Kids Cards: Endangered Animals Valentine Card plus Crossword

The ten year old wanted to make Valentines cards rather than buy some generic ones from the store that did not gel with her ideas. She settled on giving Endangered Animals cards for her friends. We  attributed/credited the image source, and only tried to use images that allowed Free Reuse for non-commercial purposes.

Rather than the usual well-known endangered animals that many would have come across here, we went with Endangered (and Vulnerable) Animals of India: One-horned rhino, Indian pangolin, Asiatic lions, Asiatic Cheetah, Nilgiri marten, Sloth bear, Barasingha, Hoolock gibbon, Khur, Red panda, Gaur, and Clouded leopard.

Some info about each animal, plus a picture, plus a crossword was what she settled on. Rather than random info, we decided on a theme: The crossword is tied to the write-up/information provided.

Incidentally, among the many popular mnemonics, kids at home simply love this one:

Kings Potty Cautiously On Fine Golden Stools

They can simply picture the royalty comically eliminating, plus it helps that "Stools" has more than one meaning.

Anyway, this was our way of keeping track of Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

So, we decided to make up crosswords that will reinforce these for the various endangered animals. The write-up included information about Class, Family, Genus, and Species names which was reiterated in the crossword clues to make it an entertaining and educational Valentine card.

The back of the card got the usual valentine messages.

She also wanted to add some treat for her friends as she knew they were going to give her some. So, what was left to do was to package this in an attractive way.We went with tissue papers we had saved from other gifts and it seemed like a good idea to reuse/recycle them this way. A little tag hinted at the crossword inside.

I am glad she found something worthwhile to share with her friends on this day that celebrates friendship.

Kids Cards: Valentine Cards: PvZ Friendships for Fun

The younger child has been a huge Plants versus Zombies fan for a couple of years now. The various plants and their powers fascinated him enough to come up with a whole set of plants on his own. Like, Push Bush (pushes zombies two squares away), Bamboom (bamboo that explodes at zombies, sort of like cherry bomb or potato mine only more zen), Plant-in (sounds like plaintain, but is a plant in which you can plant other plants so that they have extended powers), Booberry (Boos at zombies and makes them go back), to name a few.

Anyway, his heart was set on making PvZ Valentines this year just for fun. What can define friendship and peace better than the plants and zombies coming together on this special day?

He had a lot of fun pairing up a particular zombie with a particular plant, and then coming up with a Valentine-like message for the card. We also added the names of each plant and zombie so that our curious friends can look it up and learn more.

Of course, that alone is not enough, so, he wanted to add a fun PvZ-themed crossword to the Valentine card. But, I talked him out of it for now. So, we just did themed animals Double Puzzle instead.

All in all, a creative and enjoyable exercise in making these unique and fun Valentine cards this year.

In his spare time, he hand-wrote a whole story book much like Plant Your Path Junior Novel where the reader makes a choice at each critical point in the story to go forward. Example, you have come to a fork in the road as you are fleeing from a wave of zombies; if you want to take left turn go to page 26; if you want to take right turn go to page 72; or something like that. So, if you as a reader chose left turn you continue the story from page 26. Some choices end in disaster, some take you towards a favorable ending (where Zombies don't eat your brains). It has become a favorite bedtime read, where he reads it aloud to me and I get to choose the path the story takes each time.

Valentine's Day Cards So Far

Thanks to schools adopting the day as "Friendship Day", the older child has always looked forward to Valentine's Day preschool through lower elementary. The younger one, not so much. He could take it or leave it. But, what they both like is an opportunity to create something fun and share with friends.

As the kids started thinking about what sort of card they want to make for their friends this Valentine's Day, we started to casually look back at the ones we have done so far. We were quite happy to visit the memory of how they arrived at the design and how they executed it and how incredibly satisfying it was to them.

While the cards we've made over the years may not all look polished and stylish and sophisticated, the emphasis at home has always been on being creative and enjoying the process without much weight on the end-product's superlative finish and appeal. After all, what is slightly unappealing to my eye could be dazzling in theirs.

The arts and craft supplies are on low-level shelves and cubbies, organized in a way to help them find things and make sure they are returned to the right spot for next use. They each have their own space to create, which is a luxury as I keep reminding them way too often.

Anyway, the younger child's favorites were Prehistoric Splotch Creatures, Shaving Cream Marbling, and Lettuce Stamping.

The older kid preferred the more crafty Valentine gifts like her Salt Dough Heart-In-A-Box and Kisses Mice Envelope Card.

The Hanging Decorations she made a while back are still cherished in our house: Striped Hearts and Plump Hearts.

Of late, the older child has played with PicMonkey to create some custom graphic cards. One of my favorites that I made for the kids using picmonkey is the Valentine Coupons.

Boy were they thrilled to see a coupon that said "One single serve dessert you pick at the bakery"... and another that said "Stay Up Late Till 10 p.m."  Quite a dilemma for the kids to "Save" the coupon for a special day or just go out and splurge and get that dessert eaten right away! 

Of course, being the artful mommy, the coupons came with the restriction: Not Valid on School Days, Limit One Coupon Per Day.

Some art exploration that became Valentine's cards include Watercolor Cling Wrap, Textured Paper Hearts, Oil Pastel Masked hearts, Reverse Stamped Hearts, DIY-Scratch-It Cards.

My favorite in terms of the idea is the younger child's "Flags Valentine" cards, and crosswords. He picked out some interesting flags of countries and designed a simple card with a One-line Joke for each. I like that he tried to match up his friend's roots with the right country flag where possible to personalize the cards.

The older child is not quite gung-ho about Valentine cards and that's okay. No obligation, no pressure. If it seems like fun and she wants to do it, then it's a lot of fun for me to join in. She is still convinced that it has to be something unique that she has made, not store-bought.

For now, the younger child is strongly leaning towards his current obsession and trying to come up with something he thinks is fun to create... We'll see how it shapes up over the next two weeks.

Picmonkey Valentine Fun

This year, I just gave coupons for the kids, plus a customized card, all made using my favorite Picmonkey. They have helpful tutorials that make creating fun!

The coupons were a big hit, of course, so now they don't have to plead and negotiate for these little luxuries that they cherish.

Kids Craft: Valentine Mice Kisses Envelope Card

The nine year old has not been a big fan of cliched cards and candy fad for Valentine's day; her class does a simple card exchange with an optional candy element keeping in mind allergies and sugar content. Participation in card-exchange is optional as well, and handmade cards are encouraged.

Pretty much every year so far, she has been making custom valentine cards for her friends, and this year she still seemed interested, so we brainstormed together.

To candy or not? That was the question.

The candy mice made of Hershey's™  Kisses was an instant favorite the minute she came across it on web search and that settled the issue of candy this year.

We cut out little pink hearts to serve as the mice ears which was sandwiched between two Kisses and glued with rubber cement. The eyes were the most fun to do - spacing them, mismatching them, all seemed to add character to each mouse.

For a while now, she has been playing around with Picmonkey, so it was fun to create a simple card with the timeless message: "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other's gold." She didn't want to make any standard one-liner jokes or cloying sweet messages that play on word sounds.

How best to package this card? was another question. Should it be just a small postcard-style card with message on one side and name on the other like previous years? Nah, that seemed too blasé.

That's how we hit upon Envelope Card: make a template square to fit the card, with appropriate shaping on all four sides to fold in and make it envelop the card.

We also made some labels to add the From and To at the front using Picmonkey. Since there were about two dozen envelope cards to make, I helped her make some of them and we both had fun creating these simple no-fuss unique cards for her friends.

All that was left to do was hot glue the mice to the card and hand this unique and thoughtful token to her friends in class.

Kids Craft: Customized Valentine's Day Flags Cards

Valentine Flag Cards

The six year old vexillologist designed a "Friendship Card" for Valentine's day to give to his classmates. He was particular about choosing flags that he considered interesting; he also tried to match up some of his friends with the flags of the countries of their ancestry. With classmates from Armenia, Azores, Serbia, Russia, Germany, Scotland, Sweden and Italy, he had a fabulous time getting the cards ready with me.

At first, he wanted to draw and color the flags, which I whole-heartedly encourage usually. But, considering the time constraints and his flu-like symptoms, I decided to print it. Much like last year when Prehistoric Life was all the rage, which led to unique valentines, this year, it is all about flags and countries.


We did add a kid-friendly joke inside each card with the answer at the bottom. Og picked out a few special jokes and knew which friend would enjoy it the most so he made sure the right flag and the right joke went together to the right recipient.

All that was left to do was stamp some sweet treats and color them in and add some custom drawings to personalize the card with an inside story. The kid enjoyed this process to his heart's content, relating a story about each. For example, he chose to color one of the cards with a jar full of sweets in a jumble of colors claiming that the jar was left out and the candy inside got all sticky and gooey running into each other. In another card, he added a table on which the jar rests (rather than being suspended in mid air), and proceeded to add a few candy on the table and on their way to the table from the jar, explaining that some of the candy from the jar started escaping before the lid was tightened.

Finally, he wrote his name in the "From:" part of each card. He had typed the recipients' name when we were designing the card layout, rather than writing the names by hand. I didn't mind it this time as he did the typing himself to make sure the recipient's name is readable.

Rather than a cutesy finished product that looks all perfectly adorable and cliched, it seemed more appropriate to let the kid decide on what sort of a card to make for Valentine's day. In another year or two, he may not be interested at all, which is fine.

His friends may not even realize the fact that he put in so much thought and effort into creating these unique cards. But, going by his current interest, which is all Flags, flags, and more flags, the cards gave him a sense of ownership and pride in making something special as a token of friendship. And that is all that matters.

Kids Craft: Valentine Heart-in-a-Box Card

When it came to deciding what to give her friends on Valentine's day, she agreed that candies/sweets don't seem ideal. She knows a couple of her friends have food allergies - food coloring, nuts, gluten etc. - and it will not be fair to give candy only to those who can consume it without health risks... "How about a piece of organic fruit?" she wondered.

Anyway, meanwhile, she got busy making small salt dough hearts. They will become the pendants for the simple necklace she wanted to make for her friends.

How best to package this and deliver on the special day? That's when I came across Matchbox Treat Boxes and showed it to Ana who loved the idea!

I had some Duct-tape ($1 a roll at Dollar Store) and Washi tape (0.75c on sale at Office Depot) in the colors that the little girl loves - teal and neon green! Thirty little matchboxes cost just 3$. I took out the matches and saved them for later.

Then, commenting frequently that she felt like a "factory worker" in a good way, the 8 year old proceeded to:

• use the duct tape and washi tape to wrap up and decorate the matchboxes; 
• measure and cut the ribbons for the necklace; 
• attach each salt dough heart pendant to measured and pre-cut ribbon to make the necklace; 
• and put the heart necklace in the matchbox jewel box.

Being a huge quotations fan, and remembering Roald Dahl quotes from last year, she decided to type up some quotes for this year's cards as well.

Ever since we read The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien about 2 years ago, and then watched the 2 installments of the movie over the last 2 winters, Ana is crazy about this story. So, naturally, she pulled The Hobbit book from our home library and proceeded to pick out some of her favorite quotes, with some censoring and nudging from me. (I can't help myself sometimes!)

I let her use my laptop. I even got the Hobbiton font (free for non-commercial purposes) as she requested; then made a scroll shaped text box for her to type her quotes in. It was easy to print 4 to a page of 8.5 x 11 card stock.

She would have preferred aged paper rolled up to make a more authentic-looking scroll, but, making over 2 dozen of them seemed like a lot of work, a lot of time-consuming work, and she wasn't sure if her friends would even keep the scroll. If it was going to be tossed away anyway, then a printed scroll should be fine.

Then, again with assembly line precision, she stamped "Laugh" and "Be Happy" at the back of the card. Plus the usual "Thank you for being my friend" and "Happy Valentine's Day" stamps. Then, used a piece of double-sided tape to attach the matchbox jewel box with the heart necklace to the card. All that was left to do was to hand-write, "From: Ana" and she was done.

A set of unique and thoughtful Valentine's Jewel Box with Heart Pendant Necklace was ready to be given away, leaving her with the satisfaction and joy that comes from making something by hand.

Kids Craft: Valentine Cards: Prehistoric Splotch Creatures

Prehistoric creatures is the current interest for the youngest kid. And when he gets interested in something, we all end up getting sucked into it, being easily affected by his enthusiasm and his insistence on having us find the right sort of materials to satisfy his curiosity. Raiding the library, scouring the web, filtering the youtube videos are all legitimate means for accessing information. Not to mention watching BBC's Walking With Beasts and other Walking With... series.

So, when it came to making Valentine cards for his friends, the kid insisted on making something Prehistoric. Not the dinosaurs, no, that's too boring and over-done. But more like the creatures in the late Eocene, Oligocene, Pliocene, Pliestocene eras.

Now, neither him nor I possess the artistic abilities needed to bring the Indricothere and Gastornis and Megalodon and Dorudon and Basilosaurus to life on paper, which posed a hurdle.

So, rather than sticking to known prehistoric creatures, he decided to take some artistic license and make up some of his own.

Coincidentally, I came across Creating Splat Monsters post which reminded me of the "Folded Paper Paint Blobs" the kid loves to do on and off anyway.

The idea is simple:

1. Cut acrylic paper to size for the "valentine card"; have enough of them ready to go 
2. Have about 3 or 4 brightly colored acrylic paints ready to go
3. Place blobs of fairly thick bright colored paints on one piece of acrylic card paper
4. Take another piece of acrylic card paper and place on top of this paint-blobbed paper
5. Smooth out with the hand gently so the paints mingle and spread and go splat!
6. Peel the two papers to reveal mirror-imaged Splat Creatures; allow to dry completely
7. Glue on googly eyes; add limbs, tentacles, fins and any other features as desired with a pen

We used sparkly paints to give that extra brilliance, and kept the card to a nominal size. The kid decided to just glue the funny eyes, no limbs or fins or tentacles this time.

All that was left to do: add the caption to indicate the names of each of the prehistoric creatures. The kid came up with the names on the fly and I faithfully acted as the scribe. Like:

Gastornychus Lyhejnis
Ichthyocascus - a fish-like creature
Brontoseratonia
Xianglongornis
Megatherius
Tylothere
Quetzalpretonia
Telascoropod

Then, simply rubber stamp at the back to mark the occasion, and sign his name. That wrapped up the process.

Two dozen Unique Prehistoric Creatures (No-Evidence-Of-Existence) Valentine Cards ready in no time - especially because the work is actually for 12 cards, with 12 more of them just mirror-images.

"This is so fun, Mama. I want to do more!" made me smile.

Kids Craft: Mini Heart Felt Pillows

The 5 yo will sew if he is in the mood: if some sewing activity is suggested to him and he feels he has nothing else to interest him at the moment, and if the project is quick and simple, that catches his fancy, he will do it.

He came home excited one evening and squealed, "Mama, you are going to love this! This is going to make you so happy! I made this for you in school today!" And he handed me this sweet little felt heart with beads sewn on it.

In my customary way, I was all smiles and asked him to tell me all about it. "I got some thread, then used the needle threader to thread the needle, then tied a knot at the end, and sewed the beads on this heart, because I love you, Mama!"

Since his sister has graduated to using my sewing machine and doesn't want to do much hand-sewing unless it is a cute softie, or for something incidental to her bigger project, I asked if Og wanted to sew a few heart pillows. More as a fine motor exercise than any fancy finished product. And he did.

Cut out two felt pieces in heart shape for each "pillow". Save scrap felt and other fabric pieces for stuffing the pillow. Simply let the kids sew along the edges and stuff before completing the final stretch of sewing. Optionally, add a cotton ball soaked in essential oil to make it a tiny fragrant heart felt pillow.  We used lavender in one and geranium in the other. So, they can be sachets of some sort.

Kids Art: Potato Stamp Crosshatch Hearts

Inspired by Lines Across: DIY Crosshatch Stamp, we decided to try some crosshatching at home.

First obvious was to use the corrugated cardboard we had handy.

Then, rather than foam strips on wooden block to make the elegant crosshatch as in the link, I decided to get to work on a potato with my X-Acto knife. Couldn't get thin and uniform lines cut out on the potato, but it turned out all right for our exploration at home.

We tried two ways:
1. Use a stencil of a paper heart cut out with negative space. Stamp with the crosshatch potato stamp all over to get the crosshatch heart.

2. Stamp on a piece of card stock with the cross hatch potato stamp. Then cut out heart shapes from it.

While not as elegant and pretty as the inspiration, kids got an idea of getting horizontal, vertical, and crisscrossing lines via simple stamping.

Kids Craft: Reverse Stamped Hearts

Masking is always fun. Crayon or Oil pastel resist, rubber cement masking, masking tape... so many ways to preserve the area from other influences on a work in progress.

Any shape template can be used, of course. But, keeping Valentine's day in mind, we went with the heart template.

Instead of stamping, kids can use tempera paint, or chalk pastels, to add color to the card while the heart shape mask is applied.

1. Cut out heart templates of different sizes
2. Cut out card stock in desired size for the final card
3. Choose any favorite cute stamp and ink, or make your own potato stamp or vegetable stamp
4. Place the heart template(s) on the card stock - to make sure it doesn't move around, I used a piece of masking tape doubled on itself to act as double-sided tape. masking tape is easy to remove without damaging the paper later.
5. Stamp all over, letting the heart templates act as the mask

The 5 yo preferred using the small square stamp ink pad to fill the page with blocks of color for one of the cards. I liked the flower stamped with orange ink, with added yellow chalk pastel.

Another interesting method for masked hearts is to use chalk pastel:

1. Simply add color to the edge of the heart paper template. 
2. Place this color-edged paper on the card to be made. 
3. Use a tissue or brush to gently diffuse/disperse the chalk pastel color onto the card

Of course, once we bring out the chalk pastels, we can't put it away quickly. So, we did some simple book marks with heart stencils and templates cut out from paper. I sprayed a sealant when we were done, to preserve the chalk pastel work and not have the chalk rub off on all that it touches.

Kids Craft: Hand-made Paper Hearts on Marbled Background

On and off we make hand-made paper at home. Seed paper is particularly popular around Spring time.

Marbling is another favorite activity with the kids. So, we have a lot of marbled papers handy. The 5 year old prefers the simple joy of Shaving Cream Marbling. Sometimes he uses too many colors which get muddled up, but it's always fun.

This easy card can be adapted for any occasion. Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, we decided to go with hand-made paper hearts on marbled background. I can easily see clover leaves instead of hearts for St.Patrick's Day, for instance.

Items Used
Hand made paper in various colors
Marbled paper in suitable contrasting colors
Double-sided foam tape
Fancy wiggly eyes, sequins, beads, ribbons for embellishment, if preferred
glue appropriate for adhering the embellishments

1. Cut out cute hearts of various sizes from the handmade paper
2. Mount them on marbled paper cut to size
3. Decorate with pressed flowers, ribbons, yarn, sequins, glitter, if preferred