Homemade Valentines!

As I was flipping through a " Disney Family Fun" magazine at the dentists office last week, I found the cutest handmade Valentine idea. Eloise and Lucie had their first Valentine parties this year (more pictures of that to come) and I thought it would be a great opportunity to make these adorable creations and teach about reusing old materials instead of throwing them away! Best of all, when their friends plant their cards in soil, they will get to watch wildflowers bloom!

We started with an old newspaper and cut it into small pieces

Then, we soaked the pieces in water for an hour (We added red food coloring so our finished product would be PINK!)
This was the messy part (and where mommy did most of the work.) We pureed the water/paper mixture in a food processor, sprinkled in the extra special ingredient (wildflower seeds) and then poured it into a shallow baking dish.
In order to make the paper mommy had to make these 5x7 screens out of window screen material and masking tape! Eloise enjoyed playing with them! We dipped each screen in the paper mixture, smoothed them out with our hands, and air dried them overnight on a bakers rack.This is what the handmade paper looked like the next day. Each rectangle allowed us to cut out two hearts!

Then we attached a green pipe cleaner, green yarn and a leaf with an extra special message. It said "Watch Our Friendship Bloom! Plant the heart in soil, water often, and wildflowers will bloom!"

Of course we kept some so we could plant a few, too! I'll keep you posted on the growth of our wildflowers! ;)