Tag Archives: DIY Valentine

DIY Beaded Bracelet…by your toddler (that you’ll actually wear!)

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So I DO love the rainbow giant beaded bracelets and pasta necklaces that come home school and camps….I DO!  But…do I really wear them?  Um…no (horrible mom admittance!)

Maya had a friend’s birthday party to got to a bit ago, and I was talking with the mom about what to get her.  She really didn’t want more “stuff”, so she said if Maya wanted to make her something, that would be perfect.  Instantly I thought of a bracelet.  We asked what her favorite colors were.  I dug out my boxes of beads from storage (again…totally patting my pack rat self on the back right now!!), and…Maya made her a bracelet.  I helped with the clasp, but she did everything herself.  She picked what beads she wanted to use and strung them along.  Well…I didn’t take pictures of THAT bracelet ha!  But then Valentine’s Day rolled around.  What to give her teacher?  Oh, the box of beads were still sitting out (a week later-whoops!), so…Maya asked her teacher what her favorite color was, and we picked from my stash.  Thankfully, her favorite color was green (mine too!), so I had a few to pick from.  🙂

It’s a little hard to see, but these are an iridescent green “pearl” bead.  The bag that I had them in said $5.50, and we only used half.  So…while it looks like a really nice gift, it didn’t cost much, and it provided a fun activity.  Oh, and Maya had total pride in the fact that she made this for her teacher!!  And…her friend (that I didn’t take pictures of 🙂 )Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-1 Such concentration!  I honestly wasn’t sure if it would be too hard for her to do, but she did it!Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-2 Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-3 Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-5And obviously, had fun!  Which was the total point!!  Well…the end product was kind of the point, but her having fun making it was even better. Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-4Blog DIY Toddler Beaded Bracelet-6So…don’t be afraid to have them make things out of real beads.  They aren’t that expensive, and they are totally wearable.  And…if you are like me and went through a total beading phase and KEPT all your beads…SCORE!! 😉dit-elle-Lauren

Non Candy Valentines with DIY Heart Glitter Cards

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Daunted by the DIY Pinterest Valentine’s Day projects that you’ve been seeing??  Yeah, I feel ya.  We made play-do last year last year, and…we had a lot of fun!!  But…this year?  I didn’t have time!!  As most of you don’t!  If you do have time?  Totally make the play do!  It’s still in our fridge a year later, smells yummy, and we still play with it!  BUT…if you want something a tad bit easier…

You can still have your preschooler/kindergartner totally involved in Valentine’s Day projects even if they aren’t totally diy!  You can make them into a diy craft by involving them in the process!  I bought all my supplies from a Dollar Tree, spent less than $7, and involved Maya in every step of the way!  She helped pick out what we should buy (at $1 each, it was easy to say yes, but admittedly afterwards, I felt like we went overboard spending $7!)

Honestly, this would be a great idea for a birthday party parting bag (at least, I think so!).  At less than $1 per kid?!!?  Yet, lots of fun an useful things…score!Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-1Two years ago, we made DIY Glitter Hearts for Valentine’s Day.  I remembered them being so easy, and that she had so much fun doing them, so we decided to not recreate the wheel.  Isn’t that the best advice ever?!!  WHY RECREATE THE WHEEL??? This year, Maya wrote her name all by herself on the back of each card.  An upgrade + Kind of a milestone! Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-2I’m including links below to pretty much the exact same thing I bought for $1 each, but if you don’t have a Dollar Tree near you and want to put something similar together from Amazon…

What you need…

For the Valentine Bags

Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card

OR…I found a pack on Amazon that was kind of similar to what I put together.

Online Pack

What to do…

  • Yes.  You could assemble all these together yourself, and just have your preschooler work on the cards, but I wanted Maya to have a little more ownership since we weren’t doing a DIY craft for the actual Valentine.  SO, we turned it into a craft
  • She laid out how many bags that were in her class and counted them out (there were 25 in the bag, so we had some left over).Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-3
  • Then she put one of each item into each bag.Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-4 Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-5 Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-6
  • The bags came with end ties, so I tied them together with the cards at the end 🙂

For the Heart Cards

  • Card stock paper/water color paper, or I used a cardboard insert that had come in clothes I’ve bought online/t-shirts I buy for the Huz.  Yes, I save everything just in case.  Yes, I was so excited to finally use some of my hoarded craft supplies! 😉
  • Glue
  • Glitter
  • Hole Punch
  • Large sheet of aluminum foil for easy clean up
  • Cookie sheet or empty box (to contain the glitter bomb and glue :))

What you do…

  • Since we were doing this for Valentine’s Day, I cut little hearts out. You could do circles, or just squares/rectangles if you wanted to make cards for a different occasion.
  • Put the “cards” on a lined cookie sheet/box and let your toddler drizzle glue all over them.Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-7
  • Then, while glue is still wet, have them go to town with the glitter!Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-8I shook all the excess of some cards onto others so that the glitter was evenly distributed. Blog Non Candy Preschool Valentine Bags DIY Glitter Heart Card-9
  • Once the glue is dry, punch a hole in the corner and tie to the bags.

Have Fun!!dit-elle-Lauren