Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Crafting for Valentines

I came up with a little project to do for Valentine's Day, thinking it would be good if Mason and I did a craft or something together. See, when Claire was first born and I was personally waist-deep in the newborn "eat, poop, cry, sleep" cycle, I was so tired that I wasn't up for much. I'm afraid to admit that a lot of the interaction Mason and I had for a while was playing MarioKart on the Wii during Claire's short, frequent naps.

So by the time that had worn off last winter or so, I started itching for something undigital (is that I word? More importantly, do I care?) to do and stumbled upon this. I decided it would make a great gift for grandmas....probably in 2011 because we actually finished them much later than Valentines Day 2010. Sorry, grandmas.

Gather the following supplies (and a preschooler anxious to paint):

-wooden picture frames in desired size; we did 4"X6" openings. They came in a two pack. Bonus!

-acrylic paint in desired colors (Lilac and Holiday Red for us)

-dirt cheap sponge paintbrushes you can toss when you're done

-lots and lots of conversation hearts

-glue - any kind. I used hot glue.

-resin finishing spray (unless you want to dip all of it in resin. I didn't.)

Cover the world in newspaper. Set the kid loose with the paint.

Separate out the damaged hearts. Snacktime! He ate the reject pile. It saved me from disposing of it.

Draw glue on picture frame, one line at a time, and set hearts as straight and consistently as possible. Keep going until...

Voila! Candy-coated frames. I then took these (and some of the newspaper) outside to the porch and finished them off with the resin spray. It said it would take 24 hours to dry, but outside in the wind it took about an hour. I didn't get anything fancy, like a gloss finish, for the spray so it didn't change the look at all.

I bought some glass (our frames didn't come with it) to put inside and maybe this year I'll get pictures taken of the kids for Valentines Day and pass the whole thing on to the grandmas. Nothing like crafting AND finishing in a timely manner.