A lil' Valentines day craft on a dime...

Thanks to "thirty hand made days" we have a sweet craft that we can totally do with our kiddos. I know some of you may think I am a little off my rocker telling you that your preschoolers can craft with needle and thread...but hear me out: Sewing is a great activity to tune up fine motor skills and the Montessori community calls this a practical life lesson. "What is practical life? Basically, it is any physical activity that helps a child grow in motor skills, cognitive development, self confidence and development of his or her own personality, and most of all independence. Any controlled movement of hands, arms, legs, feet, eyes, etc. helps your child achieve independence and mastery of his or her environment. Sitting up, crawling, walking, grasping a toy are practical life skills for infants. Soon, your toddler is ready for new areas to conquer. Dressing, brushing his or her teeth, washing face and hands, eating properly, not slamming the door, manners, and so on are all practical life skills that prepare your child for life. Being able to take care of yourself gives not only self-confidence and freedom, but helps with ones concentration in the mastery of concrete learning that eventually leads to abstract learning, such as reading and math." Even the big kids dig this craft!

"In time for Valentine’s day, I have come up with the perfect gift to give to all the book lovers in your life. Supplies: -felt -white embroidery thread -paperclips -hot glue gun -scissors -fabric marking pen They are really easy and quick to make. Read on to see how I made these sweet little bookmarks.

Start by drawing your shape onto felt. To help keep the felt in place while cutting, use a straight pin to stabilize the two pieces.

Now that your felt hearts are cut out, it is time to stitch.

Stitch a running stitch along the perimeter of the heart. It is the simplest stitch – just up and down through the felt.

Once you stitch all the way around, you can secure your thread by running your needle along the very top of the felt, pulling though and cutting off the excess. You will be gluing the heart down with hot glue, so you don’t have to worry about this string coming out. Now that the stitching is done, you can glue the bookmark together.

Put a small dot of glue on your plain heart and glue down the paperclip. Add more hot glue over the surface of the plain heart, and very lightly press your stitched heart down on top. If you smash the two hearts together, two things will happen: hot glue will ooze out of the sides, and you will be able to see the outline of the paperclip. Pressing lightly keeps the surface smooth and pretty.

You may have already noticed the sweet cards that these bookmarks are clipped to. Since Photoshop tends to send me into fits of hysteria, I asked Mique to design a card for these bookmarks so that they can be given as Valentines. She, of course, came up with something fabulous with very little help from me.

To Download your Homemade Valentine bookmark cards for visit this link http://thirtyhandmadedays.com/2012/01/homemade_valentine_cards/ and scoll down to the picture of the bookmarks. be sure to subscribe to get the ful, resolution download. A new page will pop up for you if you did it right. 30days subscribers and personal use only. Thanks! Enjoy stitching up these little hearts and spreading the love this Valentine’s Day!"