Monday, January 21, 2013

Valentine's Crafts

So perhaps I'm jumping the gun a little with the kids but I was ready for some Valentine's Day decorations but I quickly realized that I don't own any! Sounded like a craft day in the making. 

Heart Bird Seed Feeders




 Gather your supplies:
  • 1 packet Unflavored Gelatin (I bought a big box to later find out I didn't need one just a little 4 packet box is enough. 
  • 3/4 Cup Flour
  • 1/2 Cup Water
  • 3 TBSP Corn Syrup
  • 4 cups of Bird Seed
  • Twine
  • Spray cooking oil




 Mix gelatin, flour, water and corn syrup until well mixed. Child labor is good for this.

 Add the bird seed and mix until evenly coated.
 Take your cookie cutters and tray and spray with cooking oil.
Put bird seed into cookie cutters and press down. You want it packed in hard so that it doesn't try and fall apart.





 Use a straw to help place you hole that you'll later be using for twine.
Carefully lift up cookie cutter and place down to start your next set.
This recipe made 4 large hearts for us.










Let dry about 12 hours. During some point you might want to flip them over to make sure the other side fully dries.

I enjoy the time with the kids and our feathered friends will enjoy the treat.








Wax Paper Sun Catchers 










 I really like window decorations and we did something like this for fall so I thought to myself why not Valentine's day too!


Gather your supples:

  • Crayons
  • Grater
  • Iron
  • Junk Towel
  • Wax Paper
  • Paper Towels
  • An adult!






This is mostly an adult craft! You'll want to grate up your crayon colors and warm an iron. You want it warm and not 'hot' and no steam! (I set mine on 3).

You'll want to cover your ironing board with a towel because it never fails that crayon is going to leak out it seems.




You can allow your children to pick what colors of crayon they'd like sprinkled  onto 1 half piece of wax paper. Fold the other half over when done.
Put a paper towel over the wax paper so that you don't mess up your iron but so heat transfers to melt the crayons. If your kids are old enough then with parent supervision they can iron out the pieces.
Then just cut out your shapes. We did hearts and used the same cookie cutters we had used for the bird feeders.




Heart Paper Link Chain
Not a lot of instruction I can give on this one other than for the first link you fold it in half staple  and then bring it. Take another strip that has been creased in half  and put it on the tale end of your first strip the first strip should look like a heart. Staple the creased area of the second heart to the tale ends of the first heart. Repeat the process. The big problem I found with this is that staples seem to be the only quick thing that does the job but it weighs down the chain so unless you plan to have it laying on a table or I have mine laying on it's side along the window then you might not want to do this type of chain. 




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