valentine’s day crafts ’21

when it’s the holidays, you’ve got to do a craft, non?! well at least in this household you do! january is such a long month and then, typically, valentine’s day sneaks up on you and then it’s over! so i always try to be proactive and get my ducks in a row to get some crafts ready and lead into the holiday with some fun stuff under our belt! i’d rather be that way then rush or not do anything! who’s with me?!

one of the crafts i concocted was the infamous toilet paper roll craft! endless possibilities and ohh so much fun! the best part about this? i have alllllllll the supplies at home and i don’t need to purchase anything! yeahhhhhhhh! perks of being a craft hoarder. LOL

typically olive is SO into crafting and ellie is not interested but for the first time, ellie wanted to create and not just one but two! she didn’t lose interest within a few minutes and was 100% engaged in creating her little creatures. be still my heart!

in typical fashion, olive created and created and created until all the toilet paper rolls were gone and by golly, she did a marvelous job! they painted, glued, drew, and cut their way to the finish. this sweet girl also asked me if she could give away each craft to a friend as a valentine’s day gift. she’s so sweet and thoughtful!

well, there you have it! one of our fun little crafts to get us in the mood for valentine’s day!

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the girls showing off their awesome creations
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the supplies
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the girls LOVED using the paint pens. they were so easy and less messy
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the sweetest smile…love her so much!
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she’s full of focus! i love her determination
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so proud of her butterflies!
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how adorable are olive’s masterpieces?!

valentine’s day class cards ’21

every year, i always have the girls create valentine’s day cards for their class. typically i will take a photograph and do something creatively but this year i was like…nope. let’s just put together some bags and call it a day. LOL mama ain’t got time for that shiznit.

i gathered all the supplies and the girls assembled their bags with determination and delight! i’m a do it super early kind of gal, like check check check it off the list and never look back! so we made these in early january. yup, you read that right. i mean, target already had everything on the shelves, so why not? the early bird gets the worm…although that’s a bad analogy cause i love sleeping in and miss the morning life cause i’d rather sleep. but you get me right?! hahaha!

so here we are, making valentine’s day cards in january cause honestly…this holiday creeps up on you much faster than you realize and you have to save any spare time for creative treats, food, and crafts!

each bag contained a valentine’s day card, eraser, bubbles, stickers, tattoo, and candy! so extra but if you know me…it comes with the territory! the girls didn’t do mailboxes this year…boo! that’s a whole other project – which olive is all about, so i was a bit sad we didn’t get to create one! ellie is only in preschool this year, so with school opening up next year, both girls will get to make vday mailboxes and that will be so much fun!

side note: i know this post is so flippin’ delayed! i couldn’t explain to you why i stopped posting regularly but here’s to hoping that slump has gone away and i get back to my regularly scheduled program!

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ready to make some cards for their friends!
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goodies for the treat bags
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how adorable is this?
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working hard on her valentine’s
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she did a great job!
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valentine’s day crafty treats

we love creating unique valentine’s day cards and gifts! it’s our jam!

ok, so it was in three parts…1) they made valentines for their non school friends 2) they made valentines for their school friends and 3) olive created her own valentine’s day mailbox to bring to school to collect said valentines!

ellie is finally showing an interest in crafting! a few times before, this past year, she’s not been interested. she enjoyed accompanying olive during the journey but she would eventually lose interest within 10 minutes or so. this time around, she’s participated in everything and has worked diligently along side olive in creating her own unique crafts! oh, so proud of my girl!

olive and ellie created beautiful works of art individually and we happily sent them out to our friends with an added extra jazz on each envelope. they seriously worked so hard on each of them! i was impressed by olive and ellie’s van gogh capabilities.

next up, class valentines. i did all the prep work and the girls assembled everything, including all the bags! they did such a great job inserting the lollipops into each card too…i was surprised because it wasn’t easy! way to go girls!

finally, olive created her valentine’s day mailbox {mind you, they did NOT do all their crafting in ONE day! LOL it was over the past few weeks!}. she was so excited to create something fun. she did all the work except handling the hot glue gun. she picked all the decor, assembled, and glittered! what a pro!

enjoy the pics below…the girls worked so hard and i course, i had to post a gazillion similar pics of them, cause those faces can’t be denied! LOL

happy valentine’s day!

*****

D I Y  C A R D S

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[working so hard on their cards for their non school friends!]

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[showing off their works of art]

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[the yearly shot over olive’s shoulder]

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[olive was sooooooo detailed, each card was so meticulous with artistic details]

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[working so hard!]

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[showing off her yellow crayon colored card…she’s just getting started!]

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[her face has really changed this year. – insert crying mom face – ]

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[van gogh…right?!]

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[showing off her card! i ripped the washi tape but she did everything else!]

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*****

 S C H O O L  T R E A T S

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[bath bombs]

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[ellie’s face…i love her!]

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[they are the sweetest]

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[stickers and tattoos]

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[inserting the lollipops into her cards]

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[ellie doing her best to insert the lollipop herself]

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[the finished product!]

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[she’s so proud!]

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[happy valentine’s day!]

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[class treats]

*****

V D A Y  M A I L B O X

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[creating her mailbox]

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[her finished project]

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xoxo

valentine’s day ’19

i was quite excited for valentine’s day! we had a fun filled day planned out and although it was the only day that was warm that week {50 degrees amongst the 20 degree other days}, we were pretty much spending the day indoors. our morning started with olive’s parent teacher conference {the teacher had such great things to say about olive!} and we cruised back home to cook a late breakfast and surprise the gals with valentine’s day gifts!

after a delicious heart shaped pancake, bacon, and hash brown meal, we just went about our day finishing up cleaning, the girls played with their new trinkets, and getting random errands done.

as the day wore on, thuy stopped by to spend the afternoon and evening with us, i started to set up the girl’s dessert table for some festive treats. we then decided it was time to start dinner, so while hc prepped the pizza dough, sauce, and cheese, olive cut out the heart shaped pepperonis! she also helped place all the pieces onto the pie before it went into the oven.

dinner was savory {the pizza was sooooooo good hc and olive!] and desserts were even sweeter! soon our day was coming to an end. it started out so great with wonderful feedback for olive at school, hc whipped up a decadent heart themed breakfast, we had fun shooting cute pics for the kiddie dessert table for two, and creating heart shaped pizzas for dinner! it was such a relaxing, slow, peaceful all day celebration. i couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend valentine’s day! it was perfection!

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[i gave these pink pails filled with goodies to the girls for valentine’s day]

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[they were loving their surprises]

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[she’s so sweet]

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[she loved her gift!]

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[she loved the magic marker]

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[yummy heart pancakes, and bacon and hash browns, for breakfast]

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[i had so much fun setting this up for the kids!]

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[sweet vanilla cupcakes for the girls]

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[my favorite]

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[pink milk]

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[that face of should i touch the frosting or not?!]

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[mmmm, got it!]

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[delicious raspberry bars…my favorite!]

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[she was throughly enjoying the frosting]

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* *** *** *** *

H E A R T  S H A P E D  P I Z Z A

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[olive cutting heart shaped pepperoni’s]

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[she’s like POW, heart shaped pepperoni…booyahhh! hahaha!]

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[now for the toppings! we made cheese, pepperoni, bacon, and mushrooms]

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[hc hard at work! always the consummate cook]

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[it’s done!]

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[ellie checking out my sister’s phone. you’ll love the next pic!]

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[a picture with the pizza and ellie showing us a picture of the pizza! LOL]

xoxo

classmate cards

i recycled the idea we had last year, for olive’s valentine’s day cards again for this year. i absolutely loved making her cards last year {she loved it too!} but i am fond of the idea of capturing her personality and growth each year with the same type of card. i think it’d be fun to make one each year until she outgrows it!

i gathered all the components that we wanted to assemble the valentine’s bags for her classmates. a maze sheet, slime, valentine’s day card, holiday stickers, festive bandages, and ring pops; we purchased it all at target {our favorite place!}. olive placed all the goodies inside each bag, sealed it with a sticker and adorned it with a crafty heart.

she specifically wanted to cover the clear heart on the bag with the paper heart so her classmates didn’t peek into the bag of goodies and spoil the surprise! i love her thinking! she graciously made 18 bags so patiently and loved it to the very end. although, near the end, we tag teamed the sealing of the bags to be faster!

this whole over the top valentine’s day gifting is sooooo me. i am super happy olive enjoys it too but i loved this kind of stuff as a child and didn’t have the means to really create such things and i love that i can do it now. i am hoping olive grows up to love it too! maybe she will, maybe she won’t but i know that she definitely doesn’t have to do it because i am crazy about it!

happy valentine’s day week!

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[treat bags]

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[she’s such a sweetheart]

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[all the goodies]

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[assembling her bags for her friends]

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[band aids…cause every kid loves bandages!]

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[olive loves puzzles and mazes]

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[creating her valentine’s day card]

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[yummy earth pops and olive]

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[she cracks me up!]

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[olive’s hard work looks so good!]

xoxo

valentine’s day cards ’19

olive and i made her annual friends and family valentine’s day cards the other week!

we started this when she was three? gosh, i can’t remember {i guess i should reference my blog to find out…hahaha!}. prior years, olive used to paint paper hearts and adorn them with stickers but this year, i decided to buy pre-made cards and have olive decorate them and sign her name {which she loves to do!}.

ellie joined in on the fun by coloring on her own as olive went to work fancying up her valentine’s day cards. olive is such a trooper. seriously. i am amazed by her discipline and tenacious ways. she listens, she works hard at her projects, and doesn’t complain. we had 18 cards to complete and she did each one with joy and ease. only near the end did she says, “kiki, my body is getting tired!” oh, she’s too cute! i told her she only had three more cards and she was done! she happily finished them and was so proud of her results! i love that she’s so honest, real, and dedicated to what she is doing. whether she does it for herself or for me, i am amazed that she does it with selflessness and love.

we wrapped up our project and the girls happily ran off to play. we added an extra valentine’s day sticker card inside {attached with festive washi tape of course!} and i finished her crafty cards with a bit of calligraphy, a pretty stamp, and more envelope flair.

we sent them out through snail mail and can’t wait for our friends and family to receive a little bit of extra love in their day!

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[she’s oh so sweet]

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[the supplies]

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[she’s so creative! i love the way she signs her name]

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[creating together]

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[i mean, seriously, how cute is this?!]

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[my doll baby]

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[hard at work]

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[decorating]

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[sister love]

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[peek a booooo!]

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[she always poses like this and it melts my heart]

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[oh kiki, i’m so bored. hahahaha!]

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[really olive?]

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[the final product!]

xoxo

from the heart

for the past few years, olive has made valentine’s day cards for her friends and family. we love this crafty moment; it’s a fun time for olive to learn about valentine’s day, create something pretty, and know that she’s sending out a little love in the mail.

i purchased the typical heart cards from papersource. i have bought them every year there for this purpose. i can’t tell you how much i love that store. when i lived in chicago, i used to go to the one in lincoln park, on armitage, allllllll the time. then they opened up the one on southport and i then had choices!!! i always feel like i could spend hours there looking at everything, wild with crafty ideas!

i pulled out my valentine’s day craft box and gathered all the crafty bits and pieces together to help olive create fun little valentines for her friends. she was loving it! she loves to paint and put stickers on everything! it’s one of her favorite things to do! she was waiting all week to do this!

she painted, then decorated, then signed some, and then got bored. hahaha! i must say, she completed a slew of cards…she does every year. i am always amazed by her tenacity and focus! like daughter like mama! i finished out her cards with a wish and assembled them all in light or hot pink envelopes. i addressed them {practicing my brush lettering}, literally stamped and stamped them, and we placed them in our mailbox to go! we love snail mail. it’s so old fashioned and fun.

happy valentine’s day my friends!

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[she’s ready to go!]

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[i love her little ankle cross]

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[painting her heart cards]

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[i love that smile]

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[kisses!]

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[oh that smile!]

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[her painted masterpieces]

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[putting her final touches on the cards]

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[full focus]

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[ta da! the almost finished product!]

xoxo

makey valentine’s day cards

yayyyyyyy! it was our yearly ~ let’s makey valentine’s day cards for everyone!

i love doing this every year with olive and love that she has fun decorating all the cards. i can’t wait until ellie is old enough to do this with olive, it’ll be cuteness overload when that happens!

i rummaged out all the fun decor i had stored away and created a fun little space of heart explosions, lots of red, and crafty stuff galore. olive was so excited to dig into all the valentine’s day goodness. she started out with painting the heart cards but became restless and went crazy with the stickers. she totally loved putting all the festive stickers all over the cards and loved the little, what she called alien, poms! those were her most favorite items, although they were just for fun and wouldn’t mail very well in a flat envelope! ha!

ellie joined in on the fun for a bit but soon olive finished up all her valentine’s day cards in style. this mama then addressed and mailed them out to all her sweet little friends! we hope all her buddies enjoyed their sweet little surprise in the mail! olive wants to know if you will be her valentine?! muwah!

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[long story: i bought one heart envelope on sale {super cheap, yearssss ago} and ordered it to get embroidered with olive’s name. it arrived not embroidered! i was super upset but apparently i must have ‘deleted’ the personalization part of my order and that was why it arrived blank. i called the company and figured out what had happened and i wanted to order another one because i wanted olive’s name on it! the customer service person was soooooo nice and helpful and told me to not bother to send the other envelope back because it was so inexpensive and it wouldn’t be cost efficient to send it back. well, thought, what will i do with an extra envelope? i almost gave it away but ended up keeping and found it in my valentine’s day box of decor this year! how perfect?! i then got the second envelope personalized with ellie’s name! it was meant to be!]

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[copious options]

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[she loved her ‘aliens’]

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[painting away]

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[she did such a great job!]

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[i love her]

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[she’s so fun]

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[gahhhhhhh, i love these girls!]

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[i couldn’t help but post every pic of her making the cards…she was so into it!]

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[her favorite items from the day!!]

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xoxo

watercolor valentine’s day cards

last year, miss olive helped mama make some valentine’s day cards to send out. this year, olive did it all on her own! i was so proud and excited!

i was out shopping with my sisters one night and we stopped by a paper store to peruse around. it was perfect because it was on my list to grab some extra supplies for olive’s valentine’s day cards. i had a lot of ‘stuff’ at home so i didn’t need much because i am a craft hoarder. haha!

one morning, i set up her table and asked her if she wanted to draw {duh, i obvs knew what her answer was going to be!}, she was so excited to ‘draw’. who knew this kid would be so entertained and paint for hours?! she was loving it. she painted heart after heart after heart. i didn’t think she would plow through so many cards! i had purchased a set of 20 and had a leftover pack at home, not thinking she would paint every single one of the paper hearts! she was having a blast.

i taught her how to wash off her paintbrush after each color and all of a sudden she became a pro! i didn’t have a paint smock for her but she is such a neat little girl, she didn’t get a drop of paint on her cute little outfit nor did she paint outside the heart’s lines!

after painting all her cards, i then helped her place her stickers on each one. i pulled off the sticker and she happily stuck it on each heart. it was too cute…she would place each sticker on there so wonky! crooked, sideways, or upside down if i didn’t help navigate her a bit!

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[the preparation]

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[a favorite valentine’s day decor…i actually bought this a few months after olive was born and didn’t have a place or a real purpose for it until this year!]

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[she is usually so careful but i realized i need a smock for her! although she did not get one drop of paint on herself at all]

via tandeminlove.com[we pulled out our valentine’s day books…our favorite, olive my love]

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[my baby doll]

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[she’s too cute…cleaning off her brush to pick a new color to paint with]

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[her final touch: placing stickers on her valentine’s day cards]

after we finished all the cards, i assembled them all inside red envelopes, sprinkled some with confetti, and addressed them with a silver sharpie pen. in hindsight, i would have totally bought a finer point sharpie pen because the thicker marker took up way too much space on such a little envelope! eep! i sealed each one with decorative, festive print washi tape and a pretty little spring time flower postage stamp.

hc dropped the cards off in the mail and we were excited at the prospect of everyone smiling when they opened up their little valentine’s day card from baby olive.

xoxo

snow globes

a few years ago, i created these little snow globes for our place and as gifts. i just love them! they are so easy to make and so cute to have around during the holidays. this year, from our move {chicago to the burbs}, a few of my snow globes were jarred from the bumpy move and needed some tlc. so i decided, why not share on how they are made? it’s so simple and fun!

what you will need:

ball jars {wide mouth or regular…whatever preference or size and height} i like a bit of a variety in sizes.

snow. you can buy it at any craft store. i bought frosty snow and iridescent snow to give it some bling.

i added in confetti gold stars to add some shine.

little pine trees. a package at the craft store comes in a variety of sizes.

a glue gun.

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[i also used iridescent snow…it was camera shy]

first, undo the ball jar so you have the round, flat lid bottom side up. i put a generous amount of glue onto the bottom of the tree and firmly place it onto the lid. hold onto it for a few seconds to let it set.

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i then take the snow {both types} and confetti, and mix it into the ball jar. you only need a little bit. maybe a inch or half an inch {depending on the size of your tree}. a little goes a long way.

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some people add water to the jar, but i prefer not too. i then place the lid {with the tree} back onto the cap and screw it back onto the ball jar. flip it over and ta da! you have yourself a snow globe! easy peasy!

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i love making these. i hope you have some fun making them too! like i said, they make great gifts or add just the right amount of festive, holiday decor fun to your house.

xoxo