Pinned Down Monday

Hello!

I'm sorry I missed last weeks Pinned Down Monday - it was a rough week.  Adam, my little guy, ended up with pneumonia.  He started off with a flu/head congestion bug 2 weeks ago that progressed to asthmatic bronchitis and then turned into pneumonia.  So, along with my back still being hurt, but getting better with PT, we had a very sick little boy.  We also celebrated Adam's birthday last week, but had to cancel the little family party since he was sick.  I don't know about everyone else, but this years germs seem pretty potent!

Anyways, Adam and I worked on his classroom Valentines on Saturday and they turned out super cute.  I got the idea from Pinterest....

Courtesy of thefryfamilyblog.blogspot.com via Pinterest

I thought these were so cute!  I found some plastic shovels online - The Giant Party Store - for a decent price - it's a little early in the season to find plastic shovels at stores!  I ordered red ones (I wanted them to be a little boyish in a pink and red heart Holiday!), enough for his class and used my Silhouette Cameo to design the tag.

So, I played with a few different designs - I ended up using a scallop circle shape that I had in my library - I sized the wording to fit in.  I also colored in my words and changed the setting from cut to none so that I could do a print and cut with these tags.

After I designed my tag, I printed them out.  Super fast and easy.  I used Bazzill white cardstock, my printer didn't have any problem with it!  If you have a Silhouette (I have the Cameo now - love it! - but this also works on the SD), remember to use registration marks before you print!  This is how your Silhouette will know where to cut after you've printed your design!

Once you have your printed sheet, grab your mat and cut your tags.  The Silhouette Cameo will walk you through the process, from how to position the paper on the mat to different cutting settings and reading the registration marks.  It's very easy to follow.

My Cameo cut the circle's perfectly!  All of them were perfectly placed and the paper had cut through all the way!  Yay!  I also cut the red scallop circles with my Silhouette.

Now the fun part!  Adam and I put all of the tags together super quick!  He actually distressed all of the edges of the white circles (I swear, he's totally into distressing), I then put glue on the back of the white circle and he stuck it to the red.  Then Adam wrote his name on the back of the tags... the first 2 or 3 he did on his own, but after that I helped him.  We made these a few weeks ago (before I hurt my back), so I just set them aside till Valentine's Day was closer.

On Saturday we assembled his Valentines Treats.  I explained what Valentines was all about and that he would be giving a treat bag to each child in his class.  He was pretty enthused.  So, he grabbed his shovel and I poured the candy's onto the table or into bowls and he scooped the candy into the cello bag and then added the shovel.  I then tied them with red/white baker's twine and he would thread the twine through the hole on the tags (I told myself that working on his hand-eye coordination made up for the candy that he was sneaking when he thought I wasn't looking!) and I tied the bows.

 Didn't those turn out so cute?  The red shovel handle is sticking out from the cello bag and we have a mixture of Hershey Kisses and M&M's in the bag.  I'm sure that other parent's are going to have their kids give out "healthy" treats, so I don't feel so bad about giving the kids a bag of candy with a shovel so they can get the most candy in the their mouth quickly!

Adam saw my picnic basket on the shelf and grabbed it and started putting his treats in it - so cute!  I love it!  Or, I guess I Dig It.

I had so much fun making these Valentines - and I like how Adam got to be so hands on.  I remember making Valentines and crafts with my mom as a child and how special that was.  It's really about making your child feel like they're helpful, that they're a valuable member of your household team.  I think he's going to be pretty proud tomorrow at Preschool giving out the treats to his friends!

I'll see you back here tomorrow with another Valentine's post!
Have a great day!
Andrea