Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day friends!  We are ready for my son's class party- just bringing sugar cookies and juice, which is perfect for the cutest bunch of 3-year-olds around.  To make them sweeter, I put the cookies in a plastic baggie with a V-day napkin.  

I'm really happy that James helped make the cookies and he's super excited to share them with his class.  Yes, it makes a mess and our floors are still dirty, but I'll get it all cleaned up this weekend. 

I used this sugar cookie recipe and they are tasty!  My icing on the other hand, not so much.  I didn't use buttercream, but tried to make royal icing.  

 They were supposed to look like this.  Oh well.  I'll practice and hopefully get better over time.   James still thought they were good- no complaints about the icing or the way they looked:)  

But, I decided to make a cookie I knew would be delicious- the Nestle tollhouse chocolate chip recipe with a mix of chocolate chips and Valentine's colored dark M&M's.  Cannot go wrong there.  If you really want to show off the M&M's, it's better to put them on top instead of mixing them in with the batter. 

These are the napkins I found at my grocery store to include with the cellophane bags. 

We'll give each child one of each cookie. 

It's all about . . .  

(from Hobby Lobby)

p.s.  If you're in the mood for jewelry today, Emily A. Clark is hosting a virtual trunk show & $150 Giveaway to Stella & Dot!  

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Kids' Valentine Craft - Personalized Gift Bags

My son's preschool class will be having a Valentine's party and, over the weekend, we completed a quick, inexpensive Valentine craft for the kiddos.  We made personalized gift bags for everyone with muslin bags, an ink stamp, and red marker.  I got these 4x6 bags at Amazon (25 for $5).

I figured there will be plenty of sweets (I'm bringing cookies) at the party, so we filled the bags with goodies instead- bubbles, kazoo, and foam heart sticker.  

We got a little off track while stamping the bags . . . 

But that's part of the fun, right?!  The ink washed right off with soap and water.

I used a red sharpie to write each child's name.  (I put a piece of paper in the bag so the ink wouldn't bleed through while I was writing).  Then stuffed each bag. 

I hope they like them!

Each child is supposed to decorate a shoebox to collect their Valentines in.  I wrapped James' box with red polka dot paper left over from Christmas (from The Container Store).  

To personalize the box, I spray painted mini chip board letter and James stuck them on.  He also added the red heart stickers.  

I think we're ready for the party! 

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Valentine Ideas (DIY Welcome Mat)

If you're in the mood for a quick and easy Valentine decor idea, how about creating a loving message at your front door?  I was originally looking for a plain mat that I could paint a big red heart on, but when I found this "key" welcome mat, I figured I could add a sweet message instead.

I'm not sure how practical this mat will be as far as the paint lasting once dirty shoes are scraped against it, but it's sure cute for now!

I die over this adorable shabby chic wagon from Hobby Lobby.  The pink and purple faux flowers are also from Hobby Lobby. 

To apply the text, I used a stiff paint brush and leftover Urbane Bronze paint from my kitchen cabinets.  I dabbed the letters on as opposed to swiping.  The heart was created with the same brush and pink craft paint.  This project took a total of about 10 minutes. 

The best part was painting with my little guy.  Of course when he saw me painting he wanted to join in.  I wish I could bottle this age!

Didn't his picture turn out cool?

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be mine

We don’t take Valentine’s day too seriously around here, but it’s still nice to do a little something sweet to celebrate the day.  At least, I think so;)

image via YourHomebasedMom

On our first V-day together, Jimmy and I exchanged books and I still think books make a great gift (for a relatively small investment too).  It forces you to really think about what the recipient would enjoy receiving.  This year, Jimmy’s getting a hard cover book about his favorite college football team.  

Over the weekend, I also had some fun playing around with my Silhouette machine making homemade cards.

Before I had a Silhouette, I always wondered how people used it, but it’s pretty easy.  I downloaded these images for $1 each:

Which look like this on your screen just before you make the cuts.

I had to cut the images three times, on different colored paper, to achieve this:

After using spray adhesive to assemble the images, they looked like this:

  

It’s so fun making these cards, I can’t wait to make more:)

and to my sweet baby James . . .

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