jesiree's clothespin valentines

when i was in the bay area during the holidays, i asked my crafty cousin, jesiree, if she could do a guest post for dibble dabble for valentine's day. luckily for me, she agreed! she's always doing fun things for her niece- ariana's class during the holidays and this valentine's was no exception. you can see more of jesiree @ break out of boring.

jes - thanks! everyone else - enjoy!

Be My Valentine.
Since I've been obsessed with mini clothespins lately, I decided to make use of them by putting together Valentines giveaways for Ariana's second grade class. [FYI: they have assorted colored mini clothespins at Daiso - I usually get the plain wooden ones and just soak 'em in my choice of craft paint.] It took me awhile to come up with a design and I'm pretty satisfied with this one. There was a lot of painting, cutting, stamping, and gluing involved and I'm thankful that Ariana was a big help. We had fun putting everything together!

What You Need
.be creative/think of alternatives.

Supplies: I made 24 giveaways
Mini Wooden Clothespins
Craft Paint - Red (watered down to make pink)
Cardstock - White (cut into 24 wallet size)
1.5"x 2.5" Valentines notes printed on (2) 8.5"x11" Cardstock [instead of printing, you could also handwrite the note yourself]
Love Themed Stamps and Ink Pads (of your choice)
Felt Sticker Hearts
Googly/Wiggly Eyes
Felt Glue
Elmers Glue
Double Sided Tape
Valentines Candy - Mini MM's [2 (9.5 oz) bags were enough for 24 cards]

Put It All Together
.patience in crafting results in smiles all around.

Prep Work:
• Paint Clothespins and Let Dry.
• Stamp Wallet Sized Cardstock Paper - I layered stamps on one side (front) and made it simple on the other (back).
• Rip printed notes around the edges. Take a black ink pad and ink the ripped edges of the note.
• Glue googly/wiggly eyes onto felt hearts with felt glue.
• Stick hearts onto each clothespin.

Put it all together:
• Have child write her "To" and "From"'s on the backside of card.
• Glue clothespin to card and let dry.
• Clip note with clothespin.
• Use double-sided tape to tape the candy bag to back of card - tape only the top of back so that way your child can flip it over to see the name of his/her classmate when passing it out.