From Our Home to Yours

Happy Valentine's Day!


(*tutorial coming soon*)

Why Don't You Make Potato Stamp Valentine's Day Cards

We needed a last minute Valentine's Day card craft for Super Hubby. He had already seen our celery stamped rose cards. Doily heart cards were so last year. Store bought cards seemed impersonal. What's a mama to do when her creative juices are running low?


Why pull out the old potato stamp trick, of course.


You'll need:

Card Stock Paper
Paints (We used tempera)
A medium potato
A heart shaped cookie cutter
A small, sharp pairing knife.


Begin by cutting your potato in half near the widest portion. We used a potato that was just past its prime - starting to grow eyes:


Using your small heart shaped cookie cutter, insert it into the potato until the top is flush with the flat end of the potato:


Adults, using a small sharp pairing knife, cut into the potato about 1/4 of an inch down until you feel your knife touch the cookie cutter. Continue cutting all the way around the potato until the waste is easily removed.




Make sure your paint is thinned enough that when you're stamping, it doesn't come out like a thick glob. Likewise, make sure it isn't so thin that it just runs off your stamp. You may need to play around with adding just enough water to the paint.

We used a regular piece of 8.5x11 card stock, folded in half twice to make a card. I gave the potato stamp to The Boy and allowed him to go crazy. We started with bright red paint. Stamped a few hearts, and added some white to make pink. This way we only dirtied up one bowl.



Just like with the celery stamping, make sure to press your stamp firmly on the paper, but don't rock it back and forth too much.




This makes a great last minute Valentines Card. Make it early enough in the day that it has time to dry. In a pinch you could speed up the paint drying process by aiming a low heat hair dryer at the card.

And Super Hubby, if you're reading this, act surprised tomorrow when The Boy gives you his card.


Happy card making!
Simple Mama

This Moment - Preserving Lemons in Salt

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by soulemama

Why Don't You Make Acorn Cap Jewels

It's no secret, we're big on acorns around here. I use them frequently in my Etsy store, Green Baboon Designs. We decorate with them during the seasons. The Boy uses them as "food" in his play kitchen. Yesterday we found another use for them - shiny acorn cap jewels.

You'll need:
Acorn caps
Elmers School glue
Markers
Rice, beans, playdough, etc - something to hold your caps secure.

Pick out your favorite acorn caps. We have an abundance on hand at any given time, collected from our outings to our favorite parks and forests in the autumn. Make sure the insides of the caps are free from dust and debris.

Using your markers, color the inside of each cap. If you want a bright, jewel tone for your finished acorn cap, color the entire inside leaving no space blank. If you want a pastel shade, don't press as hard, or worry too much about getting every little space covered:

(Yes - he's wearing the same shirt two days in a row. I sent him upstairs this morning to pick out his clothes and get dressed and this is what he came back down in.)

Once your acorn caps are all colored, place them in your rice, or beans, or play dough. We have rice that we're careful to only use with our crafts.


It's hard to see the marker, but it's there. It will be more noticeable once we're done.

Fill each acorn cap up to the rim with white school glue. We used Elmers.


Allow your acorns to dry over night. Ours needed close to 20 hours to dry completely.
When the glue dries it forms a hard enamel like coating over the colored part of the acorn cap, allowing the color to really shine through. The Boy called them acorn treasures. He's big into pirates, treasure, and all things jewel like.


We're using our jeweled acorn caps to play Memory. We made sure to make 4 of each color. We turn them over and take turns lifting two caps each until a match is made. The person with the most matches once all the caps have been turned over wins.

I foresee a batch of acorn rainbow "soup" in my future as well.

Cheers,
Simple Mama

Why Don't You Make a Valentine's Day Lei?

As The Little gets older, we try to create something together at least twice a week. I admire all you bloggers who manage to create something every single day. I just can't seem to find a way to balance everyday toddler crafting into our routine.

We planned a project that ended up being too big for the reality of our day this afternoon. After a morning play date with some of my favorite mamas and their children, a missed nap, and no dinner ready I decided to switch gears and go with something much simpler.

We made Valentine's Day inspired Leis to wear.

For this project you'll need:

Several plastic straws (Gasp! Plastic! I know! Yet even in our house, we're we've tried to rid ourselves of plastic we still keep straws on hand).
Card stock paper in various colors
Scissors
Hole punch
Twine, hemp rope, thin ribbon, or the like


Cut your rope/twine/ribbon into a length long enough, that when tied off at the ends, it will slip easily over your head. Using scissors, cut your straws into small lengths. Ours were about 1 inch in length.


String one of the straw lengths onto your twine. Tie off at the end so that it doesn't slide off and you can continue stringing.

Cut out hearts in various sizes. My son opted for bright, non-Valentiney colors.


Using the hole punch, punch a hole at the top and the bottom of each heart. String your twine through the top and then the bottom of a heart.


Begin alternating a straw length and a paper heart until your twine is full. My son loved stringing the straws on.


When you're finished, tie the two ends together and slip it over your head. You now have your very own Hawaiian inspired Valentine's lei.


Happy creating!

Simple Mama

Wordless Wednesday - Regrowth

regrowing scallions (green onions) in water.

Transferring Scrap Booking Images Onto Stone

Scrap booking image transfers onto rocks. What could be sweeter or more simple? I first saw this craft over at gardenmama. If you haven't had a chance to pop over to her blog, take a moment to do so. It's full of beautiful images, creative crafts and thoughtful words.

I knew immediately it was something I wanted to do with my own son.

We went about picking out our stones for the project. We had quite a few to choose some, for which I was thankful. These little stones turned out so beautifully that they are accompanying our stamped Valentines Day Cards.

We found butterfly and heart scrap booking image transfers at our local craft store and picked out the correct sized rocks for each image we wanted to use. Here are the fruits of our labor:






My son carefully rearranges these rocks, telling me out loud which rock is going to which Valentine recipient. He's so proud of this simple little craft. We'll be repeating this again for each season so that we can add to our collection and our nature table.

Cheers,
Simple Mama