Adventure Valentines

I know its kind of last minute but in case you didn't know thats how I roll.  I created some adventure themed Valentines for Greenies.  You can head over to the Greenies facebook page for a link to a PDF or you can save the images from there and share them with the adventure-ers in your life.  I hope you all have an AMAZING Valentine's Day weekend

Love Struck >> Arrow Bobby Pins Tutorial

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and we are all set.  Ivy's classroom Valentines are made, her box is ready to go and her hairstyle all planned out.   We looked up some Valentine's inspired hair tutorials on youtube and fell in love with heart braids.  It is cute to see Ivy {finally} get excited about doing her hair.  She even practices making her own hair tutorial videos in the mirror.   To add our own touch to her heart braids we made some arrow bobby pins to make the braids a Cupid's heart. 

To make your own Love Struck bobby pins you need just some tiny scraps of material >> ours are leather and felt <<  bobby pins and a hot glue gun.   To make two bobby pins you will need 3 small squares of material.  

Take the first square and cut it in half diagonally.  This gives you the two arrowheads.   With the second square, first cut a triangle notch out of the top.  Then cut the bottom corners off at an angle to make a point.  Carefully snip the sides of your square to give it a feather look.  Repeat with the third square.  These are your arrow tails.  All that is left is to hot glue the arrowheads and tails to the top of your bobby pins.

Paper Arrow Garland Tutorial

Arrows!  Cupid!  Hearts!  XOXO!  Here is a simple tutorial on how to make an arrow garland to go with your Valentine's Day decor.  Or for any day really, cuz..... put an arrow on it!

Start by cutting strips of paper to your desired width and fold them in half.  For the patterned paper I cut two inch strips.  Using a paper slicer angle the folded strips and cut in to increments. You can either cut them all the same or vary the width.  You will have some extra triangles at the ends that you can either save for another project ;) or recycle them. 

Open up the folded cuts and get excited!  YAY! Arrows!  

You can either stitch them together along the top or punch small holes and string them together.  Just make sure the arrows all point the same direction.

  I made a long arrow using a dowel and some felt and tied my little arrow garland onto the dowel.  I also used a cookie cutter to cut some x's and o's to add and made a little Cupid wall hanging for Ivy's room.  I've also got more arrow garlands in about five places in my house.  Cuz.... put an arrow on it.

You've Pierced My Heart Jewelry Valentines Printable

Valentines Day is this week and Ivy and I have some fun ideas for you to make it special!  Today we are sharing our Jewelry Valentines cards.  We used clay to make some cute earring and beads so we could wear our hearts on our ears.  And necks, and wrists.  Making hearts with the clay took some practice but we were able to make some cute enough to share with friends. 

For the earrings we used sparkly red sculpey clay, and a pack of earring backs that I picked up from the jewelry making department at Hobby Lobby.  The Alison Show has a great tutorial on making clay earrings here.  

 I used my tiniest hole punch to punch two holes for earring posts to go through on the u pierced my heart card.  

And for the bracelet I cut two small slits on the side to hold the string in place.   To make the heart bead I shaped a thicker heart and used an embroidery needle to poke a hole through the sides.  Be sure to make the hole big enough that you can thread the needle and string through after you bake the clay.  

Pierced My Heart Valentines PDF

{for personal use only}

 And since we are all about sharing the love this week, here is the PDF printable so you can make your own jewelry Valentines to share with your friends.  You could use them to give friendship bracelets or loom bracelets, necklaces or whatever else you and/or your kids have fun making!

2014 Winter Olympics Workout

We are so so so excited for Sochi!!  We've got some decorations, and some Russian recipes picked out to try for the Opening Ceremonies.  Trust me that was harder than I thought it was going to be.  I've been pinning a bunch of ideas to make the next two weeks awesome.  Even though the Olympics themselves are pretty awesome by themselves.  My favorite is probably the time capsule from Paging Supermom. 

I don't know about you but I always get so inspired by all of the athletes so I thought it would be fun to make a Sochi Olympics workout to counter all of the sitting and watching I will be doing over the next two weeks.  Here it is if you want to join me!  All I know is I really hope no one crashes.  Cuz I hate burpees.  

What is your favorite sport to watch in the winter Olympics?!!  Mine has got to be snowboarding, but I really look forward to watching the ice skating with Ivy.  I remember loving it SO much when I was her age.