I "Heart" Bead Crafts

Valentine's Day is one of the only holidays I can get away with encouraging my boys to use pink and purple beads to make something.

And I have a lot of "girl colored" beads (as Mr. One would call them)...

Here is a simple craft we worked on together for Valentine's Day.

You will need:

Valentine colored tri beads (we used pinks, purples and reds)
pipe cleaner (we used red)

Directions:

I had Mr. One sort our bead stash, pulling out the appropriate colors for our project and placing them on a large tray, then putting the other colors in an ice cube tray.

When we had a good pile of the beads we wanted, I had the boys string them onto the pipe cleaner, leaving approximately 1 inch of pipe cleaner exposed on both ends.

My four-year-old could do this independently.  I sat with my two-year-old and had him pick up the beads, one at a time, and we strung them together.  He actually got pretty good at lining up the little hole onto the end of the pipe cleaner and pushing it down.

After the beads were on, I bent the pipe cleaner into a heart shape, beginning and ending the heart at the far end of one of the top curves.  I then twisted the ends together and made a loop, twisting the ends again.  I liked the look of the hearts hanging at an angle.

Go get out your bead stash and have some fun!

I Love Books, Valentine's Day Edition

Oh how I love pulling out a "new" bunch of stories to read with my children.  Here are some of my favorite Valentine's Day picks.

Froggy's First Kiss by Jonathan London

Of course we have to list a Froggy book, and this one is adorable.  Froggy has a not-so-secret admirer.  A funnny look at "first loves."  Find out who will get Froggy's extra special Valentine.

Franklin's Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois

Poor Franklin drops his carefully made Valentines in the snow, and they are ruined.  Franklin thinks his Valentine's Day is ruined as well.  Find out how his classmates respond and what he does to show them how much he appreciates their friendship.

Mouse's First Valentine by Lauren Thompson

 Sweet and simple.  My kids love guessing what Mouse sees his sister pull out from around the house as she creates something special for Valentine's Day.

Little Mouse's Big Valentine by Thacher Hurd

Little Mouse creates a BIG Valentine, but has trouble giving it away, until he makes a new friend.  Together they work out a clever solution.
 

The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

 

Cornelia Augusta comes outside one day to find it is raining hearts.  She gathers several, then goes to work creating some unique Valentines for each of her friends.  Such a creative book.  This story is the perfect springboard for making Valentines together.

Gather some loved ones and read a Valentine's Book or two.

*all images found on barnesandnoble.com*

Why the World Needs More Uncles

Last week, I had my brother come over and watch the younger children for a few minutes while I picked up Mr. One from preschool.  Not only did he come over willingly, but he volunteered to stay a bit after we returned and play a few games with them.  Mr. One was having a particularly rough day, so my sweet 19 year old brother, scooped him up, hugged him and talked to him for a good amount of time to encourage and help him feel better.  We need more young men like this.  We need more hugs and encouragement.  We need a cool uncle to listen.  If we all had that, the world would be a lot better place.

Love is taking a few minutes out of a busy schedule to scoop up a nephew and let them know you care.

Valentine Pillow

Love is in the air.  Here is one of my Valentine's projects from last year.  I found the idea for this pillow here (via Tip Junkie), then changed it a bit.

I used some white cotton fabric I had on hand for the pillow case and turned it into a slip cover instead of making it a complete pillow. I basically made a pillowcase and sewed in ribbon ties on the open end to tie the pillow closed.  (I'm sure Martha Stewart has a good tutorial for doing this in a more precise way.)  I used red thread and straight stitched two rows of stitching to frame out the pillow.  I used a combination of red and pink buttons I had on hand to make a more folk-art inspired heart (I didn't want it to be symmetrical).  It was a simple way to jazz up a boring old pillow, and I can recover the same pillow when Valentine's Day is over with something different.

*hop over to Blue Cricket Design to see other crafty projects*

Four Year Old Logic

A few funnies from Mr. One, who is 4, almost 5.  (Don't you love this adorable face?!)

Mr. One loves to sit by me and often asks to feel the baby move.  One day, he put his hand on my ever-expanding tummy, right on my belly button and exclaimed, "Mommy, I feel my brother's tiny foot!"  To which I had to reply, "Sorry darling, that is my belly button."

On Sunday, we were over at my parents' home for a get together for my brother who is leaving on a mission for our church to Brazil in a little more than a week.  There were lots of chairs up for visiting family and friends.  In between waves of people over, Mr. One was playing around in a large director's type camping chair, leaning forward and tipping it over.  I explained that he needed to stop, not only to keep himself safe, but especially because he was teaching his brother unsafe things as well.  He stopped for a minute, then started dragging the chair around behind the sofas.  Then, I heard him explain to my sister, "I need to move this chair away from my brother so he can't see what I'm doing.  I'm going to do something really cool now."  That gave us a good giggle or two.

Gotta love that four year old logic!

The Anatomy of Peace

In the book club I belong to, our book for February is The Anatomy of Peace:  Resolving the Heart of Conflict by the Arbinger Institute.

I'm not really an avid non-fiction reader, and even more reluctant to pick up books that are heavy on philosophy or psychology, so I hesitated to open this one up.  Nevertheless, I heard from several people that it was actually an engaging book, and the title did have peace in it...

It is actually written as a story, with a group of parents who have just dropped off their children at a survival camp for troubled young adults.  So, most of the book, while delving into the heart of conflict and peace in relationships, is written in a conversational style, with two teachers, the founders of the camp, talking with the parents and responding to their questions and hesitations.

This was a great book for my new year's goal of peace.

It contains so many thought-provoking ideas to help people resolve conflict and find peace, as individuals, as families, businesses and even countries.  It made me really think about how I interact with my children and family, and how I perceive others in my life.  One of the most powerful concepts it taught was that we choose whether to have a heart at peace or at war, by seeing people as people or objects, and based on this choice, all other choices flow from this simple decision.  The other important concept is that there is hope to resolve conflict.  We have the power to make lasting changes in ourselves, and then we can begin to heal any damaged relationship.

I can't even adequately explain this book, but it will be one that I will add to my library and look forward to revisiting.

ABC Magnet Spruce-Up

Somewhere in blogland (or was it a magazine or at a friend's home, I wish I could remember where...)  I saw the idea for this project.  The idea was simple:  Take a set of primary colored, kids abc magnets and personalize them with your choice of colors to match your decor.  I love having abc magnets on the fridge for my kids to use, but the bright primary colors don't appeal to my design aesthetic.  Here is the perfect solution.

I have been wanting to complete this project for a long time.  I finally accumulated the supplies I needed and found the scrapbook paper that I liked, and went to work.  (The hardest thing for me was finding the paper I liked.)  This project took two days for me to finish, all in all, about 4-5 hours (I worked on it throughout the two days when I had time).

Here's what you need:

One set of alphabet magnets.  I used a Melissa and Doug set that I bought on sale.
Mod Podge (I used matte finish because my paper had glitter embellishment on some of it)
foam paint brush
x-acto knife
cutting mat
either a scrapbook paper pad or select your own coordinating scrapbook papers to match your decor (cardstock papers will work best on this project)  I used the DCWV Garden Party Stack.
paper cutter and/or scissors
cheap nail files or sand paper (I found a package of 4 files at the Dollar Tree)

The Directions:

1.  Lay your letters on your paper and cut rectangles slightly larger than your letters.  (My picture makes it look as though I cut the paper smaller than the letter.  It's just the camera angle.  Sorry!)

2.  Use your nail file (or sand paper) to rough up the front of your magnet letters.  This will help the paper adhere better to the fronts of the magnets.

3.  Apply a layer of mod podge to the magnet fronts and adhere the paper to the front.

4.  Lay magnet, paper side down on a flat surface to dry.  (This is where I stopped working on day one, allowing plenty of time for the mod podge to dry.)

5.  With an X-acto knife, cut along the letters.  Don't worry about being precise, just get close.  You will be sanding the letters to get a smooth edge as your next step.

6.  Using your nail file (or sand paper), file along all the edges of the letters to file off any extra paper create a smooth edge.  For the small spaces, like the curve in the s and the insides of the the letter B, I cut the end of my file off and cut that in half to make a narrower file.  (If you buy cheap ones, no worries about ruining one.)You can file along the top as well to give the magnets a more distressed look.

7.  Wipe magnets with a cloth to remove and dust from sanding.

8.  Apply a solid coat of mod podge over the tops of the letters to seal them.

9.  Lay letters, paper side up on a flat surface to dry.

Before

After

10.  Put them on your fridge, or any other magnetic surface you want to spell on and have fun!

*My boys have already gone to town with these letters, ith Mr. One spelling their names, and things they like, such as "Zurg" and "Buzz" and Mr. Two rearranging them...

*Hop on over to Today's Creative Blog to see what other crafty projects are being posted!