ASL-I Love You-Valentine

I actually saw this activity first in an Oriental Trading Co. catalog and thought that we would make a wonderful Valentine card. After all, I didn't need 12 of them from Oriental Trading, so I wanted to be a little thrifty.

I have found that this company's website is a great spot to get ideas for activities for the kids.
First we traced Kimmy's hand and glued the two fingers down, making the sign language, "I Love You" sign.
I then made sure I had cut out a white heart big enough to fit the hand inside.
I used scalloped edged scissors to cut out the heart and then cut a red heart, slightly smaller than the red heart.
Glue these together and then pause for a very cute photo op!

When big sister Gracie arrived, Kimmy seemed to doubt that

Gracie could do as good a job on her Valentine as Kimmy could do her own.

Glue the hand to the front of your red heart.

Cut out a small red heart, as seen below.

Make a teeny tiny pink heart and write your special message!!

If you happen to be one of my children's grandparents, be surprised when these arrive from their loving makers!! :-)

Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda

We discovered another wonderful book through the Catholic Mosaic : Living the Liturgical Year with Literature,An illustrated book study for Catholic children by Cay Gibson.

Our book today was Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda.

Amazon review: " It started in ancient Rome when a kind physician named Valentine took an interest in a young blind girl. With his healing skill and his deep faith he restored her sight. What we now call Valentine's Day began when he sent the little girl a secret message, which she received after the Christian martyr was executed. For this tale rich in sentiment, master illustrator Robert Sabuda has created exquisite paper mosaics to suggest early Christian art that resonates with both subtlety and power."

The artwork in this book is beautiful mosaics. We used this technique to make our own mosaic hearts. I cut a zillion little colored squares before we started this craft with our paper cutter.
We placed a picture of St. Valentine in the middle of our hearts, and then liberally applied glitter.

We really applied glitter....notice the pile.

Mark's beautiful mosaic heart.

Gracie's lovely heart.

Cookie Cutter Painting

I saw this great idea for painting at Totally Tots and I knew it was just the thing to do with the kids for their grandparents. We used white cardstock paper, red, pink and purple paint, and heart shaped cookie cutters.
Luke, Kimberly and Grace enjoyed stamping the cookie cutters into the paint and making prints on the paper.

Anything they stamped looked lovely. It didn't matter if they were layered or smudged--they look great--no mistakes can be made with this technique.

After the paint was dried we cut out large hearts and finished them off with a ribbon.

Happy Valentine's Day, Grandma and Grandpa!