Valentine Crafts

 A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to try some DIY Valentine's Day decorations. I found some simple ideas online (simple is a must), and gathered my materials.

First, I painted some mason jars. I planned to make a couple for flower vases to decorate my living room. I intended to have my kids do fingerprint hearts on them, but we couldn't get fingerprints to look like the shape of a heart. So I just painted hearts on them. 

And whenever I get crafty, my kids want to join in. Thankfully, I have a gazillion mason jars and plenty of paint just sitting in my craft storage corner of the basement. The kids made smaller ones to use as candy jars for their teachers and grandparents. We finished them by wrapping the tops with twine.

My next craft was to sew some felt hearts to make a garland for my living room or kitchen window. 

I cut hearts out of felt, glued ribbon to the back heart, and sewed buttons on the front one. Then I sewed them together with embroidery thread.

The second my kids saw me making these they wanted to join in. They had the idea to sew initials on the front as well.

They all made a couple - again, for teachers and grandparents - and really enjoyed it. 

Alden's hearts for his teacher and school counselor.

Leland's hearts for his teacher and Grandma Jill. He also made several more for other people and just for decoration.

Olivia made these for her teacher and Grammy Patti.

They kept thinking of more people to give these to, and I wasn't sure we'd have any for my garland, but I decided I was okay with that. I love seeing my kids getting crafty and doing nice things for others. Alden also asked me to make one for him to take to school to squeeze when he feels frustrated. We did end up with some for a garland though, so it all worked out.

Not the best lighting, and I have already changed it since we finished some more hearts, but you get the idea.

Leland is now addicted and wants to do some more sewing activities. I'm thinking WAY ahead to Christmas crafts now.

Gift Idea

I always struggle a little with what to give friends and co-workers for gifts. I love to give personal gifts that they will enjoy and that will actually get used, but I don't want to break the bank. 

Last year, I did some homemade bath and body gifts (sugar scrub, body butter, and bath salts). I did those again this year for a few people that are new to my list. But for the people that got those last year, I wanted to do something different. I always love mason jar gifts though. So after a little pinteresting, I found a pretty fun idea: DIY etched glass!

The etching was super easy. I bought a package of Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream from a craft store and used some contact paper and my cricut.

I used my cricut to cut the stencils out of contact paper. I suggest using contact paper or some other sticky paper. I tried it with card stock first but the edges of the letters didn't turn out very crisp that way (because the cream leaks under the paper). 

Here is what it looked like with cardstock taped to the jar.

And here is the much nicer version when I used contact paper.

Then I stuck the stencil to the jar, painted the cream on and let it sit for 30 seconds. 

Then I rinsed it off, removed the sticker, and voila! An inexpensive, personal gift. 

For Leland's teachers and a few friends, I etched their initials in mason jars and filled them with different things. For most friends, I filled them with Ghirardelli chocolates and added a gift or gift card. For example, for one friend who loves Christmas socks (like, serious obsession),  I filled hers with two pairs of socks and some nail polish. For another friend, I made a "hug jar" which included uplifting notes and quotes about friendship and added a Starbucks gift card. I thought it was a fun way to personalize a gift without breaking the bank.

The only issue with these jars is that the etching doesn't stand out a lot, so some friends didn't even realize they were etched at all until it was pointed out. But I still think they turned out cute.

End of the Year Gifts

Usually, I am on the receiving end of teacher gifts, but this year, I got to be on the giving side. Leland has five teachers in preschool: one is his lead teacher, one is the lead teacher in the other preschool room (who also teaches him Spanish and does different activities with his class), and three aides. And then there's Dawn, our daycare provider. If you're doing the math, that's six teacher gifts.

Teacher gifts can get expensive, especially if you have multiple teachers. But they don't have to be. As a teacher, I can tell you that the gifts I appreciate most are the notes from parents and students. Any gift is special because I appreciate the thought, so they don't have to be expensive or extravagant.

A couple of people suggested I do bigger gifts for the lead teachers and smaller gifts for the aides to save a little money. But Leland has a closer relationship with the aides than the teachers right now. When we talk about school at home, they are the ones he talks about and they are the ones he gets excited to see (I think because they end up spending more one-on-one time with him during circle times and stuff when he's not really participating). Because of that, I wanted to give them all the same thing, which meant it wasn't going to be fancy or expensive.

I decided to make them some lemon sugar hand scrub, like my students made for Mother's Day gifts. It's easy to make, and fairly inexpensive.

Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub (filled two 8oz mason jars)
2.5 Cups sugar
1 Cup olive oil (you probably could use less oil if you want)
Lemon Juice/Essential oil to scent (I used 1 Tbsp lemon extract)

I put each one in a gift bag with some hand soap from Bath and Body Works and Burt's Bees lip balm, and of course a note. That's always my favorite part.

I'm already thinking about Christmas and end-of-the-year next year. We'll have the same six teachers, so I'm planning ahead.

DIY bath gifts

This year, I decided to do a few homemade gifts for friends and co-workers. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make, but I wanted to do something sort of unique. After a quick pinterest search, I decided on some bath gifts: sugar hand & foot scrub, bath salts, and body butter.

The sugar scrub and bath salts were super easy and quick to make.

Sugar Scrub (my favorite of the three products):

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup olive oil

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Mix together and it's all set!

Bath Salts:

1 cup epsom salt

1 Tbsp baking soda

splash of vanilla extract

Again, mix together and it's all set.

The body butter was a little more involved, but it wasn't too difficult.

Body Butter:

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup cocoa butter

splash of vanilla

Heat ingredient in saucepan over low-medium heat until completely melted. Transfer to a mixing bowl and refrigerate until it is in a soft solid state. This took about an hour for me. Mix with hand or stand mixer until light and fluffy (took about 10 minutes for me on medium setting). Refrigerate again for about 10 minutes to let it set.

I think they all turned out great. The body butter is a little more solid than I would have liked, but it works just fine and smells amazing.

I put them in small mason jars with some pretty fabric, string, and then printed out labels for each. They looked so pretty. 

My only problem was that the body butter recipe didn't make as much as I had hoped. So I didn't have enough to go with all of my scrubs and salts. I figured some people on my list might not like body butter very much anyway, so I skipped people that I thought might not really like it or that were getting other gifts from us as well.

Initially, I was hoping this project would be easy on the checkbook. And it was, thanks to some jars and fabric from my mom. The sugar scrub and bath salts were pretty cheap to make. But cocoa butter is pricey, so the body butter was a little costly. Not terrible, but if I had to buy all the jars (I only had to buy one package of 12, my mom had 12 more that she wanted to get rid of) and fabric too, I might not have done the body butter.

I was pretty pleased with the project in general. It's something I would like to get as a gift, so I felt good about giving it.