Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day, Toddler Style

 If you follow me on Instagram (and you should be), you probably saw this picture of Valentine's Day cards I was working on for Hunter's class.


Here is the final product.  And we are going to pretend like all of these pictures were not taken with my iPhone.


When Hunter was at his original daycare, I didn't have to worry about holidays.  I dressed him in a cute shirt and sent him on his way.  Well now I have other parents to deal with.  And other parents bring in cards and treats for the other kids.  And honey, I am not about to be the 'that parent' that doesn't participate.  They got me at Halloween, they aren't going to get me this time...

Anyway, I got a lot of compliments on them, so I thought I would write up a quick tutorial, in case anyone needs a last minute snacky for their youngin.  Or you can file this away under "next year".


Here is what I used:


Red paint
White paint
favor bags (bought from Michaels)
pen
paint brush (I used foam because that's what I had.  You can use any kind)
cookie cutter
pattern scissors
cardstock (not shown.  Oops)

I should note I used Valspar sample paints because they were $.50 from the return cart.  I am sure any kind of craft paint would work just as well.  But I'm cheap.

I cut 6x3 strips from the card stock and folded in half to make a 3x3 tented card.  Next I used the paint brush and took a couple haphazardly swipes across the paper.  Seriously, there is no science to how I painted.


After the red paint dried, I dipped the cookie cutter in the white paint and pressed it over the  red at an angle.


For the mix, I tried to use some toddler-friendly, semi-healthy food.  I figured everyone would be bringing in cupcakes and cookies and such.  So to keep the sugar overload to a minimum, I mixed up some frosted shredded wheat, Cheerios, yogurt covered raisins and strawberry yogurt drops



Next, employ your husband to fill each bag.


Finally, I folded the bag down a little and placed it between the folds of the card, securing it with two staples.



If you are interested in how much of each ingredient I used, I did one sample pack of Cheerios, one sample pack of Frosted Mini Wheats, one bag of yogurt drops and about three handfuls of the yogurt covered raisins (purchased from the bulk candy section of my super market).  We used 1/4 cup for each bag and were able to fill 10 bags.

...and Hunter got to share one with his special lady friend, Jenna


Happy Valentine's Day!
   ME

1 comment:

karen said...

Those are too cute. My preschool does not allow us to bring in anything we have made from home or opened at home. But this is a totally cute and do-able idea.

This is totally super-mom worthy.