Crafty Crafty

Sunday afternoon Judith and I worked on two Valentine's Day crafts.  I'm waiting until now to write this post for obvious reasons :-).

Valentine Cards
These were, I think, inspired by something I found on Pinterest, but I can't find it now.  Each card uses a heart (in red) and two long strips of paper (in white), and two hands (in pink).  The hearts and the paper strips were easy, because I decided that I would do them without involving Judith.  Since the strips need to be accordion folded, I folded one large piece of paper, and then cut squares of the resulting "accordion".  I printed "A Valentine's Hug For You" and "I love you this much!" on the strips.  Then I needed to trace Judith's hands.  She was fine for the first four tracings, but after that we had to take a break...and so on until I got all the hands I needed :-).  I traced first in pencil, and then outlined in black sharpie.  Judith got to decorate with crayon and stickers, and then I taped the hands to the "arms" and the "arms" to the heart.  Voila!  A Valentine Card! 

Birdseed hearts
These are definitely a Pinterest find.  Judith's favorite part of making these was stirring...and stirring and stirring.  (That wasn't really called for in the directions, but she wanted to.)  She also got to help me make the hole with the dowel.  Overall they were a very easy craft, if messy.  If/when I make them again (maybe some flower shapes for spring?) I'll do them outside.

stirring

making the hole

finished product - on a "branch"

The Joy
Judith is growing up!  She's learning such independence, and usually can do more than I expect.  And, as I've said before, these were all gifts.  How can there not be joy in giving gifts?

Joy to You,
Barbara