Not everyone is celebrating Valentine's Day, some of us even hate all the cuteness and pink sugar shouting from the shops.
Right?
We used to tolerated without celebrating, just as ordinary day it did past in our calendar.
Then our daughter appear and something has change in my heart :)
I kind of started to appreciate the love I have, the love We've got.
We are not buying red roses or big heart-shape cakes but giving little things we write, draw or made ourselves with a little help of cheap tiny gadgets and maybe a bottle of nice wine.
Well, I do with Ela's company cos my husband did not change his mind yet :D

This year I decided to introduce to you a little easy idea you can personalize yourself, the
                         Matchbox love notes.
You might have seen them before, I did many times and get absolutely in love with.
Today I am doing my own version :)

They can be use for grown ups, kids, given to your mum or dad.
Matchbox is ideal for symbolic not-too serious inexpensive gifts.

Anything small and cute will do :)
Love notes, funny drawings, sweets or jewellery for adults and even more for kids.
For those with printer on hand I made some simple printable wrappers and note cards to make things easier ;)
  You can design your own with Canva -great easy software, or use mine instead by clicking the links below each image.

Just click the links below the images.

WRAPPERS

WRAPPERS

NOTES

Have a look and get the inspiration!

Step 1.
Materials

plus glue or double sided tape.
I use glue stick for this one;)

Step 2.
Wrap your matchbox.
With my free printable wrappers or anything you want :)

Graphics are not the matchbox size but is not hard to make it fit ;)
Safe the leftover cuttings for later!

Step 3.
Write the note on the card and glue it into matchbox insert.

Then fold the way you want to fit in, ideally leave the image on top.

This is the whole bunch :)

If you are really fussy about little finishing touches like me then this it the time for the leftover cuttings, I use them for the edges of the inserts ;)

Step 4.

Fill match boxes with little treats/gifts.

 It's just a brief idea of course, you can put there anything you want...as long is small enough :)
Step 5.
Tie them up.
You don't need to, I did some to have more fun.

 
This is it!
Cute, tiny... how not to love them?

Even more with a bottle ;P

Printable wrappers can be use for bigger gifts too...

Like a bar of chocolate :)
I use half a page for this one.





Ela decided to make one for her friend at school who will soon move to different part of London...

Aww :)

         Go on, buy some matches and                     transform those boxes today!

Mamaisdreaming

The cold days in London has come and we are now stuck at home more than ever :/
I wish it could snow, kids would be happier and get tired quicker :P
Last weekend I sat with Ela to an easy and effortless craft we both enjoyed very much.
I had in mind something very manual she could almost fully made by herself, maybe with a little help from my ultimate glue gun.
Something made of simple, popular and fuss-free materials like :
- wooden clothespins
- toilet paper tubes
- cardboard
- egg cartons
- felt tip pens
- kids craft supplies(pipe cleaners, feathers etc.)

We begin with choosing a first body for Ela's animal.
Toilet roll is the easiest to work with.
Simply cut it to open ...

Then draw some fun patterns on it.

We than attached a head using hot glue and tail by making a hole in toilet roll with a bamboo stick to thread a pipe cleaner.



And the whole rest of it :)





Ela really gets into the patterns :)

I did too.

Next we wanted to make bodies using egg cartons...

Then ended on large piece of thick cardboard and many drawing pins :)

So this is our made up animals :)



A whole bunch of it :)



Possibilities are endless, kids can even have some fun by swapping heads and legs too ;)

Get your kids to use their imagination and join in!

Mamaisdreaming