7 Days of Love – Marshmallow Krispie Hearts

I found this recipe at Nurture Store and it seemed like an easy, fun treat to make for the girls to give to their teachers. We had a trial run first, just in case it turned out to be a disaster.

It really is as simple as melting the ingredients and pouring the mix into a baking tray to get firm.

I couldn’t find my small heart-shaped cookie cutter, so used the next biggest size. I struggled a bit to cut the hearts just using the cookie cutter and needed a knife to make sure I got all the way through. I’m not sure if it was because the cookie cutter is plastic or if my Marshmallow Krispie layer was too thick.

The hearts looked amazing, though.

And my taste testers agreed that it was delicious.

So we’ll make them for Poppet and Pixie to give to their teachers for Valentine’s Day.

Do your kids give their teachers Valentine’s gifts?

7 Days of Love – Chocolate Hearts

What is Valentine’s Day without chocolate?

Every year I like to send a little something to school so that my girls can give their classmates a Valentine’s gift. Last year we did cookies; this year we made mini chocolate hearts.

The girls were curious about what “making chocolates” entailed, and more interested in eating the chocolate than in spooning melted chocolate into the moulds.

I bought the chocolate, heart moulds and foil at The Chocolate Den (on Linksfield Road in Edenvale). This is my favourite baking shop, partly because of its name, but also because they have absolutely everything you need there.

The girls each filled in one tray, then licked their spoons clean. I made the rest of the chocolates later.

When they had all been made, I cut the foil into small squares and wrapped each chocolate. I did this while the girls were at school to avoid the whining for chocolate that I knew would happen if they were around.

20 kids in each class. That’s a lot of chocolates.

I wrote a little note and stuck a chocolate on each.

Hopefully there’ll be a lot of smiling kids next Friday.

Do your kids make Valentine’s gifts for their friends?

7 Days of Love – Paper Plate Heart Handbags

I’ve seen variations of this craft floating around the Interwebz, and because I have daughters who love dressing up and accessorising, I thought they’d enjoy it. Besides, every little girl needs a paper plate heart handbag in her dress up box, don’t you agree?

I gave each of the girls two paper plates and asked them to decorate them however they wanted. Pixie took full advantage of Daddy’s day off work and roped him in to help her with hers.

When the plates were decorated, we folded them in half.

Then I stapled the two plates together.

I used staples to attach a ribbon for a strap.

A quick and simple craft for anyone.

Do your kids like to play dress-up?

7 Days of Love – Hanging Hearts

Pixie informed me the other day that her favourite kind of crafting activity is painting. I was going to use crayon for this activity, but changed my mind after Pixie’s declaration.

I used a cookie cutter to trace heart shapes on pieces of cardboard.

Then the girls painted their hearts. We used pink paint for all the hearts, but you could make each one a different colour.

When the paint dried, I cut out the hearts and used a glue gun to attach them to a length of ribbon.

I made a loop at the top also using the glue gun.

We hung the hearts on the cupboard doors in the girls’ bedroom.

Do you decorate the house for Valentine’s Day?

7 Days of Love – Tinfoil Hearts

This is one of those crafts that didn’t work out quite like I’d planned, but the girls had fun doing it anyway.

It seemed simple enough: cut two heart shapes out of cardboard, glue random items onto the heart, then cover with tinfoil for a textured heart.

If we do this craft again, I’ll use bigger items to glue and a stronger cardboard base. Things like shells, bolts, pasta shapes could work. Our hearts ended up being a bit flimsy and didn’t last longer than a day.

Did you try this? Did you have better luck than we did?

7 Days of Love – Love Bugs

These little love bugs are easy to make and oh-so-cute.

Materials:
Egg boxes
Pink paint
Paintbrushes
Pipe cleaners
Scissors
Googly eyes
Heart stickers

Cut up the egg boxes and paint them pink.

Poke holes for the legs and antennae. Cut up the pipe cleaners and fold over the inside end so that they don’t slip out of the holes.

Glue googly eyes on the head.

Decorate with hearts.

Easy peasy.

Have you tried this craft? Post a link; I’d love to see it.

7 Days of Love – Valentine’s Door Hanger Craft

This is a simple and quick Valentine’s craft to keep little hands busy. All you need is cardboard, glue, pipe cleaners (or string/wool/ribbon) and things to stick on.

Cut the cardboard into a narrow-ish strip. (I divided an A4 piece into three.) Punch two holes at the top, then let the decorating begin!

In keeping with our Valentine’s theme, I made heart-shapes with glue and let the girls stick their items on it.

When the girls were finished sticking, I bent the pipe cleaners and threaded them through the holes to make a handle.

These would make sweet gifts for your children to exchange with each other, or give to a grandparent or friend. Ours lasted just three days – Pixie the Destroyer decided to see what would happen when she pulled off all the decorations. Sigh.

Have you tried this craft? Post a link; I’d love to see it.