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.

Valentine’s Joke Teller

The kids really enjoyed my Thanksgiving Joke Teller / Cootie Catcher, so I decided to create another one for Valentine’s Day. Great entertainment for their classroom celebration and perfect way to connect with friends and family over Zoom this year.

Click HERE to download the Valentine’s Day Joke Teller / Cootie Catcher from my Etsy Shop.

Click HERE to download the Valentine’s Day Joke Teller / Cootie Catcher from my Etsy Shop.

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.

IMG_0446

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-chə] 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.”

Build a Robot Papercraft Valentine

DIY Build a Robot Papercraft Valentine with Free Printable - projectsinparenting.com

Jacob has been into origamis lately, so for Valentine’s Day this year I purchased these fun Papercraft Robot Cards. The thick, plastic-like cards are pre-cut and creased, which makes them durable and easy for little hands to work with. No cutting or sticking is required – just pop-out and fold! UPDATE: The product I originally used has sold out, however another company, Box Buddies, offers a similar product.

To go along with them, I created this simple Robot Valentine. We stuffed both of them into fun blue envelopes I had leftover from the boys’ birthday (similar ones available on Amazon), but they could easily be attached by simply using a paperclip. Now Jacob is just “a bot” ready for his Valentine’s Day party at school!

To create your own Robot Valentine, download the FREE printable here.

Build a Robot Papercraft Valentine with Free Printable - projectsinparenting.com

If you would like smaller Valentines, click here for a PDF with 4 per page.

Other favor ideas for this DIY Robot Valentine:
Make Your Own Robot Stickers
Robot Erasers
Robot Fidget Toy

Related: Mermaid Valentine Printable
Related: Unicorn Valentine Printable
Related: DIY Heart Breaker Valentine’s Day Cards
Related: Super Hero Valentine’s Day Cards

“Are you a robot – or do you think for yourself?”

Super Simple Snowflake Sticker Craft

Super Simple Snowflake Sticker Craft - projectsinparenting.com

Last year I hosted a Christmas party with 12 kids. How did I keep that many little ones occupied with a craft that didn’t end up with a huge mess?? — STICKERS!

Using only these cute foam snowflakes and rhinestone gems from Amazon, each kid was able to create their own shimmering piece of art! (Individual gem packs are usually available at your local craft store)

This year, I still had left over snowflakes and rhinestone stickers, so we combined them with some glitter glue for a little extra sparkle!

Super Simple Snowflake Sticker Craft - projectsinparenting.com

With a little bit of water, these snowflakes also stick great on glass / windows. The kids love wetting them down the back and playing with them on our sliding glass patio door. 🙂

“We are like a snowflake all different in our own beautiful way”