Valentine's Wreath & Topiary's (#50, and #51!)

I realize that Valentine's Day was so last month! But we are always running a little behind over here. I think these ideas, though could easily be made into St. Patty's Day, or Easter decorations. I'm thinking of making the same wreath (round, not heart-shaped) with green fabric and ribbons for a St. Patrick's Day wreath!

My kindergartner was home from school for a few days. Pink eye. So, she wasn't really too sick to do anything, just still contagious. So, after she helped me take down and put away all the Christmas decorations, I promised her we would make some Valentine's decorations.

All my kids love to craft, especially holiday craft, but this age, they especially seem to love it.

I was trying to come up with something that met this criteria:

1. I already had all the supplies for it.

2. Not too messy.

3. Cute

4. she could easily make it.

I saw this Valentine's wreath here. (If you want a tutorial, you really should go there, because I don't really do tutorials...)

I thought it would be perfect, because I have a whole bunch of scrap fabric and ribbons. she was so excited. I do have to confess that our turned out smaller than the one from the tutorial because the wire hangers that we get from our dry cleaners are like a paper roll at the bottom, and the wire does not continue all the way through. I didn't take a picture, but if your cleaners use the same hangers, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, we got everything all ready, and then I remembered that there was something wrong. #4. She can't tie her shoe laces. So I helped her a lot, but she was still pretty frustrated.

Epic mom fail.

This is the one she made. I probably need to trim the ribbons... I thought I took a picture of the one I made before I cleaned up the Valentine's decorations, but I guess I forgot... guess I'll show you next year!

so, I made up for it this weekend, with the topiary and the baked clay hearts...

 They at least met the other criteria, especially #3.

 

You can see my felt topiary's. I finished those while my daughter made her flower topiary.

 Confession: I thought we had enough of these pink flowers, but we ran out... (great, another mom fail!) so we took the greenery off some other flowers and put the ribbon up there to cover our bald spots. She was still happy with how it turned out, so I guess it was ok....

So, that same day, we also made salt dough clay hearts. it was a lot of fun...

 And all 4 of my kids got involved making them.

Dad even had to help, because sometimes the dough got hard to work with, and he had to knead it.

  

We put holes in the "cookies" so we could string them and hang them. After they cooled, we hung them from our light fixtures over the piano and above the dining room table. I also put some in our cake stand, and a heart shaped bowl we had. There were A LOT of them!

I realize that Valentine's Day is over, but you could easily made these for St. Patrick's Day, coloring the dough green, and using a shamrock cookie cutter... or make them for Easter!
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The Shabby Nest