{valentines on a stick}

When I was a little girl my sister & my neighborhood friends formed the "heartbreaker" club. Now wait a second it's not what you think because back in the day our minds were focused more on candy rather than boys. At that time we also felt safe to roam the neighborhood which would often lead us to ride our bikes down to Smitty's. Once inside we headed straight to the candy by the pound section and with all of the change in hand would proceed to ask the clerk, "how many heartbreakers will this buy me". We then raced home, divided the candy and each took turns hiding the hearts from each other like it was Easter. Then we each had a chance to go and find our favorite candy. It was one of the best childhood games. I am sure we still got bored at times but there is something to be said about living in a time and place where kids owned their neighborhood.

**********

Lately I scramble to find activities for my girls to do because I would never let them roam the neighborhood like I did. Well it has so worked out that we have been able to take away the boredom by carving out time to create handmade valentines. It has been such a great last few days as we have enjoyed using paints, stickers and stamps. Besides myself being the only one to operate the glue gun and coming to the table with the idea, the girls have done everything all by themselves.

As for the idea itself I was inspired by the old school paper party favors that would shoot in and out like a yo-yo. I finally settled on using a roll of paper used for receipts or calculators to execute the project. I am pretty sure the girls classmates will not love these as much as I do because a) I am their Mother and b) they will have never seen the look on the girls faces when they crafted these creations (which goes back to me being there Mother). You can see that there was much "6 year old" life that went into making these and I love that. In fact I think I will have to save a few of them so that I can occasionally pull them out and remember the good old days. I love this stage of life...I really do.

materials needed:

PAPER YO-YOS ON A STICK

roll of receipt paper

watercolor paint/paintbrushes

wooden craft dowels

ink pad/stamps

hot glue gun (to glue one end of the paper to the dowel before wrapping it around stick)

twine

(opt.) special scissors to make the edge of the paper all fancy

SWEET VALENTINE SPARKLERS

garland (paper or tinsel)

bamboo forks

color circle stickers

tags

ink pad/stamps

AND OF COURSE LOTS OF HEARTBREAKERS!!!!

Now it is time to do some clean-up around my house.

I may be back and I may not be back..that is the beauty of blogging out of love..either which way have a very nice weekend!