Bunny Cakes

Our Cheeky Valentines

Coming up with a fun Valentine's Day Card for my fifth graders was not easy.  It was made extra challenging because their school did not allow anything edible with the cards.  Candy makes any card cool, so without it we were stuck a square one.  We were stuck there for a long time (even with Pinterest)!  Finally I became inspired by Erin Jang's accordion fold Valentine's Day card.  We added our own twist by including lines from Carly Rae Jepsen's ubiqutous hit, Call Me Maybe.  Then I came up with the brilliant idea of including $1 scratch off lottery tickets with the cards.  We were already using the 'Pennies and dimes' line and copper envelopes, so now we had a money theme going (sort of).  I loved it, what kid wouldn't love getting a chance to win $1000 dollars!?!  Soon after (luckily before I bought 60 scratch off lottery tickets) my brilliant idea got scratched, something about it being illegal to give minors lottery tickets...blah, blah, blah.  We still moved forward with our *Call Me Maybe Valentine's Day* cards and I made little clay hearts to tie around our copper envelopes, but the cards were still lacking the favor element.  The weekend before Valentine's Day I delayed having the boys and I assemble the cards because they were still incomplete.  It wasn't till the Tuesday before v-day when we came up with the idea to include Frosty key tags from Wendy's.  If you are unfamiliar with these babies, they will score you a FREE Jr. Frosty with ANY purchase every single time you go to Wendy’s, for the rest of the year.  But wait there's more...Wendy's donates the proceeds to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Finally our cards were complete!

In case you can't read the wording on the cards, here's what they said: 'I threw a wish in the well.  Since you asked me, I'll tell.  Pennies and Dimes.  Happy Valentine's (initially they said, 'Will You Be My Valentine's', but the boys thought it was not gender neutral enough).  P.S.  Your dungarees are ripped and your epidermis is showing.  Call Me Maybe.'  We definitely took some poetic license with the original lyrics.  Their classmates thought the cards were awesome, though most kids had no idea what dungarees were (kids these days).

-K

Valentine's Day Card Preview

Tomorrow night the boys and I have a ton of Valentine's Day cards to put together.  Here is a preview of one of the elements for their cards: small clay hearts, which will be tied around the envelopes.

-K

Plant a Tree and Get Cool Cards

You know when you find something you really like and want to tell everyone about it and you can't believe everyone else isn't already using it (like why isn't everyone watching Game of Thrones)!?!  For me that something is Paper Culture.  I love them: their products, their values (eco-friendly and cool) and their service.  For the last 3 years my sister and I have both ordered our Christmas cards through them.  And for the first time, I also ordered Valentine's Day Photo cards from them.  I usually don't send out Valentine's Day cards to the family because I am so busy with C & J's Valentine's Day cards for their classmates.  However, this year I took a picture of Baby B that begged for a card.  Even though I am biased towards Paper Culture I kept an open mind and went Minted, Tiny Prints, Shutteryfly and Paper Culture to create the perfect card with my photo.  I started out at Minted because they have great designs, but the final product was way too expensive (all the little add ons really added up: $13.75 for rounded corners, $13.75 to have the back of the card printed and $5 to get premium recycled paper, which totaled $79.50 for 15 cards!!!!) and I just couldn't get over the size of their cards (5x7 is just too big).  Next I went to Tiny Prints, I had a 'spend $40 for $20' deal to use with them so I was all set to order, but I couldn't find any cards I loved plus I knew the quality would be slightly less than Paper Culture so I moved on.  My trip to Shutterfly was brief, I figured if I could get a super good deal then I would sacrifice on the quality and design of the card, but that didn't happen.  So my open-minded journey ended at Paper Culture (PC).  I have to say I did not find a Valentine's Day card design at PC that suited my portrait-oriented picture and was ready to go with a Christmas design which I could convert to V-day until I remembered their free designer services (you get two free designer edits per card--you can even get the edits before you commit to ordering).  I asked if they could convert a landscape design for my portrait picture, which they did (love them) and the rest is history.  OK, here is where I go off on why I like PC so much...(1) rounded corners on every card are standard; (2) cards are the perfect size...4x6; (3) premium 130lb 100% post consumer recycled paper is standard; (4) card back designs are free; (5) two free designer edits for your card allows you to achieve the perfect card; (6) THEY PLANT A TREE WITH EVERY ORDER (plus, they use wind power to create their paper--who does that?!).  Anyways, that's why I like them so much and I will certainly remind you around Christmas time.  I want you to know that I have no affiliation with them or get any compensation from them, I just really like them.  Next time you want the perfect card, check them out.

Here is my Valentine' Day card printed from Paper Culture...

And here is their original card design (before any of the designer edits were applied)...

Thanks for listening.

K

Valentine's Day Card Holder

In Baby Brooks' room we mounted a metal card holder to hold pictures and little mementos.  It sat pretty barren with only a card (with his footprint) and a mini clay elephant mobile until Christmas, when I finally added our family Christmas card and some other festive goodies.  Brooks and I both enjoyed gazing at it during feedings so I decided to give it a fresh Valentine's Day look.  To start with I created a 'Be Mine' banner made from red glitter paper and then simply taped to some red and white bakers twine.  Then I added some baby/mini versions of our previous Valentine's Day cards (the smaller versions looked so cute!) to the twine.  Finally I added a few more hearts (including one made out of salt dough with Brooks' handprint) and a v-day elephant ribbon to create more cheer.  I left a little room on the card holder in case we get some special Valentines.

Baby B is a big fan of the mini Valentine's day cards...they fit so nicely in his mouth hand.

-K

Love is in the Air

Less than a month till Valentine's Day!  This is the last year my older boys will be passing out Valentine's Day cards to their classmates (*sniff, sniff*) and I really do not know what to make for them.  Since they are in 5th grade they are too cool for most of the Valentine's Day cutsie stuff and are not allowed to bring in any sweets or food.  I need some serious inspiration!  I turned to my V-day Pinterest board (ah, I love Pinterest) and though I feel more inspired, I am still at a loss.  But just in case you need a little inspiration here are some pictures to get you in the mood...

-K

This Year's Valentine's Day Cards

Now that the boys are getting older (4th grade), they have a lot more opinions on what their Valentine's Day cards should be like.  When trying to come up with this year's theme we first decided on what to include with the cards.  After some searching we went with the classic novelty gift, a whoopee cushion.  From there we came up with a skunk theme and added our own version of Roses Are Red to our cards.  A flower lollipop completed them and added the obligatory sweet element.  

The cards were assembled by folding the whoopee cushions in half (use a craft glue dot to keep them folded), then we added a card on top, which read: Roses are Red, Flamingos are Pink, I Hope Your Valentine's Day Doesn't Stink.  Finally we placed the cut-out skunk on top and tied it up with the lollipop.  We later ended up having to drop the lollipop from our cards due to changes in the county v-day policy prohibiting candy, but they still turned out cute!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

-K

Stylish Valentines

Check it out, our Zebra and Sweetheart Valentine's Day cards showed up on Stylelist, one of my favorite fashion & style sites!  I feel so honored and stylish!

-K

Valentine's Day Update

If you are a regular reader of our blog, then you will know Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays.  And you will also know I haven't posted in a long while.  One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to post more frequently, but as you can see the opposite has happened.  The truth is, I haven't been feeling well and have been utterly useless outside of my regular work hours.  Somehow I can keep it together for work, but as soon as I come home I am worthless.  For this reason I was planning on passing on personalizing Valentine's Day cards this year.  However, it only took one person to ask and I found myself opening up my etsy shop.  So if you are interested in getting your hands on a personalized version of our cards please check out our shop.  The personalized cards are $4.50 for a PDF file (with 6 cards) you can print as often as you want.  The non-personalized cards are free to download: Zebra cards, Sweetheart cards, Love is All You Need cards, Playbill Valentine's Day cards, Love Big cards & Penguin Treat Holder cards.

-K

Valentine's Day Prep

The weekend before Valentine's Day was very busy to say the least.  All my mini-projects, which were in various stages of completion, had to wrap up before Monday.  By Saturday afternoon some of them were in good shape, but others still only existing in my head.  Luckily by Sunday night all were complete and ready for prime time.  Here is a look at the during and after pictures.

A and her family came over Sunday morning for a Valentine's Day Photo Shoot for Baby O.  Look how cute and flirty he was during the shoot...he is actually like that most of the time I see him.  I like to think its me, but I often hear reports of him being flirty with other women...the nerve! and so young!

Here is C$ working on tying little tags to choclate bars to hand out as Valentine's Day Cards to his third grade classmates. 

Here is a better look at our disastorous kitchen table...gasp!  I did save two clear spots at the table so the boys could eat like humans--Hubby's request.  If I had it my way they would have just eaten fallen M&M's scrounged from the floor (kidding of course, they would have had a few brownie & cookie crumbs to eat too).

The final results for the boys' Valentine's Day cards...(for more check out here).

The boys' teachers (past and present) got tented Penguin Cards stuffed with a heart-shaped brownie, M&Ms, a Valentine's Day sugar cookie and a hershey kiss.  My coworkers and A's also received a version of this Valentine's Day treat.  Here are the brownies awaiting their cookie partners.

A look at the Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies...I made mostly bite-sized cookies that would fit nicely in the treat bags.

The Teacher Valentine's Day Cards for this year...(for downloadable file click here).

 -K

Valentine's Day Gold & Ice

Here is a look at what the boys and I created for for this year's *Classroom Valentine's Day Cards*. 

We first settled on what treat the boys were going to hand out--chocolate bars.  Then we figured out how we could incorporate our penguin card and our panda idea (panda theif stealing hearts).  For the penguin cards we made our chocolate bars into icebergs and attached little tags with our penguin Valentine's Day message: Wishing You a Sweet Valentine's Day.  For the panda cards, we made our chocolate bars into bricks of gold and attached a tag with our panda theif message: Love is More Precious Than Gold.

I am still working on finished up their cards, but if I can finish today I will be in good shape.  These cards are definitely not for those who don't enjoy crafting as it involves a lot of cutting, punching, folding, taping and tying.  To get the boys involved in the process I had them tie on the tags.

Here are the steps:

1.  Print and cut out chocolate bar labels.

2.  Fold along the four edges that will define the chocolate bar shape.  Be sure to use a bone folder to get crisp edges.

3.  Tape one side of the label to the back of the chocolate bar using regular tape--one piece in the middle will do fine.  Then apply double-sided tape to the two corners of the opposite side of the label and press down.

4.  Punch out your tag and attach to the cholocate bar.

5.  Deliver!

-K