We’ve been playing with Valentine decorations over the last week or two and I thought I’d give you a little tour of what we’ve done. My kids are crafty kiddos and love doing projects!
We made heart ornaments to hang on our ficus tree in the living room. I just took cheap plastic Hobby Lobby hearts and cut off the plastic string. I tied ribbons on instead, then glued on a white organza bow. (Would you believe I used super glue? Yup.) I’ll show you how to make those white bows on the bottom of this post.
Here’s the finished ornament on our tree.
We also made hearts from waxed paper and melted crayon shavings. We cut them into hearts and hung them in the windows with metallic curling ribbon. It looks pretty with the sun shining through.We burned up our electric pencil sharpener doing this one though. LOL
We also made popcorn hearts to share with the birds. I popped a couple of bags of popcorn and then we let it sit out for a few days to get stale. I bent florist wire in half at a right angle and they threaded the popcorn on each side. Once it was pretty full, we just bent the tops over in a heart shape and hung them on the front porch with the same metallic red curling ribbon. We’ve enjoyed watching the birds enjoy their treats. (Yes, I know it doesn’t look so much like a heart. My kids informed me of the same thing, thankyouverymuch.)
And one more thing – you know we made sugar shacks. This was the project we made the other night when we had a houseful of little kids. Here’s a picture of Princepesa and Viking’s finished sugar shack. (HT to Ordinary Life Magic)
Quick & Easy Florist Bows
My mother was a florist for all of my early years and I remember working in the shop with her during busy times. That’s how I learned the names of so many flowers, and also where I learned to make pew bows and florist bows. I was the prop like Princepesa is in these pics!
- First find a little person to be your prop. (Dirt on the forehead from playing outside is optional.) Have them hold their index fingers up a few inches apart. The further apart their fingers are, the larger your finished bow will be.
- Wrap the ribbon around their fingers from the back and cross the ribbon smoothly in the front.
- Move the top piece of ribbon (pointing down to the right in the picture above) under the other piece and between your kiddos fingers. Bring it straight up behind their fingers.
- Tie a basic overhand knot using the two ends of the ribbon. Work it off of the kiddos hands before you tighten it up too much and adjust it as you tighten it. This is when you need to make sure both sides of the bow are even and that the tails are facing out, especially if you have one sided ribbon – don’t want to see the back of the ribbon on one tail.
Get some ribbon and try this. After you fumble through a couple of them you’ll be able to crank them out in no time. I’ve made them using my own hand when no kiddo was near to be a prop, but it’s not as easy doing it one handed. Let me know how it goes!
