Heartwork

Heartwork.  Get it?  Like artwork?  Hrn hrn. 

(Sigh.)

I'll admit that I've all but given up on crafting with the two boys.  I pretty much leave that to the librarians and preschool teachers these days.  I think the last time I attempted some big craft project it ended in tears...and I'm not talking about the boys. :)  Seriously, it makes me a little twitchy just thinking about it.  But it was the Sunday before Valentine's Day and I knew that we had to make eleven cards, eight of which had to be mailed, so there was not much time to sit in the corner twitching procrastinate.  It was Superbowl Sunday and cold outside so I decided to make due with what was in the house instead of schlepping the boys around in search of materials.  I had half a bag of completely disgusting potatoes leftover from January (and growing scary appendages), some heart shaped cookie cutters, and a bunch of scrap paper and paints.  Voila!  Cards for our beloved family members and teachers. :)  Don't you feel so special now?  And for those of you who did not receive our lovely cards, I apologize, but it was really a feat just to get the teachers', grandparents', great grandparents', and godmothers' finished. 

And for those of you who think I'm joking about the potatoes...

Uh, NASTY!

I'm pretty sure I saw this done with apples in a magazine years ago, but I have no idea when or where.  It seemed like potatoes would work just as well, right?  Well, kinda. 

We used these to make the stamps...

On some we left the hearts, on others we left the reliefs.  We even attempted super-craftiness by cutting one in half and writing backwards.  Pretty fancy, eh?

Anyway, I've learned with these sorts of things to do them in stages since the boys have the attention span of fruit flies small children.  The boys stamped while I tried not to hover...

"Um, no officer.  I promise I didn't slip anything in my baby's sippy cup."

...or maybe it was the paint fumes?

...or perhaps it's not the camera, but the photographer?

I thought this was clever...

and decided maybe I should patent it as some sort of art cover for highchairs...

until the little one tried to squirm his way out of his. 

I guess the Tot Cover is not my ticket to wealth.

The boys then played while the paint dried and I cut out their creations. 

Remember my comment about their attention span? 
Yep, very short.

We later assembled the cards...

I must admit that Luke lost steam after two or three which left me to assemble the other eight or nine; however, I followed his prototype so I still consider them Art de Luke.  He did come check in every so often to oversee things.  Had I been more patient or had more time, I would have left the plastic on the table and materials strewn about so we could finish them over the course of a few days, but let's be honest, we eat our meals here and my patience was about shot at this point. :)

The mess, ahem, I mean the creative work in progress...

Luke later returned for some extra coloring and sticker placing.  Zach helped too.

As you can probably imagine, there was no energy left in the little monsters to help with the clean-up, so I was on my own.  Big shocker, huh?  Let's just say Mommy earned her glass of wine that night. :)

So there you have it, the making of our Valentines this year.
 

Did I mention this all occurred during the "Big Game"?  Yep, life with kids sure does change things. :)

 

Needless to say, there was no way in you-know-where that we were making ten more for his classmates, so we opted for the store bought variety.  In fact, I purchased these last year for 75% off - LOVE that! 

Notice the tongue sticking out.  I think he might get that from his Mimi.

Turns out that Valentine's Day is a great holiday for perfecting name writing...

Isn't he getting good?

Whoops. 
I'm sure Owen didn't notice.

A special thanks to you all for sending Valentines to Luke's school "post office".  He LOOOOVED them!  (Oh, and Zach loved getting to "mail" them.)

Love to all,

Jess