Happy New Year Valentine: Coloring Page & Printable Card

The start of the Asian New Year and Valentine's Day fall on the same day this year. 

2010 is the Year of the Tiger. 

I combined the two to make a unique Valentine's Day Coloring Sheet & Card for your little tigers. Click download on the top of each menu bar. If you don't download it first it comes out sized strangely.

Tiger Coloring Page


The card is situated on the bottom of the page. Don't worry if it looks blank in the box...just scroll down to find the illustration. Also the web address prints normal - it just looks wonky in Scribed. Remember download first then print. After printing, just fold in half and then color or vise versa.

Tiger Card

Twirling Cats & Ballerinas

I found this fun activity over at Bilbified. Kristine is great and so is her blog! Her blog name is inspired by her daughters stuffed Bilby animal. Many of you may already know what a Bilby is - I did not. So we quickly learned what one was. Check in on Kristine and her two sweeties over at Bilbified and see what they are up to.

Instructions: Cut out two figures for each twirling toy. I used two different colors paper so when it spins it looks extra pretty. Glue a bamboo cooking skewer between the two pieces of paper. Let dry. Decorate.

Rub between your hands or fingers to make twirl and spin. Both girls loved their twirling toys. Lu's is the ballerina and Em's is the cat. I did mine free hand but you could find a template or coloring page you want to use.

Watch your kids while they play with this toy. Do not leave young child unattended with skewers...or else! Ouch!

I Heart Bean Bags

Bean bags are so simple to make. The girls love thinking up new games and uses for them. There can never be enough as far as they are concerned. They toss them into anything and everything. You can draw a bullseye onto a large piece of cardboard or fabric for a simple game.

For the heart: I traced a large cookie cutter onto the back side of fabric. Sew two pieces together, right sides facing in, around line. Leave one inch for turning. Trim, turn fabric right side out, fill and sew closed.

Valentine's Day Craft: Sailor Valentines

Sailor Valentines date back to the 1800's. Traditionally made from seashells arranged in intricate designs, usually hearts or flowers.  My version uses noodles dyed with food coloring and heart doilies. Of course if you have sea shells why not create an authentic Sailor Valentine.

Begin by dying your noodles. We made a ton to give away as party favors for a craft themed party. I boxed them up in some stationary boxes and wrapped a strip of paper and ribbon around them. I did write on the back, DO NOT EAT! Just in case...

The instructions for coloring the noodles can be found all over the blogging world. Basically all you need is noodles, food coloring and rubbing alcohol or Purell. Be aware food coloring stains and if little hands are helping you they are bound to get quite colorful. This is especially important for kids who do not like to be dirty. It really bugged Lu that after washing her hands 5X that they were still stained. Plastic gloves can solve this problem.

Next glue your doilies to a piece of card board. Dry and then cut out.

There are two types of kids, one who glues noodle by noodle and is very methodical and the other just dumps the noodles on is ready to make another one. If you have the second kind of child make several of these because they will be ready to move on quickly.

Squirt glue into the center of the heart - be liberal with the glue. Place a handful of noodles in a child safe container and let them arrange the noodles on the heart. I say a handful of noodles because the likelihood of them ending up on the floor is very high. You can always refill the container. After they are finished they can add a little glitter to the top. These hearts can be added to Valentines, attached to a gift or glued together as a hanging decoration (make two, sandwich a string or ribbon between the two, glue, dry and hang.)

Asian New Year Craft: Tiger Lanterns

   

Jimmies Collage is hosting a Chinese New Year Contest.

Link up your craft, project or lesson.

2010: Year of the Tiger 

Lunar New Year, February 14th

Jazz up the ubiquitous lantern craft with homemade tiger paper. So Easy to do! Start by ripping strips of black construction paper. Hold the paper the long way and start ripping. Strips should not be uniform! Different lengths and widths are good. Just keep ripping until you have a nice pile.

Start gluing down the strips onto orange construction paper. Glue paper in tiger like pattern. See picture below. You can give a child a brush and a cup of glue that has been slightly thinned with water or they can use a glue stick. For younger children, squirt glue onto paper and let child place paper on top an rub flat.

Let dry. For a cylinder lantern just roll and staple or glue. Punch holes in top and thread ribbon or yarn through to hang. For a fancier lantern, fold paper in half the long way or "hot dog bun" way as I call it. Cut shallow slits into the paper about an inch apart. Make sure not to cut all the way through. Unfold, roll and staple or glue.

This technique also works well for Zebra paper. Have fun crafting with your kids!

Valentine's Day Craft: Doilies Garland

Have a happy weekend! TGIF!

Valentines Day Craft: Painted Paper Doilies

Paint paper heart-shaped doilies (available at craft stores) for a colorful and simple Valentine activity.

Place a piece of tape that has been formed into a circle on back of doilies and attach to paper. This will prevent your doilies from moving too much while painting.

Use water color paints.

Show younger children how to use gentle strokes. We call it "giving your paintbrush a bad hair day" when the kids scrub their brushes and the bristles go every which way. This ruins the brushes and makes it difficult for the kids to paint. We don't want that! So if I need to remind them I just say jokingly..."Oh no...bad hair day!!!" Lu always laughs and now she reminds Em not to give her brush a bad hair day.

Painted doilies can be glued to the front of homemade cards or taped to windows or walls as decorations. They would look lovely strung together!

Have fun crafting with your kids!

Printable Valentine Coloring Pages and Cards

Click on picture.

Save to desktop.

Open up from desktop.

Print onto card stock.

Color picture.

Trim using guides.

I'm Legit: Adoption Video

I had the unique opportunity to meet Zara H. Phillips and Daryl "DMC" McDaniels and to be an extra in their video, I'm Legit. Both Zara and DMC are adoptees. Zara is a singer, songwriter, author and director of a short documentary called, Roots Unknown. Daryl is well known for being in the rap group Run DMC. He is also extremely active in the adoption community. The documentary, DMC: An Adoption Story tells his adoption story. To find out more information you can goto www.zarahphillips.com or www.me-dmc.com.

"I'm starting my life on chapter two..."

The song addresses the fact that in many states adoptees have no legal right to their birth records.  Many states have groups working to pass legislation to allow adoptees this right. To find out more information regarding the legislation visit NJCARE.

BEING AN EXTRA

It was a freezing day in Newark, NJ and a group of adoptees and those touched by adoption, ranging in age and race, huddled together to keep warm as we waited for our part as extras. We passed the time by sharing our stories and trying to stay warm.

Mama King with Linnea (the daughter of an adoptee) and Ann (an adoptee)

Although I am in the background for two seconds and am blurry (I'm wearing a pink scarf near the end as Daryl walks by me) I had a wonderful experience that day, despite the freezing tempuratures. My soul was warmed by the wonderful men and women I met and their stories. There is something so intimate about meeting another adoptee. You may not know the names of their children or the town they grew up in but you do know their loss, you feel their unspoken heartache. I left feeling inspired by Zara and DMC and the work they do. Enjoy the video! Don't blink or you'll miss me :-)

I'm Legit

Valentines Day Craft: Paper Plate Spirals

 

Make this simple and pretty paper plate Valentine spiral to decorate your home with a little love.

This craft is best suited for children 5+ years old with some scissor skills. Adult supervision is necessary.

Instructions:

 Paint a paper plate

Let Dry

Cut a spiral by turning the plate slowly as you cut.

Draw a spiral line on the plate to help guide younger children with cutting.

Punch hole at top end and string a ribbon, chenille stem  or yarn on end to hang.

You can also add beads to dress it up.

You can also punch a hole on the other end and dangle a heart or other shape from bottom.

I chose to hang a string of hearts from the top.

Hang & Enjoy!

These can also be used for any party decoration using different colors and shapes.

For example, green with clover dangles for St. Patrick's Day.

Valentine Craft: Prints

 Use packing bubble sheets and heart doilies.

Bubble Prints: Let kids roll paint on to bubble sheets. Place paint side down onto paper. Let kids gentle rub. Have kids peel up bubble sheet up. Experiment with cutting shapes out of bubble sheets.

Doilies Prints: Use a low tack glue stick to apply doilies to paper. Have kids roll on paint. Peel off doilies.

 

Once dry let kids add doilies, tissue paper, glitter, gems...

Ideas:

Place in a matted picture frame...

Trim and glue to front of homemade cards...

Cover with contact paper for Valentines Day place mat...

Colored Ice Cubes

Looks like snow is in the forecast for us here on the East Coast.
Make up some colored ice cubes to jazz up snow forts and snowmen.
Make in varying sizes using whatever containers you've got.
Leave outside overnight. Instant frozen fun!
Just stick the ice cubes into the snowman as if you were using coal.
Turns a snowman into a Snow Princess :-)

Stay warm!

Three Little Pigs & One Wolf

Our house is a very very fine house...until that big old wolf came to town!


I'll huff and I'll puff!!!!




Not by the hair of my chiny chin chin!

Crafting should always be this fun!

What We Are Working On: The Three Little Pigs

I am always so inspired by Valerie over at The Frugal Family Fun Blog. When I saw her Three Little Pigs Project I instantly filed it away in my mental Rolodex (I am so low tech.) That was until yesterday when out of the blue Lu started acting out the Three Little Pigs with her Pretty Ponies... You can see where this is going. Of course, I had neither straw nor twigs or mini milk cartons...so...I decided to improvise. Here is our version, admittedly much different than the original but similar in spirit.

We started with a single house front (the front panel of a cereal box.) Lu and I cut up pieces of construction paper and yarn for the straw house. Which came out pretty cute.

I then realized it wasn't very practical as far as playing with it. So I opened up a second cereal box and cut out house shapes leaving the houses attached (see photo.) I glued the straw house to the open flap of the box. Use clamps or clothes pins to secure.

You can either leave it open, like a screen or glue or tape it closed to make a triangle.

I will post updated pictures as soon as we finish them.

Have fun crafting with your kids in 2010!