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I'm always looking for new ways I can decorate my daughter's room, so I thought a simple wreath with felt flowers to hang on her wall would be easy and look sweet. This wreath could also work for a "girly" birthday, baby shower, or even as a Valentine's Day decoration.

MATERIALS

• Styrofoam ring
• 1.5" silk ribbon in white
• 1" silk ribbon in light pink
• Pins
• Felt
• Glue

INSTRUCTIONS

Use a pin to secure your 1.5 inch white silk ribbon on the side of the wreath that will be the back. Then wrap the ribbon around the ring until it is completely covered. Next use the 1 inch pink silk ribbon to wrap on top.

To make the flowers, I cut felt into round spirals, then starting at the center of the spiral, I wound the felt until it looked like a rose.

I secured it with glue. Then used a pin to pin the rose into the wreath. I was able to stick the pin in deep to hide it.

I made the spirals in different sizes so my flowers would be varied sizes.

Finally I attached a pink lace ribbon for hanging and glued three hearts I cut out freehand on top.

I love how it turned out, and so does my daughter, Lainey!

I'm so excited to introduce our new contributor, my friend Rachelle Doorley and the creative mind behind Tinkerlab, a site filled with fantastic ideas for creating child-directed art projects and experiments.

Valentine's Day with kids doesn't have to be stressful. In fact, sometimes the simplest ideas can be the most successful.

When we have friends over for Valentine's Day, a favorite activity is the do-it-yourself Valentine table.

You can think of this card-making table as an open-ended art-making experience that builds creative thinking skills by enabling children to make choices and develop their own ideas.

And it doesn't hurt that it takes me back to the doily and paper heart Valentines of my own childhood.

MATERIALS:

• Pre-made blank cards or cardstock cut into card-size pieces
• Self-inking Valentine stamps or stamps and ink pads
• Variety of decorative paper. Some ideas: wrapping paper, tissue paper, scrapbook paper, candy foil wrappers, doilies
• Treasures. Some ideas: googly eyes, sequins, foam hearts, stickers
• Glue sticks
• Markers
• Child-friendly scissors
• Near-by waste basket to collect scraps

SET UP:

Set up a station for each child. If you don't have enough materials for each child to have their own (scissors or glue, for example), place those in the middle of the table for sharing.

Pre-make a couple examples and put those in the middle of the table to give the children some ideas on what they can do with the materials. Keep your samples simple enough so that the children will get inspired, but not feel like they have to make a direct copy.

Have Fun!

Some children could sit at a table like this for hours, while other children may graze this table for minutes. Either way, keep in mind that children learn through play and will appreciate the open-ended quality of this experience.

Thanks, Rachelle. What a terrific way to inspire our kids to be creative while making cards they can give to the people they love!

To find more interesting and creative activities and experiments for your kids, please visit Tinkerlab. Also check out the Tinkerlab Facebook page and Pinterest boards.

Do you need free Valentine's Day party decorations, party invitations, or just plain Valentines? Check out all our fantastic free collections of Valentine's Day printables!!

I always have a hard time finding easy (and inexpensive) Valentine's Day gifts that aren't candy. That's why I decided to make heart crayons with cute tags that my daughter can give to her friends this year for Valentine's Day.

I broke up some pink, white, red, and purple crayons (be careful using purple because they can look really dark when melted).  I put the pieces in heart-shaped silicone baking cups and melted them in the oven at 225 degrees for about 8-10 minutes, checking them often.

I let them cool, popped them out, and here's how they turned out.

Then I placed them in cello bags, tied them with pink bows, and attached these "You color my world!" Valentine's Day tags created by Michelle from  Printabelle.

DOWNLOAD THE "YOU COLOR MY WORLD" TAGS HERE

If you're looking for a cute, quick, cheap Valentine's Day gift, I recommend you try these!

I love ombre, so I absolutely love this sweet collection of pink ombre Valentine's Day party printables from Michelle at Printabelle!

The collection includes: invitations, cupcake toppers, gift bags, gift tags, a "Be Mine" banner (large and small), mini candy bar wrappers, a welcome sign, treat toppers, tented cards, and water bottle labels.

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING

Here's the whole collection...

And here are the individual files...

Thanks, Michelle! These are just lovely!

And remember, if you’d like any of these printables personalized, Michelle will do it for $3 per file! To learn more about Michelle and see all the printable collections, head to Printabelle and the Printabelle Facebook page.

Also, for more Valentine's Day inspiration, check out all our free Valentine's Day printables and awesome Valentine' Day parties on our site.

Love is definitely in the air with this "tweet" collection of free Valentine's Day party printables designed by Amanda from Cherry Blossom Charm.

The collection includes: party invitations, 2" party circles, drink flags, thank you tags, labels, a "Love is in the Air" banner, and 4 Valentines to give to your friends.

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING

• Party printables
• "Love is in the Air" banner

And see the individual files...

These are truly adorable. Thanks, Amanda, for such a darling collection!

To learn more about Amanda and see all of her designs, visit her site Cherry Blossom Charm, her Etsy shop, and her Facebook page.

Also, for more Valentine's Day inspiration, check out all our free Valentine's Day printables and awesome Valentine' Day parties on our site.

How stylish is this "Vintage Cupid" set of free Valentine's Day party printables from Lea at Sweet Scarlett Events.

My favorite item here is the favor boxes which come in six different designs. I'm planning to use these to fill with treats to give to my daughter's teachers on Valentine's Day.

The collection includes: party squares, cupcake wrappers, a Valentine love note, favor boxes, wine bottle labels, and a "Love" banner. Everything you'd need to throw a sweet party!

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING HERE:

• Valentine's Day printables
• "Love" banner

Thanks, Lea, for designing this special party collection for us! To learn more about Sweet Scarlett Events and see all of their designs, visit the Sweet Scarlett Events Etsy shop and Facebook page.

For more Valentine's Day inspiration, check out all our free Valentine's Day printables and awesome Valentine' Day parties on our site.

I love the vintage font, but modern chevron feel of these Valentine's Day printables from  Pick.Print.Party.

The collection includes: an invitation, party tags, a "Be Mine" banner, water bottle labels, and a Valentine's Day card.

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING

Thank you, Pick.Print.Party. for such a pretty collection. To learn more about Pick.Print.Party. and see all of their designs, visit the Pick.Print.Party. Etsy shop and Facebook page.

For more Valentine's Day inspiration, check out all our free Valentine's Day printables and awesome Valentine' Day parties on our site.

I wanted to create something my daughter would love for Valentine's Day, and boy, did these Rice Krispie Treat heart wands knock it out of the park! Plus, because they're so easy, she could help me with them.

SUPPLIES:

• Traditional Rice Krispie Treat recipe substituting strawberry marshmallows for regular marshmallows
• White chocolate chips
• Wilton lollipop sticks (12 inch)
• Wilton Valentine Nonpareils Sprinkles
• White sugar pearls
• White ribbon

While "dough" is warm, using a 3 inch heart cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes. (I wish I had a metal heart shaped cookie cutter like this because my plastic one was not deep enough and I had to press hard to get my hearts out.)

Once you've cut out your initial hearts, if your Rice Krispie Treat "dough" is still warm, you can reshape it and cut out more. I was able to cut out 9 hearts.

In microwave, melt white chocolate chips. I melt them on medium high, stirring them every 30 seconds.

Pour melted white chocolate into a zip lock bag. I try to pour the white chocolate into one side of the bag, then snip a tiny corner off of the other side of the bag.

Using quick strokes make lines across your heart with the white chocolate.

Once the white chocolate has dried, sprinkle decorations on the Rice Krispie Treats. I press the sprinkles down to make sure they stick, then gently shake them to get off any loose sprinkles.

Carefully insert a 12 inch lollipop stick into the bottom of the hearts. Then tie with ribbon to display.

If you make some, please send photos to jillian(at)catchmyparty(dot)com. I'd love to see how yours turned out!

Also for more inspiration, check out the wonderful Valentine's Day parties on our site, plus our Valentine's Day free printables.

I've been talking with the people at Cricut about doing a giveaway with us. (I know, pretty cool.) Well, the giveaway is coming soon, but in the meantime, they sent me a Cricut Expression 2 to try out for myself.

Let me preface this by saying I'm a total beginner and I don't even have any Cricut cartridges yet. But I needed to get crafty because at my daughter's preschool, the rule is that the valentines need to be homemade and the kids need to help. So, what better way to make homemade valentines than with my new Cricut?

I can't tell you how much fun I had cutting out these hearts. I used a couple of the designs that come with the Cricut, and my daughter helped glue them on. Then we hand-stamped some extra hearts using silver ink. My daughter was sick all weekend so this was the perfect project to keep us busy.

Here's my new Cricut.

Here's the machine in action, cutting out the big hearts. I used scrapbooking paper and cardstock, both bought at Jo-Ann's.

The coolest part... removing the designs from the sticky cutting mat.

And now we've got 28 homemade valentines! My daughter is hand signing them all on the back.

I will be posting about my other Cricut projects, and the more I learn, the more I'll share, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I've been up to this weekend (besides feeding my daughter lots of Tylenol and watching Barbie movies).