that we need to get done before the baby comes. Looking forward to getting started!

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Pretty Felt Heart Wreath

If you're into craft blogs, I'm sure you've seen this heart wreath all over this year. It's all the rage in the blog world for Valentine's Day 2011! My friend Christina at Finally Mom asked me to make her one and then a couple more friends requested one as well. How can I say no to my girls? Plus, they're super cute!

I used the tutorial from The Idea Room with a couple adjustments. It took 4 stores, but I bought out all the heart wreaths at the craft stores nearby.

Since the felt pieces will only cover the front of the heart, I spray painted the back side red. It looks a lot better than the white foam sticking out on the sides.
A yard of fabric was enough for me to make 3 full wreaths, so you only need about 1/3 of a yard for one wreath. I used a mug to trace circles on the felt. The diameter of the circles was about 2.5 inches.

How many circles do you need? Lucky you! I counted! I used between 100-115 per wreath. You can always add more, but I think 100 fills it pretty well.

I'd suggest sitting down to watch some tv while you do this because it can be a little monotonous. It works well to switch off between tracing circles and cutting so your hand doesn't get too sore from all the cutting!Once all the circles are cut, I took each circle and folded it in half. Then I folded it in half again so it becomes a little wedge.
Using a small pin, I inserted it into the corner of the wedge and then into the wreath. I didn't see any other blogs mention this, but I would suggest buying some dressmaker pins that are a little shorter than the standard size. The longer ones might poke out on the back and scratch your door.
Just keep folding and pinning as you go around the wreath. There's so special tip or pattern to doing this. You just adjust and place them as you want.
Once the wreath was completely covered in felt, I turned it over to add a hanging string. I took some red ribbon and tied a knot at one end. Using a few pins, I attached the ribbon to the back.
I love it! It's so pretty on the white door and it's perfect for Valentine's Day!

Some of my other ideas for future wreaths that I may try:
• glitter felt
• using multiple colors for one wreath (red, pink, white)
• adding little accessories like pearls, candy hearts, etc

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Today we celebrated by going out for a yummy breakfast at Egg Harbor and working on the family room renovation.


So remember my heart banner from earlier this week?When I cut out the hearts, I saved my extra inner hearts for a small project I had planned.
I wrote little notes to my hubby explaining the things I love about him.

Then this morning, before he woke up, I hung them all over the bathroom mirror.
Surprise!
Of course, I have to brag about the beautiful pink roses he got me. Fresh flowers are a very rare thing in our house, so I was super excited!


Wishing you a wonderful day with your family and friends!

Leave me a comment and tell me how you celebrated the day...