Simple Sewing on Paper Hearts

Hello and welcome to our next Valentine’s Day craft! Yes, we are going to sew on paper and make some super cute hearts that can hold some candy! 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need to get started: red or pink construction paper, scissors, a heart cookie cutter or template, pencil, some yarn, a yarn needle, a single paper punch, pen or marker and some stickers.

Begin by folding an end of the construction paper over so that you can fit your heart template or cookie cutter on it. This way you can cut 2 identical hearts with one time of cutting. Trace around the template or cookie cutter.

Cut out the 2 heart shapes while holding the folded paper together. Make sure you have 2 hearts held together for the next step.

Using the paper punch, punch holes along the outside edge of the hearts, but don’t make any holes along the top of the heart. We want this area to be open so we can put candy or other small items inside the heart. Before we begin sewing, write the name of the person you will give the heart to on the front or just decorate your heart. This is a good time to add the sticker too. (Though I forgot to add the sticker until after sewing, I was able to make it work then too.) 😉

Cut a piece of yarn and fold it in half. You will want to have enough yarn to sew all the way around the edge of the heart. Thread the yarn needle with your piece of yarn. Tie a knot at the end of the yarn.

Beginning at one of the holes at the top of the heart, we will sew around the bottom edge through each hole. But first let’s secure the yarn in the first hole. Starting from the back of the heart, put the needle through the hole and pull the yarn through until you are ALMOST to the knot coming to the hole. Then take your needle between the 2 pieces of yarn and pull it up snug. This will keep your yarn secure.

Try to keep the knot on the back side of the heart. Turn the heart over so the front side is on top again. Place the needle in the second hole and draw the yarn through. This will make a loop on the outside edge of your heart. Remember, start the needle through the hole from the back side of the heart.

Continue sewing on around the heart, bringing the needle and yarn through each hole. (Sorry I should have taken more pictures of this part.) When you have sewn through the last hole, turn the heart over again so the back side is facing up. Draw your needle under the back side of the last 2 loops of yarn.

Now draw the needle through just the second loop one more time to help secure the yarn.

Cut the yarn up close to the needle.

Tie a knot with the 2 strands of yarn and clip off the extra yarn with your scissors. And you are done sewing your heart!

Now your heart is ready for some candy or small items to stuff it. 🙂

Have fun sewing paper hearts and giving them to the special people in your life on Valentine’s Day! 🙂

It’s Time for Valentine Crafts!

Yep, it’s February and that means Valentine’s Day will be here before we know it! Today’s post is about something fun to make that doesn’t involve sugar! 😉 Valentine pencils! You can make these to give to the kiddos or let the kiddos make them for someone else. It would be a fun way for the kids to make Valentines for their classmates for a Valentine’s Day party at school.

You will need a piece of red or pink construction paper, scissors, glue, markers, some new pencils and the same number of pipe cleaners (chenille stems) as there are pencils. You can either draw some hearts or use a small heart shaped cookie cutter to trace around.

Begin by making a fold in your construction paper, so you can cut 2 layers of a full-sized heart at the same time. Notice that the cookie cutter edge is lined up with the fold. Trace around the cookie cutter. Or if you are drawing it free hand, that’s fine.

Holding the 2 layers of paper together, cut on the line you drew. You should end up with 2 hearts connected by 1 side.

Make a cut on the crease about 1/3 of the way up from the point of the hearts.

Close the heart and decorate both sides. I drew a face on one side and wrote some words on the other side. Your designs can be as simple or as fancy as you like.

Apply glue to the inside of the heart in the following manner: a line of glue up the middle of both sides and then all over just one side of the heart.

Place one end of a pipe cleaner on one side of the heart in the center.

Close the heart over the pipe cleaner and hold it closed until the glue holds it together.

That’s the front side and this is the back side.

If you have wiggly eyes, I think they make these even cuter. 🙂 Just glue them in place.

Allow the glue to dry a little before continuing with the next step. Here is the front side of some Valentine pencils I made.

And the back side.

Now for the finishing touch that turns plain ordinary pencils into Valentine pencils! Line one of the pipe cleaners up with a pencil, allowing the heart to stick up above the pencil eraser a little bit.

While holding on to the top part, wrap the rest of the pipe cleaner around and around the pencil until it’s completely wrapped and you run out of pipe cleaner.

Aren’t they fun? 🙂 The more, the merrier!

These are fun to make and you can put a sweet message on them too.

Hope this finds you all doing well and staying safe! We are in the middle of the Winter Storm Landon, but we are doing ok so far! They are warning us that we might lose our electricity, so if that happens I won’t be able to post tomorrow. Stay warm! 🙂

It’s a “2” Day ! 2-2-22!

Today is February 2, 2022 and that makes for a very cool looking date! 2-2-22! This calls for a day of 2’s!

See how many things you can do today that involve 2 of something. 🙂 Here are a few ideas to get you started!

Eat 2 pieces of toast.

Or maybe eat 2 pieces of eggs.

Read 2 books!

Practice writing the number 2.

Or for kids that are a little older, practice counting or writing numbers by 2’s.

Play 2 games.

Play with 2 toys.

Rusty thought playing with 2 toys looked like fun! 😉

Make 2 crafts.

Eat 2 pieces of candy! Yum! 😉

Hug 2 stuffed animals.

Build 2 Lego sets.

I’m sure you can think of more things to do in 2’s! Like wearing 2 socks and 2 shoes! 🙂 And if you go outside today, it might be a good idea to wear 2 gloves or 2 mittens. You can exercise by doing 2 jumping jacks and 2 sit ups. I hope you have a wonderful 2-day! 🙂

It’s National Lego Day!

WHEEHAW! National Lego is a day to celebrate! Dust off those Lego sets and start building! 🙂

Lego sets are fun whether they are a big set or a very small set.

While Lego sets may seem to be on the expensive side, when you consider all the time that will be spent playing with them and all the different things that can be made from one set, it turns out not to be as expensive as it might seem at first.

Lego sets make great gifts! Here are some happy smiles from Christmas. 🙂

(Yes, that is a candy cane in his mouth.) Lol 😉

Building Lego is good for relaxation and also for mental stimulation. Did you know Lego even sponsors corporate retreats for adults? Sign me up! 🙂 There are Legoland theme parks (on my bucket list!), a Legoland Discovery Center in Tempe, AZ and lots of Lego retail stores you can visit. There are such things as Lego clothing, backpacks, bags, video games and Lego movies.

It can be fun to collect themed sets of Lego.

And it’s so fun to look forward to new Lego sets each year!

Be sure to check out all the fun at Lego.com! Have a great National Lego Day! 🙂

Making Large Flowers With Pipe Cleaners

Since we had a pipe cleaner project for a little older group of kids on Monday, I thought it would be nice to do an easier pipe cleaner project for younger kids today. They might need some help holding the pieces together until the final wrap, but after that they can create to their heart’s content!

You will need a total of 7 pipe cleaners…5 for the flower petals, one for the stem and one for the center of the flower. I chose to use red for the petals, green for the stem and yellow for the center. Feel free to use whatever colors your child picks out! 🙂

The stem piece will be in the center of the petals.

For each petal, fold the pipe cleaner in half loosely as shown, making the 2 ends meet.

Place the ends in line with one end the end of the stem.

Continue bending and adding petals, placing them around the stem.

When you have all 5 petals lined up, it should look something like this:

Now take your pipe cleaner for the center and begin wrapping it around the bunch of ends.

Wrap it around and around the group of ends and try to cover up the ends so you don’t see any other colors.

Now comes the fun part! Bend each flower petal up and then design your flower! 🙂

The petals can be shaped in many ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Nicely rounded and oval shaped.

Put a little bend in the end of each petal.

Rounded petals that overlap each other. This one makes me think of a pansy!

Pointed skinny petals.

Petals bent in the middle to look like hearts.

For this flower, I bent the petals in half and looped the end over the yellow center of the flower. Then twisted the 2 pieces so they looked like smaller petals.

I’m sure you can come up with even more ideas! This is a simple but fun project for people of all ages. For older kids or adults, you could cut the pipe cleaners in half and make smaller flowers. I hope you’ll give this project a try! Maybe if we concentrate on making pipe cleaner flowers we can forgot how cold it is outside! 😉 Stay warm!

Uncooked Peanut Butter Fudge

Oooo! Do you love peanut butter?? How about some homemade peanut butter fudge?

I came across this recipe again the other day that my aunt shared with us quite a few years ago. I have fond memories of helping to make this peanut butter fudge when I was still a child at home. Though we often made it at Christmas time, this recipe is good for any time of year.

It only calls for 4 ingredients and there is no cooking involved. It does take some kneading by hand but that’s a great way for your kids to use up some of that excess energy! 😉 You will need 1/2 Cup of peanut butter, 1/2 Cup Karo corn syrup, 3/4 Cup powdered milk and 3/4 Cup powdered (or confectioners) sugar.

First put the peanut butter into a medium sized bowl.

Add the Karo corn syrup and stir together. If you have younger children helping, this is a good part for them to do.

Next add the powdered milk.

And finally add the powdered sugar.

Stir the ingredients together as best you can and then knead with your hands.

Turn the mixture out onto a clean countertop and knead together until all the ingredients are mixed in. You can divide the fudge among the kids helping so each can do some of the kneading.

Spread it into a pan or cookie sheet to the thickness you like. I think my mom spread it more on the thin side, maybe so we 6 kids got to have a piece or two without getting totally “sugared up”. 😉

Cut into pieces. Running the knife under hot water occasionally can help with the cutting process.

The pieces will stick together so you might want to store them so they don’t touch each other. You can do layers with wax paper in between the layers. Or the way we used to do it was to tear off some rectangular pieces of wax paper…

Place a piece of the fudge in the center…

Fold the long edges in overlapping each other…

And then twist the ends closed.

And there you have it! A fun treat for the family and hopefully your kids used up some of their extra energy! 😉 Enjoy!

The Cutest Lego Set Ever!

There is a new Lego set out and I honestly think it must be the cutest set I’ve ever seen! It’s the Year of the Tiger #40491. This set has 193 pieces and is rated for ages 8+. I found it at Walmart for $9.99. Take a look at this:

It is even cuter when you make it!

This is what you’ll see when you open the box. There’s even a printed envelope for storing the extra pieces.

3 bags of Lego pieces and the instruction booklet are included.

You literally start building from the bottom up. 😉 There’s his back legs and part of the body.

He’s got front legs now.

Building on up…

Can you guess what part this is?

If you said his nose and mouth, you are right! 🙂

It’s rather hard to see without eyes, so it’s a good thing they were next!

Now working on his back…

Check out this awesome tail! It’s moveable!

Of course, he needs some ears too! And they also move!

There’s a little platform to put together for him to sit on.

And there you have it! All done!

This set was super fun to build and it’s just so cute! 🙂 I hope you can find one at your local Walmart store (or somewhere else) and have a great time building a new tiger friend!

Taste Testing Tuesday #63 Apple Cider

Welcome back to another Taste Testing Tuesday! Today we’re looking at ways to drink apple cider. Does your family like to go to the orchard or country market and buy fresh apple cider? There are so many ways to drink this delicious beverage! Do you like it hot or cold? Plain or add in something tasty? Here are a few suggestions you might like to try:

#1.) Cold and straight from the jug into your glass! Mmmm!

#2.) Heat the cider and add some cinnamon powder or stir the cider with a cinnamon stick. Apples and cinnamon are always great together!

#3.) Heat and add some dehydrated apples. Maybe even some dehydrated apples that have cinnamon too.

#4.) Warm up the cider and stir in some maple syrup. My mouth is watering at the thought! 😉

#5.) Warm the cider and stir in some caramel topping. Oh my, but that sounds delicious!

Have you tried apple cider all these ways? I hope this will help you and your family find new ideas to try and that you will find one you think is delicious!! Warm cider on cold days is so nice and comforting! Enjoy sipping your cider! 🙂

Learning Fun With Foam Letters

Hello and welcome to another post on The Kids Niche! Hope you are doing well! 🙂 Today let’s talk about a few ways to have fun playing with foam letters with the kiddos. They can practice learning the letters of the alphabet and have fun doing it. I found a bag of 2 inch foam letters that have adhesive on the back at Joann’s a while back. You could do these activities with any type of cut out letters. Your child’s age and ability will determine which of these activities will be appropriate for them right now. Let’s start with…

#1.) Give your child a set of all the letters in the alphabet and let them lay them out in the correct order. If your child is just beginning to learn about letters, start with just a few letters at a time.

#2.) Lay out 3 each of 3 letters and let your child match the letters.

#3.) Using 2 sets of the letters, lay one set out in the correct order and have your child lay their letters out to match the first set.

#4.) You can use the same idea in laying out the letters of the child’s name and having them put their letters in the right order also.

#5.) Another way to practice using the letters in their name would be to give them all the letters in their name and let them put the letters in the right order without having another set to look at to do it.

#6.) Practice making rhyming words. Start with the ending sound…like “at”. Then have your child add a letter to the beginning to make another rhyming word.

#7.) Place letters in a bag and have your child pull them out one at a time and tell you what letter they have.

#8.) Play the game of “Go Fish!” using letters instead of cards. Start by finding 2 of each letter of the alphabet.

Mix the letters up and give 5 to each player. Our example is for 2 players.

Place something between the players so they can’t see each other’s letters. I found that a large cereal box laid on its side worked nicely.

After dealing 5 letters to each player, put the remaining letters in a paper bag where they can’t be seen.

The object of the game is to get 2 letters to make a match. And the player with the most matches at the end is the winner. Play begins with 1 player asking another player for a certain letter. For example, “Do you have an H?” If the player that is asked has the letter that was asked for, they must give it to the player. If the player gets the letter he or she asked for, they get to take another turn. If the player that is asked for a letter doesn’t have that letter, they reply with “No, go fish!” The player whose turn it is then reaches into the bag…no peeking!…and draws out 1 letter. If the letter they pull from the bag is the letter they asked for, they can take another turn. If it is not the letter they asked for then their turn is over and play moves to the next person. When a player gets a match, he or she sets the 2 letters together in front of him or her. Play continues until all letters have been matched.

When a player runs out of letters, they may pull one letter from the bag. The player that has the most matches at the end of the game is the winner. 🙂

I’m sure there are more games that can be played with a bag of foam letters, but I hope you will enjoy giving some of these a try! Remember, learning can be fun! 🙂

“Hand” Drawings for Kids

Have you ever traced around your hand with a pencil and paper and turned that hand into a picture? One popular way is to make a turkey at Thanksgiving time. But today we’re making some new friends by tracing around our hands and coloring them in with crayons or markers.

All you need is a piece of paper, a pencil, crayons or markers and your hand. 😉

Start by placing one hand on the paper and using your other hand to trace around your entire hand and in between each finger with the pencil.

This will be a girl so draw a sweet girl’s face.

I used a Peach crayon to color her face.

I chose blond hair for my girl and colored her hair…or the fingers…with a yellow marker. (The marker did make the paper bump up for some reason.)

Add a couple of bows to her hair and a little pink color to her cheeks and you’re finished. I’d like you to meet Hannah. 🙂

Hannah would like to have a friend, so let’s make a boy too. Trace around your hand again on the other side of the paper. Or on a new sheet of paper if the first one is out of space.

Draw an ornery face…boys are rather ornery, aren’t they? 😉

Color his face in with a crayon…I used Peach again.

Color in his hair. I decided to give my boy brown hair. And ta dah, he is finished too! Now I would like you to meet Hans. 😉

And there you have 2 new friends…Hannah and Hans. (Get it? Hannah and Hans made from hands? Haha!) 😉

I hope you will have fun drawing some Hand Friends! 🙂