A weekend of crafty Valentine projects

I spent much of this past weekend working on Valentine treats and crafts. I liked the finished projects, but many of the decisions were made by a precocious six-year-old. (This is not really a complaint, but if I had been choosing, most of my choices might have been for flowers and pink, frilly things. I am kind of happy with the primary colors, duck tape, teeth and super heros that the little boy who ramrodded this operation chose.)

The first, a Valentine's Day mailbox very similar to one we saw on the internet called a Chews-a-card Valentine Box. This will be entered into a school competition tomorrow and will then hold his Valentine treats.

I believe the original was made from a Kleenex box but was a bit too small for our needs. We made it from a very sturdy square box left over from Christmas and we cut a cardboard front from another box, glued white foam teeth to the inside, then covered it with red duck tape and cut out the mouth with an x-acto knife.

Using two red coiled pipe cleaners, we attached them in holes punched in the top of the box and secured them with a dab of hot glue. To the other end we attached ping pong balls. A sharpie was used to finish the eyes. We decorated the piece by adding pipe cleaner hair and foam stickers for the nose and ears (not shown but on the sides).

The gold dots on the face were the hardest thing we did, because they we so hard to cut from the duck tape. I think it is cute and I love using duck tape to cover things. It comes in great colors and is easy to use. Cutting out circles was a chore but the tape covered the box to perfection. A photo shows up the tape lines but they really don't show up so much if not in a photo.

This project looks kind of complicated but pretty easy making it perfect for the attention span of a six-year-old, though it did take plenty of adult supervision. His favorite part was coiling the pipe cleaners and deciding where to put the dot. It also took experimentation to see if the Valentines would be easy for the monster to "chew."

The other craft, Valentine party favors, were made from tootsie roll pops, foam, construction paper, black and  silver sharpies, a heart sticker and some clear tape.

My daughter found this idea on Pinterest and I think it is a cute idea for giving to friends at school. I downloaded the pattern for the little cape and mask. Who wouldn't love a little super hero with the words, "You're a super friend" in silver on the cape. The stickers we already had.

We really wanted to make them from all red Tootsie Roll Pops but couldn't find enough of them to use, so we had to use a bag that included yellow, blue, brown and purple but somehow I think they work. Another suggestion might be to use Blow Pops.

We downloaded the pattern, cut it out, wrote on the cape, added the heart sticker, cut out the hole with a hole punch. We then cut out the mask from the pattern, drew on the eyes and taped on the mask. The stick was then inserted into the hole on the cape. I used foam for the capes but after it was finished, I think construction paper might have been better. Felt could also have been used. The masks were made from contruction paper and though the directons said glue them on, I found that tape worked just as well for the mask. I was concerned that glue might have made them inedible. They are cute, cheap and easy fun.

Here's the link for the Caped Cute-sader on Family Fun.

I had fun but I am kind of glad the weekend is over!