TURN YOUR KID'S ARTWORK INTO ART

A perfect art project for Teacher's Appreciation Day or Mother's Day. By simply taping the edges of fold-over notes, it creates a clean border for the chaos within. Then write your sweet note inside and send! Or make a few and bundle them together with twine and give as custom stationery. Step-by-step tutorial below.

WHAT YOU NEED:

acrylic or oil paints

paint brushes

masking tape or painters tape

foldover notes or cardstock

willing children

STEP 1:

Line up all notecards so that the sides are touching

STEP 2: 

Put one piece of tape down in between two cards just to save yourself time and supplies. Tape ALL edges down so that you have a tape border around each card.

STEP 3:

Have your kids fill each card with paint edge to edge. I like to choose the paint colors myself so that they turn out sort of nice no matter what! Start with warm tones, then cool, then have them finish with a clean skinny brush for a metallic paint. 

STEP 4:

Carefully peel off the tape and voila! A nice clean boarder that looks pretty enough to gift!

xo

PARTY IN AN ENVELOPE

It was my boys' last day of preschool today! It's actually a year-round school, but it was their last day with their current teachers who have loved and cared for them like they were family. I think it's always the most meaningful to write a handwritten note, but to step it up a notch, I added a little handmade banner and confetti to let them know they were THE BEST! My sister and I have this thing with "the best". It's the best donut, it's the best movie, it's the best book... we tend to think a lot of things are "the best", and these teachers really were the best!!

You could totally use this idea for any occasion by switching up the saying on the banner. How cute would it be to get a "congrats" or "happy birthday" party in an envelope?! I'd for sure go [delightfully] inappropriate when sending it to some of my friends... but we'll keep the blog PG.

Here's what you need:

Pencil

Paper scraps

Scissors

String

Hole punch

2 pieces of washi tape

Time: 20 minutes

You can freehand cutting the letters or trace them out with pencil. I actually have a cutting machine but wanted it to look more homemade. I made the letters about 2 inches tall.

Using the scraps from cutting out the letters simply cut little squares to make confetti.

Punch holes through the top of the letters and string.

 Tape one end of the string to a piece of cardstock and wrap the letters around it, securing the other end with tape when finished.

Fill envelope with confetti (and add a handwritten note)!

Voila! You've made the tiniest party in an envelope! 

We'd love to see what you come up with! Tag us on instagram @loveandlion so we can see!

-L

DIY FAIRY COSTUME + EDUCATIONAL ART PROJECT

It's always nice to sneak in some educational concepts when you're playing with your littles! My 4.5-year-old, Ari, needed a costume for a school carnival this weekend and beeeeeeegged me to buy a Tinker Bell costume. I did NOT want to go out in traffic to buy one and spend the money. I thought it would be much more fun to make it! But wait... we're out of green paper. That's okay, we'll use paint! Oh **** we're out of green paint. Ummm.... 

Ari's really into experiments and potions and magic, so we refreshed our color theory lessons and made all different shades and tints of green.

 Just blue, yellow, and white! 

I put blobs of blue, yellow, and white all over a piece of butcher paper and let the kids go to town. They came up with the most beautiful colors! And Max had a nice snack of paint (OMG that kid!!).

When the paper was dry, I drew leaf shapes with a thick sharpie and cut them out. Just freehand it, really anything will look good outlined in black!

I used safety pins to attach to a green sweater and baseball hat. We borrowed fairy wings from our friend, and voila! Tink!

 Yep... those are jammie pants.

Max went as Danny Zuko at the end of Grease :)

Love your children every minute of every day!

-L

DIY VALENTINE KEEPER

We wanted to create some valentine catchalls for our littles to take to school or simply hang on their door to collect all of the sweet valentines that they get from their friends and family. We wanted to do something a little bit different than the average shoe box that we all know (and love..... or do we?). I may have had too much fun doing this little project.... shhh!

Here is what you will need:

- 2 pieces of felt

- twine

- scissors

- craft glue

-heat bond tape

-iron/ ironing board 

- 1 needle 

- straw (if you are doing one for a boy)

- anything you choose to decorate your bag with! I chose ribbon and felt stickers

Simply lay out your two pieces of felt, cut strips of the heat bonding tape for 3 of the sides as shown and iron over each strip holding for about 6-8 seconds per section. ALLOW TIME FOR IT TO COOL!! Then, pull the paper part off of the tape. If it has not cooled, this part will not work!

 Lay your second piece of felt directly on top of the piece with the tape.

 Iron. Again, be sure and leave the iron on each second long enough for it to actually bond. Patience! 

Allow for cooling time to ensure a good hold. Then, you should have a pocket that looks like this.

  Next, string your twine through the needle, and poke the needle through both pieces of felt. It will be hard to get it through the heat bonding tape, so be sure to poke your hole just outside of the edge of the tape.  tie a double knot to secure the twine.

Do this on both sides.

 Play with your design before securing everything to the felt. Lay it all out just how you want it.

 Then, get to gluing. I only needed to glue the ribbon I used. I used Martha Stewarts craft glue, which worked fabulously.  

 The stickers were felt, and I got them at Target! They adhered to the felt bag extremely well.

If you are doing one for a boy, you can slide a straw onto the twine before you thread each side to create a carrying handle.... kind of like a briefcase. ;)

This is such a fast and super simple project that you can actually do with your kids!! We made a couple more of these bags, and I did the ironing and threading. Then, I just let Amara peel and stick (hence the upside down hearts on hers) as she pleased. Now, go fill this thing up with some V-day goodies!

-J