Hearts that go boing ...

Last year we did our own version of this clever little craft over at inchmark, (Brooke Reynolds, btw ... truly a super talent).

This year, Annabel wanted to do that craft again, but add her own little surprise.

Love ...

It doesn't always look the way you think it will.

Sweet nothings

Do you remember coming home from school, backpack filled to the brim with love notes and candy?

Yeah ...

Neither do I.

I wasn't a popular kid.

Not that I'm bitter.

Of course, thanks to the great land of artificial sweeteners and ersatz equalization, our kids will never be in jeopardy of feeling unloved ... at least when it comes to hastily-prepared trinkets sent in by other people's mothers as per teacher directives.

Not that I'm cynical ... much.

Anyway ...

Ittybit wanted to do something really special for her friends in first grade, so earlier this month we spent at least a year (in Google time) searching Valentine's Day craft ideas offered at various locations throughout the interwebs.

We found no end of fabulous looking projects, however none could meet my two mandated requirements: 1). That we wouldn't spend a cent on supplies, and 2.) The craft could not cause me to pull out any of my already winter-brittle hair.

Hence, we ended up rummaging through a box of fabric remnants and found enough of the same materials to make 16 little sweet-nothing pocket pillows.



SWEET-NOTHING POCKET PILLOWS

WHAT YOU NEED
* A yard and a half of white, brushed cotton
* A half sheet of red acrylic felt
* Fiber stuffing

OPTIONAL
* Candy conversation hearts
* Paper hearts for notes

WHAT YOU DO
* Cut out 16 hearts (freehand) out of the felt.
* Cut out 16 sets of hearts (folding fabric for matches) out of the cotton.
* Sew the bottom half of the felt heart (leaving the heart cleavage open) to the center of one side of the cotton heart.
* Sew the two cotton hearts together, leaving a bit at the end to fill with fiber stuffing, and then sew it closed.
*Insert note (or conversation hearts) into pocket.


The best thing about these ... beside using up horded material ... is that they were easy enough for a seven-year-old to make ... with a little help.





***ADDING A POUND OF NUTS***




So. We had planned to make tiny little notes to put in the pocket hearts ...

But then a friend drew my attention to this

And ... having *JUST* received a copy of her class picture I was like ... Palm meet forehead.

Well, that and THIS is just another reason why I have no hope of ever working for Martha Stewart.

*again with the digression*

So I showed Ittybit and she needed no coaxing. She knows cool when she sees it, too.

Of course we had to change some stuff ... since we had no card stock and our black marking pens are too-thick Sharpies. We used memo-cube paper and pencils instead.

I drew a sentence line and a frame, and also the basic shape of the chin, neck and ears, and she did the rest. She drew hairlines based on her friends pictures and added eyes, nose and mouth as well as their names.

We then folded sheets of red construction paper in half length and width wise and cut them into four rectangles. We folded the paper so that 1/2 inch overlapped, and glued the picture into the crease so that their names were visible and the paper lifted off the card.

Adding pink construction paper hearts to the outside of the card, Ittybit wrote her sentiment and signed her name under the pictures.



She's tickled pink with the results ...

Well ... except for Isaac's, poor kid.

"I have to redo Isaac's. I accidentally gave him a bulbous nose."

Somebody poisoned the waterhole ...

For many folks, Valentine's Day is a day to be disdained. A manufactured holiday designed to pad the sales of florists, chocolatiers and card companies everywhere. It's a day lovers will look at their partners and either be delighted or disappointed.
Where love is symbolized as foil-wrapped truffles or see-through nighties.

I suppose you could take any occasion celebrated by the exchange of gifts and hold it up to the UV light and trace amounts of excrement in the water supply will be detected.

I've never been the sort (or even been with the sort) that takes this day too an extreme. A card here, a flower there maybe dinner and a movie.

I nearly had to consider the holiday this year, since Ittybit goes to preschool, and a note came home with her at the beginning of the month that said the school didn't encourage valentine exchanges, but that if a student felt strongly about it they should make enough for everyone.

Oh the dilemma of such a horific choice: If you don't make 10 cards for everyone -- nevermind that I've lost the most recent (and accurate) class roster with names, and that Annabel has a tendancy to manufacture her own names for classmates; bowmmeggo, blahblue and glugglug, I imagine, wouldn't be too pleased with their construction paper valentines from us, I'm afraid -- what happens when they make them for her and she has none to share?

It's not that we weren't making TONS of cards. We've done nothing but snip out construction paper hearts and glue them to ripped pieces of paper embellished with old watercolor paintings and crayon drawings for weeks. We mailed one to her cousin, her amahs and papas. We gave one to Lori and Tierney and Brianna. We popped them in the coat pockets of some of her friends and toted the rest around unaddressed.

It seems strange to me to be saying this now, but I've never really given much thought to Valentine's Day before this month of this year. It never seemed like anything terribly special.

But then came a turning point. Julie K in Taiwan started counting down the days.

When something is made with so much love that you can't help but see more of the love than the thing, you can't help but admire the holiday that inspired its creation. ... at least a little bit anyway.