Guest Post with {Four Flights of Fancy}

Hi Allora Handmade readers and thanks for welcoming me on Jess' blog to say hi and share a little bit about myself.  I'm Andrea and I blog over at Four Flights of Fancy where I write about a variety of things that peak my interest, but primarily focus on my passion for food, where I post simple yet nontraditional recipes, talk about my crazy job in the fashion industry, and most importantly my family.  I throw in a little crafting and DIY for good measure.

Jess may not think so, but guest blogging on the co-creator of the Queen Bee Market's blog is a wee-bit intimidating.  Like nail-biting, stomach turning intimidating.  I tossed around several ideas of what to post about, and after much deliberation, I finally decided to spread a little Valentine's Day love.  I haven't always been a fan of the holiday, but in the last few years since having my daughter and son, I've had a change of heart.  I've come to realize that the day can be about much more than some overpriced roses and an expensive dinner, but more about the simple little things that we can do together as a family to show how much we care about each other.  Some of those things include doing a little kid-friendly crafting, so today I want to share with you 5 craft ideas that you can involve your children in on some level.  Some are tried and true old school ideas that you may have seen around somewhere (I never profess to be the most creative and original crafter), but I always like the idea of compiling simple, basic ideas into one place.  I am a sucker for lists and compilations!

 #1 On the List, Waxed Paper Hearts: Start by laying crayon shavings between a piece of waxed paper folded over and then iron on low setting.  This is a bit messy so lay down an old rag under your iron and make sure to wipe it down after use.  I had my 5 1/2 year old help me cut out the hearts, and then thread some string through them and hang them in the window in a random pattern, almost like a mobile.

#2 Salt Dough Hearts: You'll need 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup warm water. Mix it up and roll out the dough to cut your shapes out. You can cut out stars for boys, hearts for girls if you wish. You bake in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours, or until nice and hard. You can paint them using acrylic paints and sprinkle a little glitter on top, or you can tint the dough with food coloring before baking and mix in the glitter as well. Or you can just leave them plain white and jazz them up with colored glitter.

#3 Borax Crystal Hearts: We started making these in Taylor's preschool class last year and have enjoyed making them several times since then.  You can take a pipe cleaner and twist it into any shape you want, tie some string to it and tie the string to a pencil.  Hang the pencil over the mouth of a wide neck jar (use those mason jars for something other than just decorating!).  You want your pipe cleaner to hang freely and not touch the bottom of the jar.  Add boiling water and cover the pipe cleaner completely. Then start adding your Borax, one tablespoon at a time (3 tbsp to 1 cup of water), stirring to dissolve.  Let sit over night and in the morning you should have beautiful crystals.  Sometimes it may take over 24 hours though, so don't get discouraged!

#4 Crayon Hearts: I found these silicone heart molds in the Target dollar bin section and have only actually used them to make crayons!  Just take some old crayons (I save the ones we get at restaurants) and break them up into molds.  Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 225 and then let cool (I place in the freezer to speed up the process).  These are a nice alternative to sweets for classmates, especially in preschool.  The shape is perfect for chubby little preschool fingers.

#5 Glitter Votive Holders: While these are more of a grown up decoration, you can have your little ones help by brushing on the glue (I just used simple craft glue) and then sprinkling on glitter, or roll in glitter (I use Martha Stewart craft glitter because it is so sparkly).  For a fun polka dot effect, just dip a Q tip in glue and paint on little circles, the shake on your glitter.  Brush off excess glitter after dried.

Some other simple ideas is to write little love notes to your children each morning, a few days leading up to Valentine's Day.  We did this last year and they loved waking up to their special notes and anticipated them after just a couple of days.  I whipped up these simple Valentine's holders last year to hold their notes and for them to take to class. They're just a square of felt stitched together, and then top-stitched by hand with some embroidery floss.  The ric-rac trim is optional.

So that's about it friends!  Thanks so much for having me guest blog today Jessica.  I loved it and I hope you stop on by my blog Four Flights of Fancy to say hi!  I'd love to hear from you.  And if you have any other kid-friendly Valentine's Day craft ideas, I'd love for you to share them in the comments section.  There's always time for one more craft at our house!