Snow Day Valentines

Today we finally get a snow day! I know, those of you who have been stuck inside for 6 days and lost power are probably sick to death of it all, but this is the first real snow we've seen since moving to Jersey. I'm usually a big fan of snow until Christmas, and then I'm done, but living in Michigan will do that to a girl! Right now I'm just excited that I don't have to do my usual hour commute today, 'cause you know there is no way in hizz-ell I was gettin' stuck overnight in Yonkers!

In addition to making a pot roast for dinner and baking a loaf of bread, I spent some time today finishing up a little craft project I started with the J's yesterday. The J's are 2 of the coolest kids I have ever met and I'll be nannying for them 5 days a week by the end of this month. They are 6 and 8 year old brothers with gorgeous red hair. They ski, play drums, take tae kwon do lessons, act, and the oldest was a Cambell's kid last year. So yeah, they rock! They also love crafting and baking, so basically hanging out with them is almost too much fun to get paid for :) Yesterday I introduced them to Happy Hearts, a project the lovely Sarah Zamora introduced me to 2 years ago.  I made a ton of them and traded them with a bunch of artists, and now I hang them up every February. I thought it would be fun to do something different with them this year, so I adapted the original garland idea to make flowers. Instead of the mess of collage, stamping, and trimming, we doodled. The J's decorated a bunch of them and they had the idea of adding messages to the backs to give each one as Valentines to family members. Brilliant! You can put yours in a vase like I did, or tie a bunch together to give as a bouquet to your mom :)


Doodle Hearts Flower Bouquets:
You'll need:
2 pieces of heavy cardstock
Ink pens, gel pens, or markers
9 pieces of Floral Wire
Craft glue (I'm a ModPodge junkie!)
Ribbon


1. Download the Happy Hearts Template and print 2 copies onto cardstock.

2. Decorate all 9 hearts on 1 page with doodles using a black ink pen. 

3. Color in doodles with shades of pink and red. 

4. Go to town embellishing doodles with glitter if you want to (Me? I'm BIG on glitter, the J's? Not so much.).

5. Cut out all 18 hearts. You'll be sandwiching the floral wire between a doodle heart and a blank heart. If you choose to add messages to the backs, now is the time to do so on the blank hearts.

6. If you want curly stems, now is the time to wind your floral wire around a fat marker. Stretch the coil out to your desired length. 
7. Spread a thin layer of craft glue on the back of a doodle heart. Lay the top end of floral wire in the center and press a blank heart (message side out if you wrote on them!) on the back. Make sure edges line up and press firmly.

8. Continue for all hearts until you have a bunch of 9 doodle heart stems.

9. If you want to add leaves you can do the same thing with green shades. You can use a leaf template if you don't want to draw your own. 

10. Allow the glue to dry for at least 10 minutes, then tie your bunch together, varying heights of the flowers, with ribbon. Voila!

Now make a little love shelf and be happy you had a day off :)