Valentine Paper Bag Books

We're seriously obsessed with Valentine crafts this year! Today we made super easy paper bag books and filled them with little love notes :)

If you have never made a paper bag book you've got to try it and they can be used for scrapbooking, homeschool projects, personalized for special gifts like our Valentine's book and so much more. Basically all you need is standard paper bag lunch bags and a stapler. After that it's up to you as to how fancy or simple you want to make them.



We took 3 paper bags, stacked them all on top of each other with the open ends all at the same end and then folded them in half like one giant paper from top to bottom creating a little booklet. To secure them together I used my stapler and put 3 staples parallel to the fold down the length of the book.



I really cheated for the front of the book *grin*. The pretty red heart paper that it is covered with is actually a napkin! We picked them up at the dollar store for our upcoming Valentine's party and I opened one fully and cut off a square, gluing it on for the background. Worked out fabulously layered with the little red & white heart for the title of the book!!!

Gotta love cheap crafting *wink*.

Making heart templates using one of our cookie cutters we traced 5 hearts in white cardstock and 5 hearts in the red cardstock. I made sure to cut the red heart out about a 1/4 of an inch larger than the tracing line so that it would create a nice color contrast behind the white heart.

We glued in each of the layered hearts only on the left hand side of each set of open pages so that it created fun little spaces to draw happy pictures :)

A paper bag book made with 3 bags will create 3 little pockets on the edge of your book for hiding little notes or trinkets inside. Since ours is a Valentine booklet we decided to use the little pockets for love notes *grin*. Taking a sheet of white cardstock I cut it up into 3.5" x 4" rectangles and then we stapled on bright colored ribbons to the narrow end of the rectangle creating a little pull tab for our notes.

I just love how cute it turned out with the staggered ribbons hanging out the side of the book. And if I think it's cute then you know my 6 year old is over the moon with how it's coming together! LOL

The final touches were for her to actually write her little love notes to be tucked inside :) I helped her by writing down the sentences she wanted to write and then she copied them herself onto the card stock.

You'll have to wait to see her finished drawings on the little heart frames inside as they are 'top secret' and mama is not allowed to see them until Valentine's Day *grin*. Have fun making a little booklet of your own!

~ Rosina

Heart'felt' Hearts for Valentines Day

When I think of Valentine's Day I think of plump little cherubs with bows and arrows, lots of heart shaped candies, and little 'Be Mine' valentine cards that you leave for loved ones in places they are sure to find them. Nothing says I love you more than a handmade gift, especially when it is made by a child. These little felt hearts are sure to bring a big smile to mom, grandma, aunty, or whomever you pick to share one with this Valentine's Day.

I actually wrote this article in the fall of 2008 for a Canadian homeschool magazine, but the article never made it to print as the magazine folded before it was Valentine's Day. So I thought I'd dust it off and share it with all of you :)



Below are the basic supplies needed to make your felt hearts plus a great practice heart for preschoolers that aren't quite ready for a needle and thread yet. All of this can usually be found very inexpensively at your local dollar store.
Heart shaped template on cardboard
Felt in multiple colours
Embroidery thread
Craft foam sheets
Magnets (optional)
Hole punch
Scissors
Needles
Buttons
Ribbon
Stuffing

Start by making yourself a heart shaped template on cardboard. We used a large cookie cutter for our pattern, but you can easily draw your own if you don't have something to trace. The cardboard will make a nice stiff pattern for your child to trace around with a pen or marker onto your colored felt and then have them cut it out with a sharp pair of scissors. Plastic kindergarten scissors will not cut through felt very easily if at all, so you may want to pre-cut some hearts for your younger children if you don't feel comfortable with them using larger scissors. Once you have your two heart pieces cut out you can start to decorate the one which will be the front of your completed heart with some simple embroidery stitches.

My son really wanted to make a heart with a little phrase on it. So we used a smaller heart inset into a larger heart as shown above and instead of having him stitch the complete words we used the letter 'I' along with the heart and the letter 'U' to symbolize I Love You.

Many of us have younger children that really want to sew just like big brother or big sister but need something really simple, so how about buttons? They are great for beginning sewers since all it requires is to go in and out of the holes, plus you can put a few stitches in first to secure it and they can loop around to their hearts desire. We created a cute little button flower by sewing three buttons on top of each other, adding on two green leaves which my five year old stitched some lovely veins onto and there you have a super easy flower to embellish your heart with. But let's not forget about the preschoolers! Who says you need to have a needle and thread to sew? You can make a quick and easy heart shaped lacing card out of a sheet of craft foam by punching holes around the edges of the heart with a hole punch and using a piece of ribbon or a shoe lace as the thread to weave in and out of it. Now you've created sewing fun for the entire family.

After you have finished decorating the front of your heart it is time to stuff it. Place the front and back pieces of your heart together with the right sides facing outwards and stitch around the outer edge with a simple whip stitch. Make sure you leave an opening somewhere around the edge so that you can get your stuffing inside. You can make it as plump as you like, and when you feel it has enough continue stitching up the outer edge until your heart is completely closed. Now that your heart is all sewn up you can attach a little ribbon hanger to the top of it or glue a magnet to the back with a little bit of hot glue so that it can be used as a fridge magnet.

The only thing left to do now is decide on who to give your heart to :)
Check out another one of our Valentine entries from last year to see what we did with all of our little felt hearts by making a Valentine Tree!

~ Rosina

Marie Claire Idées

I have been thoroughly enjoying my new December 2009 copy of the Marie Claire Idées Magazine :) Good thing I can pick out familiar words and fumble my way through the text since it's all in French and I am not exactly anywhere near fluent in French! No need to read it though, the photos more than make up for the lack of understanding.

I purchased it from a lady in France and when I picked it up on Friday the envelope had this amazing collection of dolls on a special postage stamp set affixed to it. LOVE it!!

The stamp set is just as much fun as the magazine with it's thread work around the edges and embroidered flower heart between the dolls. Beautiful :) I must keep it for sure *grin*.

Oh my! The most amazing places to visit while in France. The architecture and history of it is amazing. I am definitely going to have to include some of these stops in our itinerary for our trip to France!! My mom and I are planning a trip to Paris and I can't wait. Anyone know of some 'must see' shops that we shouldn't miss? I'd love to know :)

I just love this pretty pink crocheted tea cozy. It's adorable! Tucked within the pages of this issue is 'sugar fairy' heaven :)

I could take a hundred different photos to share with you but I might run out of space *grin*. Many different dinner settings and some amazing recipes to try are still waiting for me to drool over. Not to worry though. When I run out of pages to admire I only have to wait a little while longer for the January issue that is en route straight from France to captivate my imagination some more!

~ Rosina

Another Print Magazine Bites The Dust

One by one it seems like all of my favorite magazines are slowly ceasing to exist :( First it was my favorite, Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion along with Domino, Country Home and a few others.



And now I found out that Craft's issue 10 is to be its last paper edition. I know it will still be available in an online version but it won't be the same. I really love to curl up with my favorite magazines in a comfy spot and spend hours perusing through them over and over or pulling them off the shelf at later times for inspiration :) I'm happy that it isn't disappearing completely like the others and I guess I'll just have to remember that it will be better for the environment that they are continuing in a paperless form *grin*.

~Rosina

Valentine's Day Tree

Every year the kids and I decorate a cute little tree with all sorts of bunnies and Easter eggs for Easter and this year I thought that it would be fun if we had a Valentine's Day Tree.



There are so many cute valentine crafts but for some reason we have never really put a lot of thought into it before. We always make handmade valentines to give to each other with sweet little sayings inside and waaay to much glitter, but a couple of months ago I actually got really ambitious and made a plan to do something special :)



I bought some regular semi-gloss white paint in a spray can, found a suitable branch to pluck off of our dormant snowball tree outside the back door, gave it a good dosing of paint and hung it by the wood fire to dry. I then filled an aluminum pail with rocks and planted our new valentine tree inside :)



Previously the kids and I had started making cute little handmade felt hearts in an assortment of styles, using embroidery floss, pearls, buttons and more to make each one of the a unique creation.



We thought it was a bit bare with just the felt hearts so we started to raid my craft cupboards finding cute little painted birds in red to boot, and some vintage reproduction valentine's cards that I had just picked up. They are the sweetest things with flocked velvet on them, reminding me so much of when I was a little girl.



We set the entire thing down on some red crepe paper adding more valentine cards, and a another felt heart with a crocheted trim inside the pail :)

I don't know whey we didn't do this years ago!

~Rosina