The First And The Last, Valentine's Day

This Valentines day I have definitely bitten off more than I can chew, I usually don't take on projects like these. It just so happens to be my oldest daughter's last year in elementary school, and my youngest daughter's first Valentines day in pre school. So I figured why not make it extra special for both of them.

Earlier this month I posted the Valentines day bookmarks we made for my oldest daughter- they turned out so cute! For the how-to and template check out my blog post here.  For my youngest daughter we did salt dough necklaces, then of course for their teachers, we did these fun nail polish gifts...of course we decorated the bottles with... buttons!

The salt dough is a fun project you can do with your kiddos anytime, and even make ornaments at Christmas time. Here's what you'll need~
Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• UP to one cup of warm water
• Buttons & Bakers String

1.) Mix your ingredients – adding the warm water gradually until you have a smooth dough. If it gets too wet, just add a little more flour.
2) Roll out and cut out some hearts – in different sizes. Place on a baking tray.
3) Using a toothpick make holes for hanging later.
4) Place in the oven at a 100C. After 5min, “repoke” the holes for hanging (they may close up) and turn. Repeat 2-3 times. Then leave in the oven for 3-4 hours. In summer, these will EASILY dry outdoors in the hot sun. You CAN bake them at a higher temperature, but take care that a) they do not bubble and b) don’t brown at the edges (or completely burn them like I did). Patience is best though.  If you do end up burning them, you can spray paint them. :)
5) Once fully dry (you may want to wait a few days). Take some bakers twin or other string. Add some cellotape to the ends – a bit like shoe laces to make threading easier…. then thread your buttons onto the twine and through the hearts.

DONE! Pretty pretty pretty!

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Free Download For Teachers Tags
​(Better Than My Version, You're Welcome)

You can find gold nail polish at any $1 Store.  We took some gold heart buttons, hot glued them to the bottle, took bakers twine to attach the tag, and, there you have it!  

I must say it is was a lot of work getting all these cute handmade goodies ready for today, but it was fun, and I am so happy we did it all.  While they may not remember every Valentine's day, maybe the memories we made creating for this one, they will. 

Happy Valentines Day from The Toscano's