Pen Favor Valentine Cards

This year, my kids all wanted to have pens for their classroom Valentine favors. I love how each pen choice is reflective of their personality.

An a-MAZING-ing choice by my puzzle-loving middle child. I purchased these Maze Pens on Amazon, but this Valentine would be great with just about any other pen/pencil or simply by itself!…

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

My daughter’s choice, adorable as ever. I mean, what kid doesn’t love a Squishy? Would also work well with any other stress ball or squishy toy

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

And my oldest, engineer-brained son with his resourceful choice – a multi-tool pen with includes a touch screen stylus, ruler, level and mini screwdriver. These Valentine’s would also work well with a ruler favor..

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

I ordered all of the pens online (links below!), printed the valentines on white card stock, and used washi tape to attach the pens to the back of each Valentine.

Happy Valentine’s Day! May it be filled with love, giggles and scribbles!

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St. Patrick’s Day Joke Teller

I’ve been on a roll with my holiday-themed joke tellers, so decided to create one for St. Patrick’s Day as well. Sometimes called “fortune tellers”, “chatter boxes” or “salt cellars”, these simple paper crafts have been popular for decades. My twist on them is to insert jokes instead of fortunes – a fun way to connect with friends (without screens) and spread a few laughs this St. Patrick’s Day 🙂

Click HERE to download the St. Patrick’s Day Joke Teller from my Etsy Shop.

Thanksgiving Activity Placemat

My son Jacob and I were talking about Thanksgiving coming up and he tells me “I’m looking forward to your activities”. I paused, not understanding what he was talking about and asked “What activities?”. He replies, “Like your Thanksgiving Joke Teller“….. While I was happy he appreciated my efforts last year, I felt bad I hadn’t come up with anything new for this year. Not wanted to let him down, I decided to design a Thanksgiving-themed placemat with fun activities including a maze, word search, how-to-draw and one of their favorites – a secret decoder message to solve!

Click HERE to download the Thanksgiving Activity Placemat Printable from my Etsy Shop.

Thanksgiving Jokes Cootie Catcher

Because 2020 could definitely use a little more humor and a lot less…. well…. 2020, I designed a joke-telling cootie catcher in an attempt to help spread a few laughs. This fun Thanksgiving printable will keep kids of all ages occupied and is a great way to interact over Zoom with family members who can’t be with you in person this holiday season.

Click HERE to download the Thanksgiving Jokes Cootie Catcher from my Etsy Shop.

Click HERE to download the Thanksgiving Jokes Cootie Catcher from my Etsy Shop.

“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast!” ― William Shakespeare

Stained Glass Shamrock

Stained Glass Shamrock Banner

As of today, schools in the state of Illinois are officially closed as a precautionary measure to slow the spread COVID-19 Coronavirus. In order to make this unprecedented time with the kids at home less stressful and more enjoyable, I definitely plan on coming up with projects to keep them occupied. For me, projects like this are not only bonding time to create fun memories with the kids, but I find them especially helpful when their abundance of energy needs to be diverted to something other than going out of their way to annoy their siblings.

For starters – With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, I created the below Faux Stained Glass Shamrock Printable Template.

Shamrock Thumbnail
>>>Download FREE Printable Stained Glass Shamrock Template HERE.

For a 3-D effect, we started off by tracing the lines using School Glue dyed with black acrylic paint.

Note: This step is optional, as you can use the Printable as a coloring page as well.

Glue

After the glue dried, we used water colors to paint the image. This gave it a beautiful, uneven, glass-like effect.

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Sticking with the Irish theme and in context with current world events, I also created the below Sláinte Coloring Page. As a standard way of saying “cheers” in Irish, “sláinte” [SLAHN-chÉ™] translates to ‘Good Health’ in English – an Irish expression that derives from the Old Irish word slán, meaning “healthy” or “safe”.

Cheers to you and your family during this time of social distancing…. or should I say, “Sláinte!”

“Good luck be with you wherever you go & may your blessings outnumber the shamrocks you grow.”

Hidden Message Valentine Mystery Worksheet

Jacob was such a fan of the Secret Agent Valentine I designed for him, that I thought I’d use a similar concept to come up with an activity for Evan’s class Valentine’s Day party.

I created a series of worksheets where the kids get to tap into their inner Secret Agent and are challenged with the task to find Cupid’s stolen arrows. Using some of our favorite Love/Heart/Valentine’s Day themed books, the kids dive into the stories a bit deeper to investigate clues, decode messages and figure out who the Arrow Thief is.

Supplies needed:

  1. Hidden Message Valentines Mystery Printable Worksheet
  2. Secret Agent Pens
  3. Secret Decoder Screen
  4. Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
  5. The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond
  6. In My Heart by Jo Witek
    *Check your local library.

What do you think, Secret Agent? Can you solve the Valentine’s mystery?

Like the idea but want to use a different selection of books or make changes to the worksheet? Contact me through my Etsy shop and I’m happy to work with you to create a custom mystery experience.

Have a spy-tastic Valentine’s Day!

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.”
– Neil Armstrong

Secret Agent Valentine

Secret Agent Valentine Banner

Jacob received an Invisible Ink Secret Agent Pen for Christmas and has been using it all the time (mostly to write the word “poop” and giggle about it). He thought it would be fun to give his classmates one for Valentine’s Day, so we created these spy themed valentines – because who doesn’t love decoding top secret messages?

Secret Agent Valentine - PIP.jpg

Use the Secret Agent Pen‘s UV light to reveal who the valentine is from and decode the mission.

Secret Decoder Message - PIP.jpg

To create your own, simply print out the Secret Agent Valentine (front and back), attach the Secret Agent Pen (with washi tape or something similar) – Mission Complete!

Related Posts:
DIY Mermaid Valentine Printable - Mermaid Valentine's Day Card

Check out more of my DIY Valentines HERE.

 

New Year’s Eve Activity Sheet

As a simple New Year’s Eve activity for the kids, I created this printable activity sheet. Similar to a restaurant kids menu, I thought they can work on this at dinner. Figured it will give them a holiday themed challenge, as well as some fun topics to discuss. 🙂

New Years Eve Printable Thumbnail

Click on above image or HERE to download free printable.

Happy New Year!

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” ― Brad Paisley