I wasn't feeling very creative in the card department, and come to think of it, we should probably have made pirate themed cards to go with the pirate ship treat boxes (duh!) but
For pirate ship tutorial click here.
Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts
Monday, March 7, 2011
Valentine's Day pirate ship treat box
This year we decided on pirate ship treat boxes for the kids to take to school for their school Valentine's Day party. The kids had so much fun putting them together and decorating them. The great thing about this project was that they have been playing with the pirate ships ever since, so it is not a lot of effort for just one day!
I wasn't feeling very creative in the card department, and come to think of it, we should probably have made pirate themed cards to go with the pirate ship treat boxes (duh!) butwe I decided on these cute cards instead...inspiration via eighteen25.
For pirate ship tutorial click here.
I wasn't feeling very creative in the card department, and come to think of it, we should probably have made pirate themed cards to go with the pirate ship treat boxes (duh!) but
For pirate ship tutorial click here.
How to Make a Cardboard Pirate Ship
This year we were very late with our Valentine's Day preparations. No big surprise there! Fortunately, since Valentine's Day fell on a Monday this year, we had the weekend to come up with a fun idea for the Valentine's Day Treat Boxes. We wanted to come up with something a little different as our Monster Valentine's Day boxes from last year were such a hit.
The kids love pirates, and have both had pirate parties in the past, and so the consensus was to make pirate ship boxes. They were really easy to make. Below is a picture tutorial of the process I used...it may very well be the internet's worst tutorial to date...but after trying a few different approaches, this is the one that worked for us. And the kid's were able to put them together themselves with a little bit of guidance.
*these would also work great as party favor boxes for a Pirate Party*
All you need is:
A piece of cardboard (hello, recycle center!)
Scissors
Duct tape
A thin stick or a food skewer for the mast
One sheet of printer paper
Markers and stamps to decorate
1. Cut the following 4 pieces out of the cardboard (see below for enlarged measurements)
2. Start to assemble the box by bringing up the sides and then bringing the front 2 flaps of the ship together (see hand below). Make sure the tab is on the inside of the pirate ship and duct tape the seams on the inside and outside of the ship.
3. Once the front is secured with duct tape, place piece C in position. Duct tape underneath as well as around the top edges. (I cut my duct tape length wise to make a smaller seam on top.)
As you can see, there will be a rectangular shaped hole at the bottom - you may want to try and address this before you start....we didn't end up losing any candy so it didn't matter too much to us!!
Did I mention that this tutorial leaves a lot to be desired ;)
4. Next, position piece D as shown. Secure with Duct tape underneath.
5. Attach piece B. Fold in the tabs and duct tape underneath as well as along the outer seams.
6. Lastly, place a long twig or food skewer through the hole punched in the middle of piece D.
Now it is time to decorate your pirate ship as well as the sail.
Finish by punching two holes in the paper, one near the top, in the center and another near the bottom in the center of the page. Thread through the mast, and ye pirate ship is ready to sail over to yer Valentine's Day party to collect lots of Booty, me Hearties.
The kids love pirates, and have both had pirate parties in the past, and so the consensus was to make pirate ship boxes. They were really easy to make. Below is a picture tutorial of the process I used...it may very well be the internet's worst tutorial to date...but after trying a few different approaches, this is the one that worked for us. And the kid's were able to put them together themselves with a little bit of guidance.
All you need is:
A piece of cardboard (hello, recycle center!)
Scissors
Duct tape
A thin stick or a food skewer for the mast
One sheet of printer paper
Markers and stamps to decorate
1. Cut the following 4 pieces out of the cardboard (see below for enlarged measurements)
3. Once the front is secured with duct tape, place piece C in position. Duct tape underneath as well as around the top edges. (I cut my duct tape length wise to make a smaller seam on top.)
As you can see, there will be a rectangular shaped hole at the bottom - you may want to try and address this before you start....we didn't end up losing any candy so it didn't matter too much to us!!
Did I mention that this tutorial leaves a lot to be desired ;)
4. Next, position piece D as shown. Secure with Duct tape underneath.
5. Attach piece B. Fold in the tabs and duct tape underneath as well as along the outer seams.
Now it is time to decorate your pirate ship as well as the sail.
Finish by punching two holes in the paper, one near the top, in the center and another near the bottom in the center of the page. Thread through the mast, and ye pirate ship is ready to sail over to yer Valentine's Day party to collect lots of Booty, me Hearties.
Monday, February 15, 2010
And the Last Valentine's Day post of 2010
I got some roses from BigP - the night before the actual day! Very impressive - he got them early becasue he wanted to get me pink roses (my favs) but they only had red ones left. Still very beautiful and I have since rearranged them in a much nicer fashion!!!
Our dinner of mini heart-shaped pizzas and a salad was a huge success. I have the easiest pizza dough recipe -it takes about 5 minutes to make and the kids loved having their own little pizzas. Needless to say, they were all devoured. We just used ingredients we had in the kitchen - cheese, hotdog slices and pineapple for the kids (!) and cheese, pineapple and bacon for BigP and cheese and pineapple for me. Very, very tasty.
For dessert, we went with the Toblerone chocolate pots (see previous posts for recipe link). It is the easiest dessert on earth to make - it took 2 whole minutes plus cooling time in the fridge - and was out of this world delicious. Very, very rich though. (When I mentioned how rich they were to the boys, one of them replied: "Thanks so much for making us such an expensive dessert, how much exactly did it cost?!")
Lastly, the boys going through their Valentine's Day stash from their classmates...they spent hours reading each note and made up all kinds of games and goodness knows what entertained them for so long, but any peace and quiet a mother can get, she will gladly accept...that is until the sugar buzz kicked in....
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Happy Heart's Day!
Happy Heart's Day!
We will be having a lazy day at home, probably in our PJs, with the boys playing some version of a Star Wars game and me playing some version of "Go find the ....." (pig, horse, cow) etc. with the Bubs. He spreads his plastic dollar store animals all over the living room and runs off with much excitement to find each requested animal. It keeps him entertained for quite a while, which is always a good thing =)
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) bigP has to work today, or else we would be enjoying some kind of family outing, but when he returns, we plan on making mini heart-shaped pizzas for dinner, followed by reading our little love notes to each other over either this dessert, or this one.
And to end this post, a quote from Euripedes to remind us that love isn't just about smooches and soul mates, it's about loving each other...
" Love is all we have,
the only way that each can help the other."
Friday, February 12, 2010
LOVEly things
Some LOVEly things for the Valentine's Day weekend....
...these beautiful words to remind us that we are in charge of our own happiness.
...a super fun way to reuse heart shaped candy boxes
...this awesome heart scarf
...a cute CD cover if you're in the mood to burn a playlist of your favorite tunes
......and who couldn't resist a Big Love Butterscotch Cookie
image via omnia
...a super fun way to reuse heart shaped candy boxes
...this awesome heart scarf
...a cute CD cover if you're in the mood to burn a playlist of your favorite tunes
......and who couldn't resist a Big Love Butterscotch Cookie
image via omnia
Heart Shaped Food
Heart shaped food for a Happy Heart's Day
1. Heart Shaped Eggs - Bake it Pretty
2. Heart in my Cappacino - Ginko Papers
3. PB&J Sandwiches - image source unknown
4. Heart Shaped Pizza - Family Fun
5. Souffle - Real Simple
6. Oreo Cakester hearts - image source unknown
7. Raspberry Tart Cookie - Family Fun
8. Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake Bars - All You
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Valentine's Day Cards & Printables
Some fun Valentine's Day cards and printables from around the web...
Click on the links to find even more fun cards from these stores:
2. Scenerie
3. Hello Lucky
6. Puppy Love
10. Pup and Pony
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Valentine's Day School Gifts
On Valentine's Day each year, the kids always make a home-made Valentine for each child in their class. This year I showed the kids some pictures I found online and each child immediately chose the Valentine that they wanted me to make. The oldest child chose to make a paper airplane carrying a message, inspired by the one from While She Naps.
We weren't so ambitious as to make an origami plane, we just made the standard paper plane, which he decorated with markers and rubber stamps. I thought it would be a bit much for him to write the message (U R plane awesome!) over twenty times (one for each child in his class), so I had him write it once and then I scanned and copied it, so all he had to do was write the name of each child, which was much more manageable. He was thrilled with the finished planes, and wanted to make an extra one for himself to play with.
It's always the simplest things that kids love playing with...I must remind myself of this at Christmas time and Birthday time.... And I liked how it didn't have any candy attached to it, since they end up with so much candy anyway.
Then we made the boxes that they take into school to put all the Valentine's Cards that they get from their classmates into. We decided on robot/monsters and I spray painted the boxes for a rustic, recycled look. For a more polished look, covering the box in construction paper, or scrapbook paper, or gift wrap, would be better, but we were going for the beaten up look, so the spray paint worked fine. I only put on two coats because it was in the teens, temperature wise, outside...so the robots were lucky they even got two coats.
We made cardboard heart feet and cardboard tubes for the arms. The eyes were styrofoam balls attached to the box with craft wire that was twisted to make the googly eye effect. The kids were kind of worn out at the end of this project and so they weren't really interested in adding heart stickers or stamping etc. but they might do this between now and Valentine's Day.
And this sets an all time record in the Household - a project complete with five days to spare...amaaaazing.
We weren't so ambitious as to make an origami plane, we just made the standard paper plane, which he decorated with markers and rubber stamps. I thought it would be a bit much for him to write the message (U R plane awesome!) over twenty times (one for each child in his class), so I had him write it once and then I scanned and copied it, so all he had to do was write the name of each child, which was much more manageable. He was thrilled with the finished planes, and wanted to make an extra one for himself to play with.
It's always the simplest things that kids love playing with...I must remind myself of this at Christmas time and Birthday time.... And I liked how it didn't have any candy attached to it, since they end up with so much candy anyway.
His brother chose a downloadable guitar valentine from Zakka Life. This wasn't much of a surprise as he really really really wants to learn the guitar. But not just any guitar - a rock ‘n roll guitar “and if I can’t learn on a real rock ‘n roll guitar, then I don’t want to learn to play at all.” Okay, you might be waiting a while then, little buddy....Anyhoo, he was very excited to assemble the "guitars", and totally stoked that his valentine involved a lollipop.
Then we made the boxes that they take into school to put all the Valentine's Cards that they get from their classmates into. We decided on robot/monsters and I spray painted the boxes for a rustic, recycled look. For a more polished look, covering the box in construction paper, or scrapbook paper, or gift wrap, would be better, but we were going for the beaten up look, so the spray paint worked fine. I only put on two coats because it was in the teens, temperature wise, outside...so the robots were lucky they even got two coats.
We made cardboard heart feet and cardboard tubes for the arms. The eyes were styrofoam balls attached to the box with craft wire that was twisted to make the googly eye effect. The kids were kind of worn out at the end of this project and so they weren't really interested in adding heart stickers or stamping etc. but they might do this between now and Valentine's Day.
And this sets an all time record in the Household - a project complete with five days to spare...amaaaazing.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Love Notes
Each year our family begins the month of February by decorating the living room with cardboard and cardstock glitter hearts and after dinner each night, we write little love notes to each other. Last year we each wrote a love note to each member of the family every evening, but this year we decided to change it up a bit and we have made it more into a game. One person gets to start and they write a note to someone and when they're finished, everyone closes their eyes and they pop their note into the recipients mail box and then we all check to see who the lucky recipient is. Then that person chooses someone to write a love note to, and so the game continues until everyone has a love note. The kids are still young enough to be filled with anticipation as they wait to see who will receive a love note next…
Then, on Valentine’s Day, we each have a mailbox filled with heartfelt, handwritten love notes. It’s just a fun way for the family to interact as well as a way of trying to take the commercialization out of Valentine’s Day for the most part. I’m not saying that if a certain person wanted to buy his wife some diamond earrings as an expression of love, that that would not be totally okay, but otherwise (and since that will not be happening any time soon), its all about the “gifts from the heart” theme around here.
For dinner I made stew in the crock pot and my husband could not believe his eyes and (his nose) when he arrived home last night to discover that dinner had already been made. Over dinner we realized that we have owned the crock pot for well over 10 years and have never used it and we were wondering what on earth had possessed us to buy one in the first place. This was followed by my husband wondering what on earth had possessed me to suddenly bring the thing out and made a stew with it! But that’s just my style…total randomness and always some element of surprise…
I served the stew in bread bowls and the dinner was a huge hit. For dessert, I made Bakerella’s Peach Crunch Cake. Let me say, it was as if she concocted this recipe just for me – it is totally foolproof which is exactly what I need, judging from my near disasters here and here. My photos do not do the dessert justice, see hers here.
Then, on Valentine’s Day, we each have a mailbox filled with heartfelt, handwritten love notes. It’s just a fun way for the family to interact as well as a way of trying to take the commercialization out of Valentine’s Day for the most part. I’m not saying that if a certain person wanted to buy his wife some diamond earrings as an expression of love, that that would not be totally okay, but otherwise (and since that will not be happening any time soon), its all about the “gifts from the heart” theme around here.
For dinner I made stew in the crock pot and my husband could not believe his eyes and (his nose) when he arrived home last night to discover that dinner had already been made. Over dinner we realized that we have owned the crock pot for well over 10 years and have never used it and we were wondering what on earth had possessed us to buy one in the first place. This was followed by my husband wondering what on earth had possessed me to suddenly bring the thing out and made a stew with it! But that’s just my style…total randomness and always some element of surprise…
I served the stew in bread bowls and the dinner was a huge hit. For dessert, I made Bakerella’s Peach Crunch Cake. Let me say, it was as if she concocted this recipe just for me – it is totally foolproof which is exactly what I need, judging from my near disasters here and here. My photos do not do the dessert justice, see hers here.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Valentine's Day Photos
Since I've started this blog, I have really been trying to think ahead and plan ahead, which is the only reason that I am even beginning to think about Valentine's Day in the month of January. Usually I wait until a few days before and then turn into a frantic mess, trying to help the kids write Valentine's Day notes to every.child.in.their.class, and quickly trying to come up with an idea for the Valentine's Day photo I take of the kids holding up red hearts each year; and then designing the photo card to send out to friends and family.
But not this year. This year I am ahead of the game - instead of the kids making hearts out of card stock for their classmates, we discussed a special project we could do and I ordered the supplies a few days ago. Will post about it when it arrives and the kids start working on it. As for the photo, I am thinking about a few options, which is always the first step... will post after its done.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of past Valentine's Day cards of the kids. I'm pleased to see some improvements in my photoshopping ... although I still have a looooooooong way to go - it's definitely a never ending process when it comes to that program. The third photo was my first foray into scrapbooking and my friend Andrea told me how to do it - I basically just copied hers, but it got me started!
For some cute Valentine's Day photo ideas for kids - see Jolieanne Photography on Flickr and Daily Relish.
But not this year. This year I am ahead of the game - instead of the kids making hearts out of card stock for their classmates, we discussed a special project we could do and I ordered the supplies a few days ago. Will post about it when it arrives and the kids start working on it. As for the photo, I am thinking about a few options, which is always the first step... will post after its done.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of past Valentine's Day cards of the kids. I'm pleased to see some improvements in my photoshopping ... although I still have a looooooooong way to go - it's definitely a never ending process when it comes to that program. The third photo was my first foray into scrapbooking and my friend Andrea told me how to do it - I basically just copied hers, but it got me started!
I have no idea how to get these pictures any bigger... they are at s640!?
...Blogger has the tendancy to baffle me ALOT.
For some cute Valentine's Day photo ideas for kids - see Jolieanne Photography on Flickr and Daily Relish.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tiny Things
Right now I have a huge To Do List that I am avoiding. One of the items on the list is the task of making a December Daily Christmas Album. Last year I was inspired by Ali Edwards and her annual December Daily Project and really wanted to make an album of my own, since we do so much fun Christmas related stuff in December, but I never did get around to doing it. So this past December, I resolved that I would do it for sure this year, but now it is almost mid January and it is still just an item on my To Do List.
I know the point of it is to try and complete a page a day in December, but I knew that I would never accomplish this before Christmas, so I gave myself some leeway and felt for sure that I would begin the project right after the mayhem of Christmas had subsided. Uh-huh. I imagine it is one of those projects that you just have to start, and then the creativity will flow from there...and I imagine that having some kind of album would probably be a very good starting point. I'm sure if I just read the "instructions" on her blog, all this would be layed out very clearly... but when I popped over there a short while ago to find out about the Album details, I got sidetracked by a great post about what she does with all the photo Christmas cards she receives from family and friends. She cuts them into squares (using a square punch) and makes a scrapbook page out of them all. Very clever, although I don't know if I could be as fearless as she is, when faced with having to choose which part of the card makes it into the perameters of the square punch. I might try it, but I will only allow myself to do so after I have completed my Christmas Album. The Album which is now causing me guilt and anxiety and dread, and is forcing me to look around the web for Valentine's Day ideas, in an effort to rid my mind of anything at all Christmas related...
And so I was delighted when I came across The World's Smallest Postal Service from Leafcutter Designs. How tiny and adorable are these little letters? They would make for some very cute Valentine's Day notes...
I know the point of it is to try and complete a page a day in December, but I knew that I would never accomplish this before Christmas, so I gave myself some leeway and felt for sure that I would begin the project right after the mayhem of Christmas had subsided. Uh-huh. I imagine it is one of those projects that you just have to start, and then the creativity will flow from there...and I imagine that having some kind of album would probably be a very good starting point. I'm sure if I just read the "instructions" on her blog, all this would be layed out very clearly... but when I popped over there a short while ago to find out about the Album details, I got sidetracked by a great post about what she does with all the photo Christmas cards she receives from family and friends. She cuts them into squares (using a square punch) and makes a scrapbook page out of them all. Very clever, although I don't know if I could be as fearless as she is, when faced with having to choose which part of the card makes it into the perameters of the square punch. I might try it, but I will only allow myself to do so after I have completed my Christmas Album. The Album which is now causing me guilt and anxiety and dread, and is forcing me to look around the web for Valentine's Day ideas, in an effort to rid my mind of anything at all Christmas related...
And so I was delighted when I came across The World's Smallest Postal Service from Leafcutter Designs. How tiny and adorable are these little letters? They would make for some very cute Valentine's Day notes...
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