14 Days of Valentine's - Day 14

It's Valentine's Day and I hope you have a wonderful lovely day.

If your looking for a last minute gift, flowers and candy are always good. Who doesn't love a beautiful  vase of flowers that can be placed on the table to admire for a couple of days. Candy is so yummy.

Don't forget a card. It's always nice to hear words of encouragement and how much you're loved. It might be the only time of the year you express your feelings. Don't miss this opportunity.

Get out the crayons, markers, stickers and glue and get busy making a card. It's the little things that count in the end.

If you have children send them flowers at school or balloons. It would make the day special for them too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Need one for your sweetie. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 13

Here's the last of my heart crafts that you can cut out and make a new friend. I love butterflies and I really like how easy they are to make. You can make them all different colors and add designs. They are just so beautiful.

Be sure to check out the other days on this site. There are other heart crafts available.

Enjoy!

Right click and save. Open and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 12

It's just a few days more. I hope your are enjoying all the goodies. Make sure to take a look back at the other days to see what all I have available. I'm sure you find something that you like.

Today I'm going to share another one of my favorites. I told you a couple of days ago my son loves space so I had to make a special one just for him. I love the letters on the moon. It looks like moon writing.

Right click and save. Open and print. 

If you have any problems downloaded my images please let me know and I can email them to you as well. I'm still getting the hang of sharing print outs. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 11

I enjoy February so much. There are so many wonderful things you can do for Valentine's Day. March brings spring and rain. I'm so ready for some sunshine. March also brings St. Patrick's Day.

If you like clovers you will enjoy this heart craft. This one you can keep up all through March too.

If you want to make more just use green construction paper and cut out three hearts and glue them together.

Right click to save and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 10

It's only 4 days until Valentine's Day. Do you have something special planned yet?

When you think Valentine's Day you think hearts. There are so many neat things you can make with hearts. I came up with one for my "Little Love Bug".

Have your child cut and make a bug for themselves. Add a magnet on the back and hang on the fridge or poke a hole in the top and hang it from the ceiling.

Right click on image and save. Open and print.

Note:  If the buttons and tiny circles are to hard to cut out just use whatever you like to draw them on. Remember this is my first time to share things like this. I'm still learning. :)

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 9

Make a CD for your loved one. I did this one year for our anniversary. I have Itunes so this was super easy but I just went through the songs and got our favorites. I picked out songs we loved to sing together. It was fun.

You can also make one for the kids.

If you don't want to make a cd you could just add a playlist to Itunes and program it to the ipod. 

Don't forget a label. I know there are ways to make it on a computer or I have also seen cd engravers you can get for your computer. They will burn an imagine on it. I don't know much about that though. I just used Sharpie markers and wrote I love you and the date I made it. (DO NOT USE REGULAR MARKERS OR BALL POINT PENS ON YOUR CD IT WILL MESS IT UP)

One other thing you could do is instead of music record yourself giving a special message or do a little of both. Most of all have fun.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 8

Here's another fun valentine's day card for kids. A couple of years ago I made moustaches and lips for lollipops. The kids really enjoyed playing with them. I decided this year to do it a little different. I made cards that they can cut out and play.

If you want to slip them onto a lollipop all you have to do is punch a hole in the center and slip it on the stick.

Right click on image and save. Open up and print. They might need to be resized a little.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 7

Get some draw erase markets and leave love notes on the mirror everyday. It's really easy to do and they wipe right off with your finger or a paper towel.

We have been doing this a while at my house and the kids like to play along too. 

It's a fun way to share. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 6

I have a child who is completely in love with space stuff. He enjoys reading books about the moon and space ships. I have learned so much reading with him. I can name all the planets and tell you a little about them and I know so much more.

I wanted to make him a special card for his friends at school, something that showed his interest. I looked on Pinterest and came across all the ones with glow sticks so I decided I needed to come up with one that include glow sticks. What kid doesn't like glow sticks.

I took a exacto knife and cut a couple of slits and pushed the glow stick through.

Here is what mine turned out like. I hope you enjoy it and let me know if you use it and what your kids thought. I would love to hear any stories.

Right click on image and save. Open and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 5

Take construction paper in red, white and pink (or one of the colors I mention) take scissors and cut them into hearts. Write little love notes on them. Like the kind on candy hearts or make up your own.

Then take them and put them all around the house. Like in the sock drawer, pocket of a shirt in the closet that you know they will wear, wallet, inside the fridge on an item they will pick up, coffee pot or mug, on the mirror, on the tv or computer. Where ever you think they will find them.

Make sure you make a lot of them. Have the kids go on a heart hunt. Give a small prize at the end of the hunt. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 4

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite valentine's I made this year. I can't wait to share it with you.  I made a couple of different ones so you want to be sure to come back and check and see what I got going on.

This valentine is one that the kids can cut out and put together to make a new friend. My son loves fish so I started with this one.

You can use these for school or just for your children.

Have fun and let me know what you thought.

To use this right click on the image and save it to your computer and open up and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 3

Here's a couple of cute little Valentine's for a boy or girl. Add a little treat with each and give as a gift. 

Right click on the image to save and open to print. 

February the Month of Love

I love this time of the year. I get to use my creativity to make something sweet for my loved ones. I love coming up with new ways to surprise them.

This year I am making my son a mailbox and putting love notes and a small gift in it everyday until Valentine's Day. I haven't decided what else I will do. My husband will also get notes too. I leave them around in different places for him to find them. It's fun to see his reaction.

Here's some ideas to get you started. Get 14 cards, note cards, postcards, index cards. Whatever you can write a love note one. You can get cheap cards just about anywhere. Hallmark, Wal-Mart, Target the Dollar Store. You can also be creative and make your own cards with stickers, markers, construction paper, glitter and whatever else you have on hand.

Send one card the them everyday of the week or put it on the dresser, lunch pail, backpack, wherever you want you loved one to find it. Sending a card in the mail is great because not a lot of people get mail anymore and this would be neat for kids to receive one each day. Now I realize that on Sunday you can't send one so hid it somewhere in the house that they can find it. You can also do this during the week as well.  You can also send them to their place of work.

Inside the card you can say whatever you want. Be creative and have fun.

If you wanted you could put clues in them for where you will take him or her out for Valentines or pieces of a puzzle they will have to put together. Special stickers, candy, small toys, pencils, pens and anything small.

Start getting your stuff together now. Have fun with it and don't forget you got to do it everyday.

I made love notes this year using Picmonkey. I haven't figured out how to share documents yet so I hope that you can print these out and use them. If you right click them and save them to your computer you can put them in a word document and print. If you not you can always make them on Picmonkey and print them out yourself.

I had so much fun making them and I hope everyone enjoys them.

I also have some other ideas for Valentine's Day that I will share with you in the coming days.

What do you do for your loved ones? Do you countdown or just wait until the day?

Here's the one I made my husband for today.

These are the one's I made for my son. He loves jokes so I will hand write them in the bubbles. You can write whatever you like in them.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Looking for some last minute ideas for Valentine's.

The hearts above are to hide around the house for the family to find them when they get home from school and work. 

For another quick craft idea. Visit my blog on MetroFamily Magazine. 

For a wonderful romantic dinner prepare a roasted chicken. They are super easy to make and taste so good. Serve with a side and you have yourself a dinner for Valentine’s Day.

Ingredients:

Whole Chicken

One package of Dry Italian or Ranch Dressing

Olive Oil

Take whole chicken out of the package. Rinse and remove insides. Put chicken in a 13X9 pan.

Rub with olive oil on both sides and dressing of your choice.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until chicken is cooked throughout.

Serve with your favorite sides. 

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day. 

 

Valentine’s Books and Giveaways

Everything Romance – A Celebration of Love for Couples

Romance is not to far away with this helpful book filled with creative date and gift ideas, conversation starters and recipes.

This book has so many great things. Some of my favorites are the Love Boosters and the Love Letters from famous people. Including Mark Twain, Jack London and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Plus I love quotes too. Here are a couple.

Love doesn’t make the world go round, Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I can live without money, but I cannot live without love. Judy Garland

The first duty of love is to listen. Paul Tillich

God Gave Us Love

By Lisa Tawn Bergren

A cute little board book for the small little ones. Shares the story of a family of bears learning about God love. Little Cub learns about God loves from his Grampa explaining what love is about and how we can show love, receive love and the faithfulness of God’s love.

Hugs & Kisses, God – from Kids Around the World

By Allia Zobel Nolan

Children all over the world will learn how to find thankfulness in everyday activities and things they see. The most important thing they will take away from this book is to take a little time each day thanking God for the simple gifts he gives us like pancakes, fireflies, bubbles and family.

Each page is filled with brightly colored illustrations. Plus kids will like it even more with the lift-the-flap pages.

Giveaway Instructions

This contest is over.

To win a book leave a comment below with the title of the book you would like to win.

For extra entries. (leave a comment to let me know you signed up)

"Like" Creative Parenting on Facebook.

Become a follower of this blog. Look over to the right of this page.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. The giveaway ends Tuesday, February 14 at 9am (CST). Winner will be randomly selected. I will notify winners by email.

Only one entry per person. Creative Parenting is not responsible for lost or misplaced prizes.

Valentine's Clothespin Magnet

Supplies:

Pretty printed paper

Colored paper

1 clothespin

Magnet strip

Scissors

Glue

Embellishments – stickers, glitter, markers, brads, buttons, etc…..

Directions:

1. Take the clothespin and trace around it on the printed paper. 

2. Cut it out and glue it to the clothespin to cover one side of it.

3. Make a paper heart and cut it out. Any size you like any color you like.

4. Next take the paper heart and add a special message or embellish it with stickers, glitter or markers.

5. Glue heart to clothespin.

6. Turn clothespin over and add magnet.

Add it to a clear bag with ribbon for a final touch or anything you plan on giving as a present. You can also leave the magnet off if you are just using it to close up a bag like shown here. 

Crafts: Getting Ready for Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day Cards 

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it. Do you need an idea? Here is one that will be fun to do and pretty inexpensive.

I did this a couple of years ago for my husband and had so much fun with it, that I thought I would share it here.  This year I'll do it for my kids too.


Get 14 cards, note cards, postcards or index cards. Whatever you can write a love note on. You can get cheap cards just about anywhere. You can also make your own cards with stickers, markers, construction paper, glitter and whatever else you have on hand.

Send one card everyday of the week or put it in the dresser, lunch pail, backpack, car, wherever you want your loved one to find it. Sending a card in the mail is great because not a lot of people get mail anymore and this would be neat for kids too. On Sunday you can't send one so hide it somewhere in the house that they can find it. Don't forget about sending them to work.

Inside the card you can say whatever you want. Be creative and have fun. Put clues on them for where you will take him or her out for Valentine's or pieces of a puzzle they will have to put together. Adding stickers, candy, small toys, pencils, pens and anything small would also be fun for anyone.


Tomorrow will be the first so start making them today.


Have fun and Happy Valentine's Day.