Valentine's Day crafting

My favorite holidays in no specific order are the 4th of July, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. Not because of all the gifts (um, giving fireworks as gifts?) but because I'm obsessed with lights and cutesy decorations. And water fountains. And things that shine/sparkle. But that's beyond the point :). So after the Christmas and New Year's festivities were over I started planning K's Valentine's Day goodies for her to bring to school. I love the idea of unique, handmade valentines and not just the cookie cutter kinds you find at stores with a card and a piece of candy, though I know they've gotten a little better since I was in grade school.

I didn't want K to pass out sugar to the other kiddos at school-- I'm sure they'd get enough candy from everyone else anyway. For my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower last year, I decorated bubble wands as the party favors and I had a few extra so I figured I'd decorate them for Valentine's Day. Well, me and arts & crafts stores have this bond, a bond that makes me buy crap I really don't need. What did I buy that I didn't need? Bubble wands *le sigh*. They weren't just any bubble wands-- they were packs of red, pink, bubble, and yellow bubble wands with a heart on the top. Come on people, a HEART! So I bought some.

Then I went to Target and, well you know, Target and I have a bond, too. (Note to self: stop bonding with stores that always have cute stuff). Killing time, K and I stopped by the holiday corner to look for something for her teacher, maybe a bigger bubble wand. We didn't find any big bubble wands but I spotted lollipops in really cute packaging. They were heart shaped and guess what colors they were? Red, pink, blue, and... purple. No yellow pops. I bought a few bags and figured I'd attach them to the bubble wands. I apologize ahead of time to the other parents at the school for joining in loading their kids up with sugar.

I got home and started crafting away! Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the process. I taped a lollipop to each bubble wand. Then I made some simple tags on my computer and printed them out on pink cardstock and attached them to the wand with ribbon. And that was it! Super simple and super cute!

K had fun matching the lollipop colors with the bubbles but got a little confused with the purple pops. "Mom?" she'd say whenever she had a purple lollipop that didn't have a matching bubble. My initial plan was to just keep the purple pops and hope I'd find a use for yellow bubbles but then it hit me-- Lakers! And so the purple pop stuck to the yellow bubble wand and they lived happily ever after.