Valentine's cards 2017

The kids and I decided that this year it would be way more fun to make valentine's cards then to buy ready made cards.  We were inspired by all the great cards on Pinterest but decided these were the best.
For these we needed:
Simple white card stock
A rubber stamp that spells LOVE
A pink ink pad
Tiny plastic food bags
Pink jelly bellies, we purchased Cotton candy flavor and bubble gum flavor from a local candy store. For three classes we spent $30.
A pen
Staples

That's it! Super simple but classic.

Happy Valentine's day!!

Xoxo
Cathleen

2014 Valentine's Cards

My children and I had fun making home made Valentine's cards over the weekend.  It was super simple and great bonding time.  And no we didn't purposefully match today, but aren't we cute in our matching chambray? :)

For our Valentine Cards we used:

• Red Construction paper from our local craft store.
• Heart Shaped Lollipops from Target
• Various fun shaped scissors for a decorative edge on our hearts
• Felt tip markers
• Red or Pink Washi tape 

For the paper hearts, I made a template by free handing a heart onto a folded file folder since it was thicker and more durable. Then I traced about 35 hearts onto the paper and cut them out with my fun scissors.  My son is always so serious when he works on things! :)

I found that the more exaggerated or pronounced the design was on the scissors the better it looked on the paper. The best looking scissor designs on construction paper was the zigzag pattern.

My son was able to add the To/From section on the back of his cards with a purple marker.  He had fun going down the checklist of names and checking off each one as he went along.

These were the lollipops we chose from Target. They are nice because they are mostly flat and not too heavy, unlike the Blow Pops or similar.

We taped the lollipops right to the front over the message so they can read it once they take off the lollipop.

Originally I was writing my message so I had room to tape the lollipop without covering the words. But if I had do these over I would spread out the message more and also do a fancier print.  You always learn as you go with these things. :)  I'll just be happy if the kids enjoy them and can read my sloppy print. 

Joe surprised me with some cute flowers from Trader Joe's.  They are red Cyclamen. They are going strong and have brought a lot of cheeriness to the kitchen.

   
Valentine's Day is in just four days. How do you celebrate with your family and kids? We are looking forward to spending the evening with our friends and their kids making pizza with the kids. I'll be sure to take lots of photos! ♥♥

xo
Cathleen

Valentine cookies and more

Well kids, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Are you ready? Have you made your Valentine a card? Gotten ready for all those school Valentine's? I love this day of celebrating love. It's a reminder to show appreciation for the ones you care about the most.   Over the weekend I got ready by making 100, yes I said 100, sugar cookies for my children's classmates. There are 14 kids in my oldest son's class (thank goodness it's so small) and 17 kids in my middle child's preschool class. So I made 31 bags of 3 cookies per bag and 1 left over.  It took me a good 4-5 hours on Saturday to bake so here we go!  First off, let me just say baking in my oven with this pretty Valentine's towel from Target made me smile. It came in a set of two and the other towel is pink with raised hearts. So cute.

For my sugar cookies, my recipe is as follows: 

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

For the frosting, I used:

2 cups confectioners' sugar, 4 teaspoons milk, 4 teaspoons light corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and red food coloring. I mixed everything in the mixer until it was smooth. I also used various sprinkles and added them before the icing had a chance to dry.

The great thing about this recipe is that it makes a ton of cookies. The bad thing about it is, sugar cookies take forever. After you make the dough it has to chill for an hour. Then there's rolling it all out and cutting your cookies. Baking them. Frosting them. But look at how cute they turn out. It feels worth it to me.

I printed up labels using Microsoft Word and included the words "With love from Charlie (or Maddock) and below I wrote that the cookies contain milk and eggs for those kids with such allergies.

And here's all 31 bags. Can't wait to help my kids pass these out tomorrow. Oh and just so you know these can be put in the freezer until you need them. I placed mine in the freezer so they'd be fresh on Valentine's Day.

Elsewhere in the house I put up my felt Valentine Wreath I made last year.  I forgot to mention I frosted my back door glass windows for privacy.  That was a fun little project and super easy.

I also hung my scrap book paper hearts over our empty china cabinet. And my daughter painted the little wooden heart that I picked up at Michaels last year on clearance. She had fun making it.

So here's hoping you and yours have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow. Love you all!

xo

Cathleen

DIY Valentine Cards

Valentine's is behind us now, but I wanted to share the cute little Valentine Cards I helped make with my kids. They are for the 5 and up crowd since using kid scissors is involved.

We first traced hearts on construction paper and cut them out. This is where you get your kids involved to help cut. Then we lined up three hearts and punched out a hole at the bottom of the hearts. 

We used Tootsie pops and placed one through the hole. I had my older son write out his friends names and his name on each one. Then they decorated them with stickers.

To bring them to school, I placed them all in this red bucket so it looked a bouquet of flowers.

There you have it, one easy peasy Valentine's you can make at home.

And check out this awesome Valentine! It also had a label that said "You're Super Maddock!" How cool is it? It definitely beats mine. I want to make them next year.

Here was my Valentine from my dear husband, some very fragrant pink hyacinths. There was also a box of chocolates, but I think I ate about three and the rest went to work with him (silly stomach bug) and he also got me a set of new hair rollers. He knows how frizzy my hair gets. LOL.

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day.

xo
Cathleen

Valentine's Decor at PeaHen Pad

We love showing you how we decorate for the holidays and Valentine's Day is no exception. We love all things hearts, pink, and love, so we love to girly things up around here for the month of February.  So here's a quick look around at how we decorate for the month of LOVE.

Isn't this little tea towel adorable? I found it at Marshalls and it has such a hand made look about it. 

The fabric hearts look hand stitched and the "Be Mine" looks hand embroidered.  I love the little "x's" and "o's" at the bottom along with the polka dots.

This paper garland is strung across our dining room. You can see more on that here.

I hung these cute gold heart ornaments with Valentine ribbon from my chandelier in the dining room as well. I only had three, so two of the arms of the chandelier don't have one, so I'll have to try to find two more of these somewhere.

I threw together this little fireplace mantle in about 10 minutes, seriously. I stole the pink vase and frame from E.Claire's room. I added the photo of the boys that my mom printed using a cool technique where only the red things are in color. I think it really works for V.day. I found the candle sticks in my China Hutch and added two pink candles that I already had in them. The little pink heart candy dish was in the hutch too. It's actually a little baking dish. The wreath was moved from the back window to the mirror to give the fireplace something special.

It's time to start thinking about Valentine's for 13 Kindergartners, 1 teacher, 14 preschoolers, 2 teachers, Grandparents, and of course the hubby and kids.  Hmmm, what to make? What are you making for your kid's friends? I'm looking for ideas if anyone has easy ones to share.

xo

Cathleen

Valentine's Day Tablescape

1) White Porcelain Urns from Williams-Sonoma Home. The neo-classical shape in a crisp and glossy white would look great as a vase and in a group of three down the middle of the table.

2) FTD Precious Heart Bouquet. Cluster these types of flowers (radiant hot pink roses, deep red matsumoto asters and light pink mini carnations) in the urns. You could also use three white vases.

3) Clear shot glasses can be used to hold tea lights. These are from here.

4) Rose scented tea lights. You can purchase these at any candle store.

5)  Heart Garland strung above table.

6) Pretty white linen Table Cloth with ruffles.

7) Classic white plates with silverware.

8) Chivari Ballroom chairs in gold. You can use chairs you already own and tie pink ribbon around the backs to dress them up a little bit.

Hope you're excited about the romantic day tomorrow and that you have some super romantic plans with your significant other.

xoxoxoxo

Cathleen

Scrap Book Paper Valentine's Garland

Quick and easy Valentine's Decoration. Now that's what I'm talkin' bout. This one is so easy, you can do it during a commercial break. All you need is 5 sheets of your favorite Valentine's Day Scrap book paper. You can find this at Michaels, Joann's Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, just about any craft store in your area.  You'll also need some thick ribbon. I used left over Christmas ribbon.

I hung my Valentine garland on my big empty wall in the dining room, but you can hang yours anywhere there is a flat surface. 

I folded my scrap book paper in half length wise and drew a half heart shape and cut it out. When I opened the paper it made the whole heart shape. Then I simply made two holes with an Exacto knife in the middle of the heart and threaded the ribbon through. Once you have all your hearts on, tie up the ends with knots and hang it. It really is that easy.

These hearts are quite large at 12" in diameter so a nice big wall makes it easy to display them.

Budget Breakdown

5 pieces of scrap book paper $2.50

Ribbon -already owned, but it costs about $3.99 for thick ribbon.

Total - $2.50

xo

Cathleen

Inspiration: Pink

After watching Black Swan last night, I'm in love with pink again. And gray. Can't forget gray!
Image seen here.

xo
Cathleen

DIY Felt Valentine Wreath

Tis' the season of Love! Here's a little Valentine craft you can do with your kids. 

The supplies you'll need include:

1) Heart foam wreath. I found mine at Joann Fabrics and with a 50% off coupon it was around $4.

2) 3/4 yard felt. You can choose white, red, or pink. Felt is around 4.99 per yard, but you can usually print a 40% off coupon online. 

3) Ribbon to hang your wreath. I happened to have Valentine's Day ribbon from a while ago.

4) Cup or mug that is 3" wide

5) Sharpee marker

6) Box of straight pins

The first step is to trace circles with your marker all over the fabric. You will use the entire 3/4 yard of felt. I folded mine in half and cut two circles out at a time.

Once you have all your circles cut, you take each one and fold it in half two times so it looks like this:

After you make your two folds you put a straight pin at the bottom like this. I did all of my pinning first. This seemed to make it go faster.

The next step is to start pinning your felt into the heart shape. I worked in rows starting from the inside of the heart and then the front and then finally the outside.

After I had all my felt pieces pinned I used a hot glue gun to glue my ribbon to the back.  Don't you think it looks so cute on the window? Hope you enjoyed this little Valentine craft. You can find another tutorial at The Idea Room.

Happy Valentine's Month!

xo
Cathleen