happy valentine's day

A hundred hearts would be too few
To carry all my love for you

Happy Valentine's Day

handmade valentine ideas for classmates

For our classmate Valentine exchange each year at Naiya's Waldorf school, we try to come up with a few ideas, try them out and then pick our favorite to mass produce.  I made all of these at night while Naiya was sleeping so we could decide in the days following which we'd like to choose to do together.  Sometimes our pick is based on love of the end result.  More often we make decisions because of time available or interest or skill of the participants.  (Naiya is often excited to make one or two of something but not so keen on fashioning 12 or 15.)
In year's past we've stuck mostly with two dimensional versions of the classic little Valentine card.  (You can see inspirations from previous seasons here, here and here.)  This year we're trying a few non-traditional trinket options as well.  Perhaps a little something for friends to hold onto even when the day has long passed.  A number of these are beyond the skills of my six year old.  Some she can help with only to varying degrees.  Maybe we'll save a few of these ideas for the future...

This cute little charm was made with copper wire and beads.  Pretty simple but perhaps not the most appealing for a few of the boys in class.  Kindergarten boys seemed to be a mixed bag when it comes to this kind of thing.   There are a few who would love it and some who would just be confused.  Naiya nixed this option for this reason but still thinks it's super cute.

The single piece of molded wire starts and ends at the bottom with a twist.  The bead there at the bottom covers that twist and is secured with a bit of glue.

Here's an alternate treatment of the classic painted ladybug.  The underside contains her simple Valentine note: "love, Naiya".

This is fiddly paint work not so suited to small children but a fun one if you're an adult preparing something on your own for your child to give away.

Also a great addition for seasonal play on the Valentine Nature Table.

We do wet-on-wet watercolor all the time.  This is a little variation made by placing stickers on the page prior to painting.  When the watercolor dries, we remove the sticker to reveal the pure heart.  We mounted it on burgundy card stock using a glue stick.

Another fun use for all those watercolor paintings is this little greeting which Naiya will be able to make almost entirely on her own.  She paints and does the sewing while I cut out the heart and pre-punch the holes (with a large needle) for her threading work.

(I think this is the one we've actually chosen to make by the dozen for the classmates this time around.)

Our last idea is this festive felted bracelet.  It's got a bit of elastic in back so the kiddos can get them over their hands. 

Decorative options are endless.

felt finger puppet valentine

   With Valentine's Day coming up, Naiya and I have been trying out a few ideas for little classmate gifts to share.  Since we're planning ahead this year, we decided to tackle some things that might be a bit more challenging.  This took rather a lot of time and my dear six year old wasn't able to help much so, I'm guessing, in the end, this won't be what we'll create twelve of to pass out on that special day.  We did like it a lot though and Naiya said I should "totally put that on the blog."  But of course.
   I did this all in the midst of playing and so all the sewing was done by hand.  To reduce project time (and if we did decide to make more) I would instead use a machine for most of the stitching next time around.

I based this pattern on a tri-fold concept.  The face/body will reside in the center piece, the ears slightly behind and the tail will line up with the center of the back when its folded and sewn together.

I traced the pattern and cut it out from wool felt.

Onto the center third (which will ultimately be the front of the raccoon) and around both sides of the tail, I sewed various felt pieces.  The raccoon required these extra color flairs but if one is making a cat, mouse or some simpler-faced critter, this step would be skipped.

Onto the back side of the felt (which will face forward once folded), I sewed some ear highlights.

I then embroidered on nose, mouth, eyes and some little paws to hold the heart.  (I think my eyes are a little wonky and somewhat hostile looking.  Embroidery is obviously not my forte.)

I folded it into thirds and sewed it up with the tail sticking out in back.

I figure there are lots of animals that can be made in basically this same fashion:  bear, mouse, bunny, cat... whatever suits your fancy.

With a little effort, my second go will likely look much sweeter and more polished than this one but, chances are, I won't get any pictures next time around.



Turns out Naiya isn't letting go of this one.

She said she would like a piggy next.

recycled quilt pillow

Before we leave the Valentine season behind, I wanted to share one final heart craft idea.  This one is not my own but was a gift to Naiya that her Oma found whilst local artisan shopping last year. 

Though the front of the pillow is cut from a vintage quilt (that likely was not entirely intact), the back is of a new, soft, plush material.  I occasionally find beautiful but somewhat edge worn, hand made quilts in thrift shops and have the instinct to rescue them from their lack of appreciation.  What would I do with another old (albeit exquisitely crafted), frayed blanket I wonder?  Well, now I know.  This one has been well loved.

happy valentines day

"Valentine's Day follows the heart-warming mid-winter festivals of light, and it is said that on this day the birds choose their mates.  I've always liked the contrast of the beautiful frozen filigree of snowflakes juxtaposed against the warm, round red image of a heart at this time of year..."

                                                                               (from a recent note written by our dear Waldorf kindergarten teacher)

Happy Valentine's Day to All!

hand made paper valentines

In the end, we ended up not adding anything to our hand made paper.  We thought of gluing on additional paper shapes, adding flowers, stickers or ribbons or even a poem but most of the children in Naiya's kindergarten don't read and we liked the simplicity of the heart inlaid in the paper without any bling.

Tonight before bed I told the story of the Valentine Sparrow to prepare for the joy of the class exchange in the morning.
Additionally, for the past few days I've been telling the story of The Valentine Baker of Pink and his magical heart shaped cakes.  This sweet tale is from Juniper Tree Puppetry and Suzanne Down's most recent monthly newsletter (which I enthusiastically encourage all those interested in seasonal story-telling to join).  We loved this story as read and also worked it out as a little puppet show.  Mostly I was using it as preparation to transition out of "gifting" our daughter for every little holiday.  (I do so love to make things but even our hand-mades are getting to be too numerous.)  Instead of making her yet another special holiday craft then, tomorrows "gift" will just be a nice spice cake in the shape of a heart that our whole family can enjoy as a Valentine treat together.

making paper for valentines cards

   Naiya and I have been trying a few ideas out for this year's Valentines. 

   We really liked this concept, but after cutting out all the little hearts for just the two we completed, we didn't think we were up to making twenty more of these.  We do know that we'll be working in the paper medium this year though, and although we still haven't formulated the entire design, we decided to make the paper ourselves!

   Paper making is an old art and, once you have the equipment for it, is pretty easy to do.
   I've had this pour mold/deckle for years and have no idea where it originally came from but after searching online found something very similar here.  One can also make the equipment from fiberglass screens and old picture frames or even from cardboard and duct tape as seen here.

   Once your equipment is set up, making an actual sheet of paper takes only a few minutes and the possible variations are endless.

   This is a great craft for kids.  What child wouldn't want to make from scratch their own paper, note cards, gift tags, ornaments and Valentines?  Naiya loved adding glitter and confetti, flowers, leaves and even wool to create a plethora of one-of-a-kind pages.

To begin you'll need:
some kind of mold/deckle set-up
a bit of window screen
a shallow tub
a tray or cookie sheet with high edges
a sponge
a blender or food processor
absorbent blotter paper, felt or other rags
a pulp source (recycled paper, paper towels or tissue you've already got or even lint from your dryer will work)
water and a place to work that can get wet

I've seen people make paper from equipment somewhat different than mine.  There is usually a wooden mold with a screen attached and a separate deckle (an empty wooden frame) that sits on top of the mold that serves as the boundary to keep the pulp in place and define the page size.  In place of the mold, my kit just has this plastic platform/drain rack and a very fine rigid but flexible plastic screen is strapped between it and the deckle before it is turned over and lowered into the tub to receive the pulp.

The tub is filled with warm water enough that the screen sits below it by at least 3/4 of an inch.

The easiest way to make pulp is in a blender or food processor using paper, paper towels, newsprint, tissue, shopping bags or even lint from the dryer.  One sheet of paper makes one sheet of paper of similar size and thickness so find the appropriate mass and tear the recylables into small bits.  Blend the material with 1 -2 cups of water for about 30 seconds to make the pulp.

Pour the pulp into the mold and spread it evenly around in the water using gentle fingertips.

Since we're working on Valentines, we set a cookie cutter on top of our screen and carefully poured a contrasting pulp within its boundaries.  (Naiya also added a huge handful of chunky glitter to this batch of pulp.)

Holding the mold/deckle very level, lift it out of the water and set it in a cookie sheet to drain.  (Technically, the cookie sheet isn't necessary.  It's used to keep countertops and floors dry but I suppose one could do this project out of doors and forgo this piece of equipment.)

Carefully lift the deckle from the screen.  This may require pushing edges back in place or using a flat edge to help separate the two pieces from each other.

Remove any additional interior molds (the cookie cutter in our case).

Gently place the piece of screen over the pulpy sheet.  With a sponge press firmly down on top of the screen, wringing out the water as necessary, until no more can be extracted.

Lift and slowly remove the screen.

Place blotter paper (thick absorbent paper, fabric or felt) on top of the pulpy paper and press it with a wood block or rolling pin to extract more water and flatten the page.  Flip so the blotter is on the bottom and remove the screen.  Place another dry couch sheet (that's the technical paper-making term and is pronounced kootch) on the pulp and blot it again.  Repeat this with as many couch sheets as are necessary until no water comes through the blotter.

Gently peel away the couch sheets and bask in the beauty of hand made paper.

The sheets will take anywhere from a day to three to dry.  For instant use try a blow dryer or place the sheet between two thin pieces of fabric and iron on a flat surface until dry.



 

And now on to card making...

children's valentines greeting ideas

It's about that time when we begin to play with ideas for our Valentine's Day cards.  Naiya and I like to come up with some creative way to use a new skill or apply an old crafting method for simple greetings for all of our friends.  Luckily we get a lot of inspiration from the many beautiful hand made notes we've received over the years, so while we ponder our upcoming afternoon of hearts and flowers, glue, ribbons, felt, crayons and glitter, we thought we'd share some of the lovely felicitations we've been given in the past.

These are made of fabric and felt by both adults and children.  As with most that follow, the methods of fabrication seem pretty obvious, so I'll not insult anyone with unnecessary instructions.  If you're not overly familiar with felting though, I can point out that the one on the right was wet felted inside of a cookie cutter to help keep its form.  (I believe the children helped make these a few years ago in Naiya's Parent-Child class.)

This larger one was also done with a cookie cutter and utilizes two colored beeswax sheets.  (The flip-side is purple.)  We hang a lot of these on our Seasonal Tree in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.

Naiya made the little one on beeswax day in school last week.

I loved the idea of using a hand print for this paper note.  And, of course, you can't go wrong with glitter and paint.

Our friends Ilana and Rowan gave us the card on the left either last year or the year before and I love the little poem:

Upon this day at winter's end

We send a note to all our friends

Reminding them our love is true

And so we send this one to you!

Last year we both made and received greetings that used wax paper and melted crayons to create a beautiful kind of "stained glass".

To do this, simply arrange crayon shavings between two sheets of wax paper, lay them between fabric or towels then iron.  Cut to any shape and frame between sheets of craft or watercolor paper.  (click for step-by-step)

Paper seems the easiest medium for children and there are so many cute and simple ideas that make adorable cards.

And kids love to glue and paste.  I remember doing something like the one on the right when I was young.  We used the eraser end of a pencil to attach the bits of glue dabbed tissue onto the paper.

And then, of course, we need something in which to gather and carry all those love wishes!

This was made by our amazing parent-child/pre-school teacher using watercolor paintings the children had done themselves. 

Another year, she also gifted each child with a warm and beautiful felt bag.  (This design would work for a simple paper valentine too.)

So many lovely ideas.  We hope they offer up some inspiration for you as well!

"stained glass" wax valentines

This year for our Waldorf pre-school class Valentine exchange, Naiya and I put together these "stained glass" wax cards.

They were a little involved and used up a couple of days of craft time but we were quite pleased with the final product.  Also, my four year old was able to help with several steps along the way and that always makes creating so much more fun.

To begin Naiya did a little wet on wet water color painting with red and just a touch of yellow and we ended up with several sheets of softly patterned pinkish paper.

I traced a heart within a heart onto these sheets several dozen times and (this was a bit labor intensive) cut out enough of these "frames" to have two for each Valentine.

We then went on to the wax stained glass insert.

Naiya helped me sharpen red, pink and purple crayons with her crayon sharpener and we sprinkled the shavings onto the sheet of wax paper that was sitting on top of a towel (and surface safe for ironing).
(A few shavings go a long way.  If the distribution is too dense, all the colors just melt together and make a dark glob.)

On top of this we laid another sheet of wax paper and another thin towel. 

(It's possible that some of the colored wax will weep through the wax paper onto the towels so choose towels with this in mind.)

We ironed with a fairly hot iron (pressing down, lifting and pressing again, not sliding the iron) until the wax shavings had melted and the paper sheets had stuck together.

I then traced hearts slightly smaller than the outside edge of our paper frames and cut them out. 

The wax paper heart was then glued between the two paper hearts and since Naiya just got this cute butterfly paper punch, we glued on a few butterfly cut-outs and signed her name to finish.

They look especially nice against a lighted window I think.

valentine candle and colored rice

We're a candle lighting people.  We light candles at meals when we express our gratitude for the sun, earth, food, farmers and cooks.  We light candles when we tell stories.  We light candles at bed-time to transition our daughter into the envelope of nighttime darkness.  We go through lots of candles this way and we try to come up with inventive candle holding devices.
For Valentine's Day we did some simple decorating of a glass votive that we already use.  Since the tissue paper hearts are stuck on with regular white glue, we'll be able to wash them off after this holiday and re-use the glass holder when Spring and Easter decor is next in order.  The problem with this votive (and also some of the mason jars we often use) is that the bottom is slightly convex and the candle tends to slide off to one side.  I came up with the idea of putting rice in the bottom to level it.  I wanted it to be a bit more festive though so I decided to add some color.

It was so easy and Naiya loves the pink!  (I mixed some white back in for a confetti look.)  Of course, one could color the rice into any shade of the rainbow (that food coloring would allow) and it seems like there could be some fascinating alternative uses for multi-colored rice as well. 

Colored Rice Recipe:
1 cup uncooked white rice
10-20 drops food coloring (depending on intensity of color desired)
1 Tblsp. vinegar
Mix food coloring and vinegar in a plastic bag.  (The vinegar sets the color.)  Add rice.  Seal bag and mix from the outside until rice is evenly coated.  Spread rice onto a cookie sheet and bake at 200 for about an hour.  Once cooled, the color will be set and won't come off onto little hands.

Naiya is also coming up with a number of uses for the pink rice in her play kitchen.  In turn, mommy is coming up with inventive ways to get rice out from all the nooks and crannies into which it rolls.