valentine’s cookie for a friend

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Last night when I picked my daughter up from Girl Scouts she had a huge iced heart cookie with her. My initial thoughts were: More icing? Not before bedtime! Combined with Valentine’s candy and cupcake decorating club…

“Mom! Look what I made for Mallory! Can we drop it off tonight? I made her a card, too!”

I love how excited she was to make this for her friend. I love how Girl Scouts encourages her to do kind things for others without a thought of getting anything in return.

Most of all, with five cupcakes coming home each week from club, I’m glad this cookie was a gift for someone else!

valentines already?

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I wasn’t surprised when I saw Valentine’s Day candy at the store a few days before Christmas — ok, maybe a little bit — but I was when my daughter started making cards today. I blame it on the craft section of her Highlights magazine.

Seriously, though, we just took down the tree. I need more time between holidays. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

valentine rose redux

Am I going to make these pins for my daughter’s teachers every year? Possibly. They are my favorite crochet flower.

crochet rose valentine pin

This year I did a little something different with the backing. Instead of just sewing it on to the felt, I snipped two holes and poked the pin portion through. That way you don’t have to see the bracket on the back (like last year’s pins).

crochet rose valentine pin

I can’t believe how long it took me to figure that out!

Did you do anything crafty for Valentine’s Day?

project details: Pattern from Crochet Embellishments. All supplies were from my stash.

valentine’s day notepad cards

valentine card notepads

It’s another year of handmade Valentine’s Day cards. I’m still trying to keep things simple and fun for my daughter. We have less to make this year (only 22!), which is good because it was a struggle to get through all of the (34!) pencil cards last year.

I enlisted some help from technology for these. She wrote her Valentine’s Day message once, I scanned it, printed out a bunch of little versions, and glued them to the back of these cute heart-shaped notepads. I told her that she could decorate them anyway she liked and she chose to just color in the hearts. That was fine with me. We knocked these out Sunday morning and have plenty of time for her to make a few special cards for friends and family.

notes: I found the notepads at Target in the seasonal aisle. Here are cards from past years:

Are you making Valentines this year? Share in the comments!

valentine’s crafting

After looking over this post, it seems like I was in full Valentine’s Day mode for the past week, but I really wasn’t. All of these were really fast and easy to put together. I had a pretty busy week, so fast and easy was just what I needed!

Last year we colored and put stickers on blank cards. This year we made cards out of M’s existing artwork. She’s been drawing with her magic markers on a stack of make ready sheets T brought home from work and one looked particularly valentine-y.

valentines

You can download my heart template here and if you print it at 100%, the cards will fit in standard invitation size envelopes. I also used the template to cut out some hearts for a garland. I always try to hang something in this window for holidays and birthdays. You can see it from both the living room and kitchen and it’s right behind our table. That little touch always makes our house feel festive.

garland

I also made some quick gifts for T and M. After falling in love with the ball I made for Brady, I felt like M needed one of her own. I made it with leftover fabric from her bibs.

bella ball

I also whipped up a quick sweater sleeve scarf for T, complete with a roundel. I’m not sure if he really likes it or was being polite. There is a fine line between cool and too crafty for T. I think the scarf is sitting on that line! (I really like it, though!)

bmw scarf

We had a really nice day. M played in the snow, I did some sewing, and T cooked up some awesome Valentine’s chili for dinner. The best part of the day was watching M open her gifts and give her dad his Valentine.

valentine

more felted wool coffee sleeves

I am overwhelmed at the response to my coffee sleeves on etsy. They are selling like hot cakes! I listed my last one yesterday. All of the others have sold out and I just finished up a custom order for three. I’ll be making more this weekend. I’m glad I went out and stocked up on sweaters last weekend. Thank you to everyone who has purchased one!

coffee sleeves

felted wool sweater coffee sleeves

I think I have officially made use of all of the sweater parts I recycle into felted wool accessories. Here’s my latest, made from the leftover cuffs of my sweater sleeve scarves. More photos in my shop. I have a few more I’ll be posting over the next few days. These were fun, small projects to do after finishing up M’s blanket. I also have one more project idea up my sleeve (ha, ha) that uses the neck ribbing of the sweater. Stay tuned!

felted coffee sleeves