One, Two, THREE WEEKS TILL VALENTINE'S DAY...

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that kinda sneaks up on us. The kiddos are back into their studies and in the midst of creating a baking soda volcano...

and a shoebox diorama of the LaWashibi tribe...they need valentines and a valentines box...and all by "tomorrow".

Since Siri and Sara began a new school this year...and since Siri and I will just be returning from our trip up north, I'm tempted to recycle last year's boxes.  

Which really wouldn't be so bad, since they were somewhat AWESOME!

With Siri being from Thailand, elephants are sorta her thing. Here is her elephant box.

I used an oatmeal container, both pink and bluish-gray wrapping paper...some scrap material and beads, craft stickers, a bell and some tinsel, plastic flower, sharpie, toilet paper roll (trunk), card stock, two boxes for the legs, and lots of hot glue.

The elephants saddle, or whatever it is that elephants have on their back when they carry humans, lifts up and there is a slot for the valentines.  Or...since lots of valentines come with candy, the head comes off (it's cardstock glued to the oatmeal lid) to put the valentines in and take them out.

The bell was for Siri, so she could play with it.  She likes bells.

We make our valentines.  
For Siri's I used cardstock, LOVE stamp, acrylic paint, a brush, and her hand.  

First I cut the hearts.  Then she put her hand print on each one by brushing the paint on her hand, then pressing down on the heart.

I helped her paint them.
We let them dry.
I added the love stamp.

Here is Sara's.  She got the idea by image searching a birdhouse.

We started with a box and pink wrapping paper. We used stickers and craft snippets lying around the house.  moss, feathers, sticks and an acorn from outside, birds from the dollar store, a bell (for a doorbell), card stock, a nest that was still in our pine tree, scrap fabric and ribbon, candy eggs, and a hair bow.

This nest once held baby birds at our old house.

We put a door in the back (polka-dot curtains!) for the birds and valentines to go in and out.

 The doorbell.

There's also a slot in the front for the smaller valentines.  Below you can kinda see the "welcome flag" with Sara's name on it.

For Sara's valentines, we used card stock, wrapping paper, hot glue, crayons, and sharpies.

After cutting the card stock to size, we cut out the animals from the wrapping paper and glued them randomly onto the cards. 

When they were dry, Sara colored them.  I wrote the names with a sharpie, and she wrote a short note to each classmate on the back.

They sell a string of 10 lollipops at the Family Dollar for one dollar.  We bought them again for this year's valentines.

Using a craft knife, I made two slits, and then slid the lollipops through, so that it would appear that the frogs and owls were holding the lollipops.  We did this for Siri's hearts also.

This year, Sara will use the valentines I made from her Christmas toy packaging.  You can read about those by clicking here (the link, not the photo).

If you have a Valentine's idea, please share it with us on our fb group page here.

For more these ideas and more..check out my Kids Stuff Pinterest Board here or my Craft, Gift, DIY Pinterest Board here.

 How are you making your today world beautiful?
Please share your latest project photos and stories with us on our group fb page here!