Make It Monday: Coffee Filter Hearts

It was about time to update our kitchen window with colorful creations. Down came the Christmas-y winter decals and up went our new Valentine hearts. The process was both easy and fun! Two ingredients for a winning craft in our house. 

The inspiration came from our coffee filter butterflies. The kids were a little disappointed that there was no water spraying this time though, but mommy was happy that it didn't make a mess. Maybe next week I'll pick a super messy project to make up for it.

 All you need are a pair of scissors, coffee filters, dot markers, and a couple of cute helpers.

Fold the coffee filter in half and cut out a heart. 

 Fold up the heart any which way you want and dab away with the markers!

Make a pattern, color the entire heart 1 color, or dot random colors everywhere. No matter how you decorate it, you can't go wrong!

If the heart is folded a few times, make sure to turn it over to ensure the color bled all the way through.

It's so much fun, you'll want to make lots and lots of hearts!

But the real fun is in opening the hearts up and seeing the designs you made. We found butterflies, more hearts, letters and faces. Each time, we ooh-ed and aah-ed and the beautiful formations. I admit, I had just as much fun decorating the hearts as the kids did! And they look especially pretty on our window when the sun shines through, not that you can tell by looking at the picture I took after the sun started to go down and the sky became overcast. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to make them and experience their beauty yourself!

And even once the markers are all put away, you can still have fun with the filter scraps . . . 

It's the craft that keeps on giving.

Make It Monday: Decorating Gingerbread Men

I know, I know, since you eat gingerbread men, this could actually fall into the Tasty Tuesday category. But, we didn't bake the cookies. We used a pre-baked kit I bought the other day for a couple bucks (gotta love after-Christmas clearance!) All we had to do was decorate them . . . or in other words, make them decorative. Get it? Make them. 

Anyway . . . on to the cookies, er, decorating!

Observant me did not realize that the fondant that came in the package was not pre-cut. The box showed all these cute, little gingerbread men. I assumed it had all the accessories shown. Nope, just a block of fondant. Thankfully, Daddy surprised us by coming home from work after only half a day! He is much more artistic than I am. He had the privilege of cutting whatever the kids asked for.

And let me tell you, they certainly enjoyed it! Everything they desired, he cut . . . while speaking with a Russian accent!

They belly-laughed just about the entire time! I'm not sure what I laughed about more - my husband being silly or my children laughing at my husband being silly.  

 It wasn't all fun though. There was work involved too.

Ok, maybe even the "work" was fun.

 They even saved a cookie for Zac to decorate when he woke up from his nap.

They turned out so cute! I especially like the Tiny Tim one. (Can you spot him, crutch and all?) He had a casualty during the process, but Daddy fixed his leg up. 

First a tailor, then a linguist, and also a doctor??? This man is amazing! I think I'll keep him.

I'd say it was a profitable day . . . regardless of which category it fits in.

Make It Monday: Snow Flakes

I've mentioned before how much the kids like cutting paper. It must be the thrill of doing something "dangerous." Since the weather's gotten much colder recently, we decided to make snow flakes to decorate the house. They needed help cutting the circles, but did pretty well with the rest. And they certainly did a good job of making a mess!

Coloring her paper before cutting.

Cheese!

Hard at work.

Proud of his snow flake.

Helping tape them to the window.

Let it snow!

The perfectionist in me started to emerge when their flakes became more like rocks, and I wanted to "fix" them. Then I realized that they didn't need fixing. It showed me their personalities, their abilities. Their snow flakes were perfect.