Hearts for Everyone
by Melanie Bettinelli on February 10, 2011
And snipping, snipping
Scissors run
To cut out hearts
For everyone.~ John Updike “February” from A Child’s Calendar
For weeks Bella, inspired by one of her favorite poems, has been asking to cut out hearts.
I had this inspiration to cut out hearts from the vast supply of water colored papers that Bella and Sophie have been stockpiling and have the girls glue them onto construction paper. Then we could decorate these cards with plenty of glitter glue and stickers and whatever else might strike our fancy.
On trips to Target and CVS I collected a few crafting supplies: construction paper, heart stickers, glitter glue. Do you know how hard it is to find lace doilies? Why is that? I seem to remember them being everywhere when I was younger. In the grocery stores and pharmacies and anywhere that sold cards. Now they seem to be a rare bird. I found a one package of small gold heart doilies at Michael’s and that was it.
I tend to put off doing crafts with the kids because it always seems like it’s going to be so much work. But once we get started it is such a great deal of fun. And not just for the girls. I loved making my own collage cards. It must bring out my inner ten year-old. I could have kept it up all day.
We ended up with more than two dozen cards, two little girls covered in glitter glue, and not too much of a mess on the table.
Bella adored it all from gluing on hearts to sticking stickers to mixing the various colors of gliter glue into a sodden mess on her paper. She can be very methodical with craft projects—she is always the last child to finish when we do crafts at library’s story time—and I think she only applied glitter to two of her cards because she got so very absorbed in the process. But she didn’t mind when Sophie and I decorated the rest of them, so all was good.
I think Sophie’s favorite part was sticking on the stickers. She didn’t require any help with them and there was zero frustration factor in it. Most of the tasks were really beyond her, including squeezing the glitter out of the tubes; but she was pretty content to let me squeeze while she held the tube and directed me. She especially enjoyed having me write out her name in glitter.
Nonetheless, fun was had by all except Ben who was upset that he couldn’t throw all the art supplies all over the floor. You’ll enjoy it more next year, Ben.
Comments
Just beautiful! Well done girls and Mama.
Posted by Sharon on 02/10/11 at 06:16 PM
What a fantastic idea that I am totally going to steal from you to use next year!
I’m terrible when doing crafts with my girls. The mess! OH THE MESS! I don’t consider myself to be OCD until someone mentions doing a craft and then I have to deferr to my dear husband, who has no fear of The Mess.
Posted by Alicia on 02/10/11 at 09:02 PM
LOVE your blog Melanie. Are you on FB? I’d love to follow you. Thanks for the ideas.
As for the heart doilies, I wanted to mention that I get mine at party stores—-Party City, Party Hardy in the paper goods aisle.
Thanks. Have a great night.
Chris
Posted by Chris on 02/10/11 at 10:32 PM
What beautiful cards! One of the many joys of my childhood was making valentines for the inevitable school party. Every year my sisters and I spent hours using bought kits which came with many lacy hearts and heart stickers of various colors. When my girls were the right ages, I couldn’t find anything comparable. Too bad. It’s good to see that you could make some with from-scratch materials, and found those lovely golden hearts, too.
Posted by scotch meg on 02/10/11 at 11:07 PM
Wow. This could have been a picture of my girls making their Valentines. We have most of the exact same supplies, and eager, little hands to piece together the hearts, too.
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!
Posted by Kate Wicker on 02/11/11 at 07:21 PM
What a lovely bunch of Valentines! They all came out so pretty. And the girls look so very pleased with their creations. Beautiful!
Posted by Kimberlee on 02/13/11 at 12:53 AM