Mama Pea Pod: {The Heart Project}

Today I am reposting an old post from last year (down below), for two reasons. One reason is that I'm pretty sure nobody saw this post except my mum and maybe a few friends as it was one of my earliest posts, and since Valentine's is rolling around again, I thought I'd share it with a few more of you. The second, and more important, reason is because it ties in nicely to introduce a heart-themed fundraiser project organized by Jamie of Hands On: As We Grow.

Jamie has put together a beautiful book of 'heart' art, crafts, and foods, titled The Heart Project, to raise money for the American Heart Association. It is a compilation of over 100 heart-themed projects made by or with kids from bloggers all over the world, with links to tutorials for each one. It is available in ebook format for $5 or paper book format for $20, and all proceeds will go to the American Heart Association. Please consider buying a copy and/or making a donation to the AHA at Hands On: As We Grow's Heart Project. This book is only available during this month of February, so don't miss out on this very special opportunity to make a difference and to own your very own copy of this beautiful book.

Here's a little sneak preview of the book:

You can read more details about this project (including accompanying giveaways!), buy your copies, or make a donation to the AHA over at Hands On: As We Grow.

Please stop by and thank the bloggers participating for their contributions to this project. They are:

hands on : as we grow	♥	A Little Learning for Two	♥	Among Many Blessings
Angelique Felix	♥	At Home with Ali	♥	Broken Treasures
Busy at Home	♥	Busy Kids Happy Mom	♥	Carrie Saindon's Photo Journey
Child Central Station	♥	Classified: Mom	♥	Classroom Magic
Creative with Kids	♥	Creativity My Passion	♥	Critters and Crayons
De Tout et de Rien	♥	Dilly-Dali Art	♥	Dinosaurs & Octopuses
Excited 2 Learn	♥	Hand Over the Cookies	♥	Handprint & Footprint Art
Happy Hooligans	♥	Heart Journey	♥	Imagination Soup
Jamie's Jumble	♥	Kitchen Counter Chronicles	♥	Kreative Resources
Let Kids Create	♥	Little Illuminationss	♥	Living Montessori Now
Loudness of the Lambs	♥	Love and Lollipops	♥	Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo
Mama Pea Pod	♥	Mama Smiles	♥	MemeTales
Messy Kids	♥	Mindful Meanderings	♥	Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Mommy Labs	♥	Mommy Perks	♥	Mum Paints Lives
Mummy Mummy Mum	♥	My Creative Family	♥	NurtureStore
One Artsy Mama	♥	Peace Love & Rainbows	♥	Play Dr Mom
Putti Prapancha	♥	Rainbows within Reach	♥	Reading Confetti
Ready. Set. Read!	♥	Red Ted Art	♥	Sense of Wonder
Share & Remember	♥	Stacy Molter	♥	Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
Teach Preschool	♥	The Artful Child	♥	The Chocolate Muffin Tree
The Craft Barn	♥	The Educators' Spin on It	♥	The Golden Gleam
The Imagination Tree	♥	The Iowa Farmer's Wife	♥	The Joy of My Life
The Kids Fun Review	♥	The Outlaw Mom Blog	♥	The Preschool Toolbox
The Seeds Network	♥	Toddler Approved

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

{Princess Pea's First Valentine}

(Originally published on February 14th, 2011)

Last week we started talking about Valentine's Day and how it's a special day when you tell people how much you love them. Princess Pea, of course, absorbs every detail.

On Tuesday she went to a kids' concert. The musician is a popular local kids' singer. His music is actually very good, even though I can't understand most of the lyrics. Anyway, Princess Pea loves his music and thinks he's one of her friends. So when we got to the concert she bravely sat herself down on the floor at the front, in amongst a group from a local preschool (Sweet Pea and I sat further back on a chair). When he finally came out onto the stage, Princess Pea jumped up and started waving wildly - very cute!

At the end of the concert, the performer waved goodbye to all the kids, and Princess Pea again jumped up and started waving wildly. He saw her and gave her her own special wave and big smile - wow! She was sooooooo thrilled!

So on the way home she announced that she wanted to make him a Valentine's card ("I think I love him!"). Too cute! So all last week she's been working on making Valentine's cards. Here are the results - pretty good I think!

For the one above (this is the one for the musician), I made a cardboard heart template, which she traced and cut out by herself, then she decorated it with stickers.

For this one, she used a heart-shaped stamp and red and white paint to stamp hearts onto the pink paper, then she glued it onto a folded paper that I had cut and folded for her.

For the next one, she first used her heart stamp marker to stamp all over a square of pink paper. Then she traced and cut out a heart from it using the template, then used the 'negative space' to stick onto a square of paper then stuck that onto the card.

This is the heart that she cut out from the space in the card above, which she stuck onto another heart that she had traced and cut out using the template.