The HEART Of The Matter: Valentine’s Day Gifts

i love you so much-austin-girls-trip

Just like most women, we’ve had our hearts broken, and we’ve been madly in love (still am). So, whether we’re feeling all kinds of anger, jealousy or heartbreak, or we’re happy, on cloud 9, or feeling all those butterflies, we have a thing for hearts. It’s not just throughout the month of February. We love them year-round; however retail loves all things hearts when it’s Valentine’s Day. So, we rounded up our favorite gifts to give friends or loved ones this month. We say, keep the heart thing going past February. Wear your heart on your sleeve, fall madly in love, follow your heart, rock those heart sunglasses, and remember…love, is all around.

 

 

DIY Watercolor Animal Cards

IMG_3981

Valentine’s Day is one of the top holidays when the puns just can’t help themselves! Some are cute, some are cheesy, some are just plain genius – all work because we become big piles of love mush {or love stinks grinches}, so on Valentine’s Day we eat them up {most of the time}.

An easy and pretty way to decorate a card for someone you love is with watercolors – you don’t need to have an ounce of artistry for this one – just add color to the paper. We hopped on the train of puns with these! Embrace your creative side, brainstorm the puns, get the kids messy in paint and send a little extra love in the mail this year.

diy-watercolor-valentines-day-cards-kids-animals-moose-elephant-giraffe

Materials:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Watercolor paints
  • Paintbrushes
  • Water
  • Blank fold-over notecards. If you don’t have any, cut card stock and fold them.
  • Elmer’s glue
  • Sharpie marker, thin tip

Directions:

Trace and cut out animal shapes on watercolor paper. You can find images online, trace and cut. We used our Silhouette electronic cutting machine to cut the animals for us. If you like to create, the machines are worth the investment. We love ours.

Paint the animals with watercolor paints. Let them dry.

Apply glue to the back of the animals, and stick them to the cards.

diy-watercolor-valentines-day-cards-kids-animals-moose-elephant-giraffe

Write your words with a thin black Sharpie marker.

diy-watercolor-valentines-day-cards-kids-animals-moose-elephant-giraffe

Painted Aloe Plant

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

We have always had every reason to believe in love. This year our grandparents will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary {once celebrated by our other grandparent’s, also}. Our parents will celebrate 38 years together in August. We had an amazing childhood in a house full of love, and a large family that loved us unconditionally. We fell in love with and married our high school sweet hearts. Love was easy. Until it wasn’t. Love hurt us in 2015. It hurt us, particularly one of us, bad.

For the first time, love wasn’t enough. What? Love is always enough, isn’t it? Well, not when the person on the receiving end stomps on it, cheats on it, is reluctant to receiving it and lies through it without any remorse. Can you tell one of the high school sweet hearts wasn’t really sweet after all?

So, does love really just stink? Some of you may answer yes and some may answer no – either is ok and the answer is likely based on your current situation or your life’s circumstance thus far.

Well, we are not love experts, but we do know that love is complicated and hard, love is essential, love can unite, love can instigate change, love can cause heartbreak, love comes in many forms, love is passion and ultimately love heals.

We have a little aloe plant, also known for it’s healing properties, we lovingly named Hope. Hope because we are hopeful for all the wonderful things love will bring our way. And, because now she has LOVE HEALS and hearts written all over her! It’s a good, hopeful reminder for us all.

This is a 5-minute project anyone can do. And, it may just bring a little love to you.

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

Materials:

  • Aloe plant
  • Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Pens

Directions:

All you have to do is draw. Sweet!

Give the DIY painted aloe plant as a gift this Valentine’s Day, or any day! Love isn’t just limited to one day in a calendar year – it lives in us 365 days a year – if we let it!

Maybe it’s not about the fairytale ending, it’s about the journey. Make love a part of your story, in whatever form it may be. There is no sense in living our lives without love.

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

love-heals-aloe-plant-gift-valentines-day-pink-hearts-diy

Valentine’s Day Party for Kids

bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-hearts

This Valentine’s Day party is simple, and a bright dose of yellow sunshine in the middle of a snowy, cold winter. It’s just what we needed, and it’s just what our kids needed to celebrate love this Valentine’s Day. Love comes in all shapes and forms, and we try to teach and show them what love means everyday. Love for themselves and love for others.

As you know, it’s wonderful when the sibling bickering subsides and they can hug, kiss and play with one another. We captured it on camera, so next time they are fighting, we can remind them how much they love each other.

Banana’s For You stemmed from a recent find similar to those Silly Bandz we were obsessed with in 2010. The tiny banana bracelets are going to be our kids Valentine’s this year, but we wanted to have a little extra fun at home, too. It was an everything banana party, including the color yellow, banana ice cream, banana cut-out details, and banana bracelets.

bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-silly-bandz

Materials:

Directions:

  • Cut out the letters for Banana’s For You. We used our amazing Silhouette to cut out the letters, bananas, hearts and arrows.

bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-hearts This Valentine's Day party is simple, and a bright dose of yellow sunshine in the middle of a snowy, cold winter. It's just what we needed, and it's just what our kids needed to celebrate love this Valentine's Day. Love comes in all shapes and forms, and we try to teach them what love means everyday. Love for themselves and love for others. It's wonderful when the sibling bickering subsides and they can hug, kiss and play with one another.  We captured it on camera, so next time they are fighting, we can remind them how much they love each other.  Banana's For You stemmed from a recent find similar to those Silly Bandz we were obsessed with. The tiny banana bracelets are going to be our kids Valentine's this year, but we wanted to have a little extra fun at home, too. It was everything banana, including the color yellow, banana ice cream, banana cut-out details, and banana bracelets.  bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-silly-bandz  Materials:  Astrobrights Paper, yellow and pink yellow washi tape banana bracelets X-acto knife Double-sided tape bowls or ice cream pint containers Directions:  Cut out the letters for Banana's For You. We used our amazing Silhouette Electronic cutting tool to cut out the letters, bananas, hearts and arrows. bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-hearts  Find a wall and use washi tape to hang the letter and bananas. bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-hearts-cupids-arrow     bananas-for-you-kid-party-valentines-day-diy-yellow-banana-pink-hearts  For the placemats, trace a banana on yellow paper with a black sharpie. Fill in the ends and lines in the middle with black marker. Use an X-acto knife to cut the side of the top-half of the banana and the line down the middle, half-way down. This will be the 'peel' effect. Place double-sided tape on all 4 corners and tape to a sheet of pink paper. Draw the name of the child on the pink paper under the banana peel, and add the words PEEL ME on top of the banana peel. banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party  banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party  banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party-ice-cream-pint  banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party  Glue or tape the small size bananas and mini hearts on the lid of the pint container. banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party-silly-bandz-banana-ice-cream-pint  Make banana ice cream. Follow this recipe. It's amazing - frozen banana's blended in a food processor literally makes ice cream. Fill a bowl with toppings so the kids can their chocolate fix. banana-chocolate-ice-cream-party-yellow-bananas-for-you  Serve and par-tay. ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts  ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts  ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts  ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-heartsice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts

  • Find a wall and use washi tape to hang the letter and bananas.

bananas-for-you-yellow-valentines-day-party-kid-birthday-hearts-cupids-arrow

 

bananas-for-you-kid-party-valentines-day-diy-yellow-banana-pink-hearts

  • For the placemats, trace a banana on yellow paper with a black sharpie. Fill in the ends and lines in the middle with black marker. Use an X-acto knife to cut the side of the top-half of the banana and the line down the middle, half-way down. This will be the ‘peel’ effect. Place double-sided tape on all 4 corners and tape to a sheet of pink paper. Draw the name of the child on the pink paper under the banana peel, and add the words PEEL ME on top of the banana peel.

banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party

banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party

banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party-ice-cream-pint

banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party

  • Glue or tape the small bananas and mini hearts on the lid of the pint container.

banana-peel-me-placemat-kid-party-silly-bandz-banana-ice-cream-pint

  • Make banana ice cream. Follow this recipe. It’s amazing – frozen banana’s blended in a food processor literally makes ice cream.
  • Fill a bowl with yummy toppings so the kids can their chocolate fix.

banana-chocolate-ice-cream-party-yellow-bananas-for-you

  • Serve and par-tay.

ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts

ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts

ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts

ice-cream-valentines-party-bananas-for-you-yellow-hearts

If you loved this, you’re going to love these IG feeds:
@astrobrights
@silhouetteamerica
@jsorelle3
@mustardgifts

 

Vanilla Ice Cream Topped with DIY Frozen Strawberry Hearts

red-frozen-strawberry-hearts-valentine-ice-cream-banana

We love February.

We love ice cream.

And our daughter’s still love the movie Frozen.

So, with vanilla ice cream topped with frozen strawberry hearts, we figured we couldn’t go wrong. We were right! This easy, simple and delicious dessert has been a hit around our houses, and it’s so cute, we can’t wait to make it for friends and family.

Surprise your loved ones this month{after all, it is the month of love} with ice cream topped with frozen strawberry hearts.

frozen-valentine-red-banana-strawberry-heart-diy-dessert-

red-frozen-strawberry-heart-bowl-banana-ice-cream-dessert

Here’s how…

Ingredients
Strawberries
Sugar
Wilton Mini Heart Silicone Mold
Vanilla Ice Cream
Bananas
Wilton Round Linzer Cutter Set

How to Create
Cut off the stems from about 8-10 strawberries and place them in a blender or Cuisinart.
Add 1-2 tablespoons sugar.
Puree the strawberries and sugar together until smooth.
Use a spoon to fill heart silicone mold with strawberries puree. Fill the molds to the top, without overflowing them.
Place in a freezer bag and freeze for at least 3 hours.
Once the hearts are set and you’re ready for some ice cream, scoop vanilla ice cream in a bowl, and simply press the strawberry frozen hearts out with your fingers.
We love vanilla ice cream with bananas, so we also used a Wilton Round Linzer Cutter to cut slices of bananas into small hearts, and froze them along with the strawberries. The combo of strawberries, bananas and vanilla ice cream was delicious…in fact, the bowl was devoured in less than 2 minutes!

bowl-ice-cream-red-love-valentine

 {images via j. sorelle}