VALENTINE'S DAY BOOK + CRAFT

CUTIEPANTS VALENTINE'S DAY BOOK ALERT!! Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! is pretty much everything you ever wanted in a Heart Day picture book: hearts, lots of giggles, sparkle and sweetness galore PLUS dancing mice and casserole! 🤓

Kinley and I both love every book in the Click, Clack, Moo series and we were so excited when this one showed up on our doorstep (Thanks, Simon Kids!!) Do you know these crazy farm animals? The premise of them all is a little like Toy Story on a farm -- what the animals do when the humans aren't paying attention, ya know?

In this one, a cute little yellow duck is rushing around getting everything decorated and ready for a big Valentine's Day dance for all of the animals. She makes everyone a sparkly valentine and a necklace with hearts made of everything she can find. We saw a crafty opportunity the minute we saw those sweet little accessories! Sparkly heart necklaces?! SIGN US UP!

Wanna do a little Valentine's Day bookish play, too? This is the perfect super easy classroom party activity -- super low-mess, quick and easy, and they can wear the finished products for the cookie and candy eating!

VALENTINE RAINBOWS

Kinley woke me up one morning with a little doodle on a purple scrap of construction paper and a big crafty idea from her dreams the night before -- VALENTINE RAINBOWS! Why the heck not, right?! She had me at rainbows. And valentines. And crafty dreams! 😍😊

We worked together to come up with this super simple and crazy sweet little project and I think you and your little artist buddies are gonna love it! Valentine rainbows are totally perfect for a preschool or kindergarten Valentine's Day party because you've probably already got everything you need on hand, no one will need help with any of the easy steps*, it's quick and you're looking at a Level 1 Clean-up (wet paper towel only! 🤓), baby!

MORE JIM DINE HEART ART

If you are looking for the instructions for these beauties, don't worry! They just moved to our brand-new and even rainbowier website, hellomoonpie.com.

Just click right here to head straight over to them!

Happy heart arting!
xo Cara

EGG CARTON LOVE BUGS

We've made egg carton flowers and egg carton dinosaurs and egg carton snowmen, but we didn't have an egg carton Valentine's Day creationin our collection...until now! Introducing our fancy little swarm of valentine LOVE BUGS! Wait, swarm doesn't sound all that lovely, does it? Team? Crew? Family? Eh...we'll come back to that 🤓

This is one of those magical unicorn kid art projects. No, not like actually making a magical unicorn. I mean it's one of those ultra rare ones where you get to do a little crafting and a little process art that never turns out brown and muckyish (thank you Valentine's Day color palette!) and then you put the two together and you get something flipping adorable every single time!

15 EASY + FUN VALENTINE'S DAY ART IDEAS

Friends, you know we love to craft and art and go nuts with the rainbows, but did you know we are absolutely cuckoo cuh-razy for HOLIDAY art? Christmas, Halloween, we even manage to go bananas for Turkey Day around here, but let's face it: there is one holiday that has a five star color palette AND packs a reason to bust out all the glitter and ribbon and stickers and washi tape and is, therefore, our ultimate fave. You guessed it! VALENTINE'S DAY!

My mom instilled in me a deep love of all things heart holiday from a very young age. That lady just loves love. She loves hearts and love notes and chocolate and flowers -- Valentine's Day was basically built for her! She throws a valentine party every year that every single member of our family looks forward to all year long. We play games and do crafts and exchange valentines and she decorates everything in her house floor to ceiling all red and pink and sparkly to the maxx 😍😍

So, anyway, I thought I'd throw together a quick list of our tried and true crafty fun favorites just in case you are looking to have one heck of a Heart Day, too! If you see something you like, just click the pic or the title and it will take you straight to the instructions. Some are from my brain and some are from the brains of my artsy + amazing buddies and hopefully they will ALL inspire you 😁 oh, and I included a party game that is always and forever THE BIGGEST HIT with the little humans at my mom's parties as a bonus at the very end of this post, so don't stop scrolling, homie!

JIM DINE HEART ART

I can't believe I haven't written a blog post since October! What the heck?! The holidays were nuts, man, and to tell you the truth I am having a heck of a time shaking the post holiday funk. Why can't adulting include one month a year (preferably January) to lay around bingeing Netflix and eating chocolate in sweatpants? Ah well...if anything will snap me out of it, it's a little famous artist fun!

Kinley and I have studied lots of different artists over the past couple of years, but we always seems to fall most deeply in love with the vibrant + graphic modern and pop art making ones and when I came across Jim Dine on a random Google the other day, I knew I had found our newest obsession! That guy just happens to be the perfect artist for a Valentine's Day art study, too 😍

SEMI-SPOOKY GLAMOUR-WITCH HANDS

We have quite a few Halloween crafting traditions around here and I think these semi-spooky glamour-witch hands are at the very top of Kinley's fave list. I love them too! It's hard to go wrong with any project that involves both washi tape AND warts, amirite?!

I saw this old monster hands post on The Happy Hooligans' blog a couple of years ago and, after adding a couple of twists to make it more us, it was an instant every year must.

Instead of wallpaper sample skin and band-aids, our fancy witchies are more into nail polish and sparkly rhinestone bling. Less cold and clammy, more haute and glammy 😉😎

SEW-A-SOFTIE HEDGEHOG

If you are looking for our free stuffed hedgehog tutorial, don't worry! It's just moved over to our brand new and even more rainbowy website.

Here's the link:

www.hellomoonpie.com/blog/sew-a-hedgehog

Happy sewing!

xo Cara

CARDBOARD CLOTHESPIN CHAMELEONS

Are you looking for the instructions for making these cute little chameleons? Well you are in luck because they just found a new home over on our brand-new website, hellomoonpie.com!

Just click here to go right to the instructions :) 

Happy crafting!
xo Cara

SPRING BUNNY SENSORY BIN THREE WAYS

Hi, friend! Are you looking for bunny sensory bin ideas? Don't worry -- they just moved to our brand-new website, hellomoonpie.com!

Just click right here to head straight over.

Happy spring!
xo Cara

QUICK & EASY BIRDIE ART

Are you looking for some cute little birdie making instructions? Well, you are in luck because they just moved over to our brand-new and much rainbowier website!

Here's the link:

https://www.hellomoonpie.com/blog/recyled-art-birdies

Happy making!

xo Cara

EGG CARTON DINOSAURS

** This post is sponsored by the folks behind the new TV show, Gigantosaurus.

Good news, my fellow dinosaur-loving friends: Gigantosaurus, that hilarious/super cute must-read-aloud picture book we all know by heart and adore, is coming to the Disney Channel in the form of a brand-new must-watch preschool kiddo TV show! Kinley and I had the privilege of a sneak peek at the first episode and we both loved it. The dino buddies are charming, the colors are super bright and happy, the story lines are smart and engaging, Gigantosaurus is just the right mix of goofball and ferocious, and the theme song is so dang catchy you will probably find yourself humming it even after the kiddos are in bed (not speaking from personal experience or anything 😉).

Because I am both amped about the premiere and in full on egg-carton-critter-making mode, I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that big fierce wild bookish dinosaur getting his own show than to make a cute little slightly-less-fierce egg carton version of him. Wanna make one (or 12) too? 😁

RAINBOW DOILY ART

I don't know which I love more about that project: the rainbow doily remnants or the finished art itself! Doesn't it all just make your eyeballs so happy?! I've got some good news for ya, too -- if you've got a teeny tiny person at your house, you might just be able to make this one happen! I used to do it every year with my daycare babies -- if you can sit up, you can make a pretty heart doily painting.

RECYCLED SCRAPE ART TURKEYS

Have you ever tried scrape art? Well don't. I mean you can, but if you do you better have plenty of paper and paint on hand because you are never gonna wanna stop. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Kinley and I had a whole stockpile of scrape art goodness from one of our extreme can't-stop-won't stop scrape art sessions, but we never got around to doing anything with the infinite rainbow-y scraped papers we made until this week when they all became turkey tail feathers, and aren't they the most flutterly glorious turkey tail feathers ever?!

JINGLE FELT WREATH ORNAMENT

Don't you just love felt? We've got gobs of that stuff in the trusty old fabric bin! The other day, I grabbed all of the colors I could find and piled it on the table hoping the perfect felt art idea would just come to Kinley and I if we just stared at those rainbow scraps long enough. At one point, Kinley grabbed her scissors and started chopping a pink piece into tiny squares and it hit me -- string those babies together and make a wreath! Even better, a wreath ornament!! (Christmas mania is in full swing over here. The halls are decked, the trees are up and decorated and Christmas movies are on a loop every second of everyday 😍)

COLLAGE TURKEYS

When Maggy from Red Ted Art asked me to dream up a cute little Thanksgiving craft to share with her followers, I thought our fave collage turkeys from last year would be the perfect project, but instead of tiny cork collage turkeys (sooo 2017 😉) we supersized them and made big ol cardboard ones.

COFFEE FILTER PUMPKINS

*This post contains affiliate links.

Got coffee filters and washable markers? Well, go pull them out, friend, because you've gotta try this process art pumpkin craft!

A couple of days ago, my buddy Diane from @adventures.in.mommyland shared some cute little Frankensteins she'd made with our kiddo using our free Halloween paper doll printable and this technique and we couldn't resist giving it a try ourselves, but jack-o'-lantern style.

SPIN ART SPIDERS

Grab your googly eyes and popsicle sticks and dust off the ol salad spinner, friend, 'cause we've got one of our favorite Halloween crafting traditions for ya today: cute little spidies + psychedelic spin art webs!

This one is kind of the best of both worlds -- a little bit of super fun process art and a little bit of sweet sweet crafty magic! Kinley and I make these babies every single year. It's so fun to watch her spiders evolve and look more and more spider-like as she gets older.

HALLOWEEN PAPER DOLLS

 

When I was little, my mom and I would cut out a bazillion little paper ghosts and then we would decorate each one to look like a person in our family. A plaid shirt with a pencil in the pocket for Papa, a hot pink fancy dance recital costume for Aunt Becky, a firefighter coat for Uncle Gary...you get the idea 😀

Looking back it seems kind of creepy 😜 but it was one of our favorite Halloween traditions and all of those cute smiley ghosts hanging everywhere reminding us of our faraway family members made us so happy!

I was thinking about this one the other day and trying to figure out a way to make it work for Kinley and I. She's still too little to find tracing, cutting out and decorating tons and tons of ghosts enjoyable, ya know? And then it came to me -- paper dolls!

PHOTO PAPER + LIQUID WATERCOLOR ART

Are you here for the watercolor + photo paper art ideas? Well, good news! They just moved over to our brand-new and even rainbowier website, hellomoonpie.com.

Head straight to the photo paper art instructions by clicking right here.

See you over there!
xo Cara