Teacher Appreciation "Berry" Gift (with free printable)

It's been a busy month, as you might have seen from our June Monthly Goals post, on both the work and personal front. This has meant it's been one of our quietest months yet at Kitchen Floor Crafts. However, while we may have been distracted we've still had a few moments for crafting fun and family focused time.

This included putting together an end of year gift for Little Brother's preschool teachers. His year ended a little later than Big Brother's, which meant that the local strawberries were already in season. Who doesn't love fresh strawberries?

We paired fresh strawberries with a handmade card to create this sweet and memorable teacher appreciation gift. 

Salt and Watercolor Thank You Cards

For quite a while I've loved using this watercolor technique with kids, but we've never used it as a way to create thank you cards before. It's such a great strategy to use with a wide age range of kids as it is both easy and colorful. 

Little Brother especially got into this project, and in the end they are so colorful and pretty I was glad we wound up with a few spares for other times we need thank you cards. 

Easy Button Tree Card

A few days ago I came up with this Easy Button Tree card for a quick evening project. And it just came out too cute not to officially share it.

It took just a few minutes to prepare, and the kids were able to put together a few cards pretty quickly. They'll use them later this month for teachers and other special friends.

Painting with Tennessee Dancing Gourds

It's that time of year when there's all sorts of fun fall materials around that are perfect for a variety of different projects. We love finding new ways to use different materials. So we were excited to be given a handful of these "Tennessee Dancing Gourds" grown in my school gardens.

The boys love how the gourds can spin like a top, they really get some great motion when they get going. Watching them spin gave me a great idea for painting. 

Fingerprint Athletes

In the past we've had fun doing different fingerprint art projects, like these fingerprint teacher bookmarks. We've also shared how to make fingerprint thank you cards, along with other fun fingerprint ideas. This was a fun extension project that also used some of our newest foam stickers: create fingerprint athletes.

We used our fingerprint athlete pictures as thank you cards, but they would also make really fun comic strips! 

Heart in Hand (Homemade Card)

If you follow us on Instagram you might have noticed the quick picture last week of lots of colorful handprint paintings covering our kitchen tabletops. We were busy creating thank you cards for Teacher Appreciation Week.

I love how simple this card idea came out, and it would be perfect for not just teacher appreciation cards, but also Mother's Day, Father's Day, thank you cards, and Valentine's Day. They didn't take very long to put together either, which is especially great if you want to make a whole batch of them.

Comb Painting with Kids

Comb painting is one of those cool kid activities that has been around for a while and yet it is still classically loved by many. In our house we discovered it several years ago, although I had seen preschool teachers and art teachers use the technique before trying it ourselves.

One of the best parts about comb painting is the materials are likely ones you already have on hand, and if not they are pretty cheap to buy.

Veggie Print Valentine's Cards

I absolutely love seeing all the creative ways other bloggers have come up with to create Valentine's Day cards. Although the "big day" is officially here, I wanted to share one more sweet way we made cards for family members this holiday.

Actually, maybe it would be better to say one more not-so-sweet way we came up with making Valentine's Day cards in that we used vegetables. In the past we've enjoyed using potato prints to make Snowmen Cards and Printed tea towels. This time we included potatoes and branched into other types of vegetables.

Mail "Winter" to A Friend

We recently learned about the 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge that Toddler Approved and Coffee Cups and Crayons are co-hosting. From Martin Luther King Day to Valentine's Day they focus on Kindness, and challenge their families and others to 100 Acts of Kindness. Each week they have a different theme but the kindness acts can stand on their own. They can also be a bigger act or something small and daily.

We're joining in a little late this year, but excited to try acts of kindness ourselves. We're kicking off our participation by putting together a "winter" surprise to mail off to friends. 

I know, there are some of you out there whom probably think the idea of sending winter to someone is not necessarily a kindness act, but it is for these specific friends. This summer a family of friends moved to Florida. When we saw them briefly at Christmas, their two boys both mentioned missing the New England winter weather. 

So we decided, why not mail a little "winter" to them down in Florida?

Create a Dinosaur Pop-Up Card

This is a fun design for a pop-up card that we've used a few times now for friends' birthdays. We like to call it a "dinosaur" but with a few changes in color it could also be a monster!

We had the chance to make one this past weekend for a friend of Big Brother's sixth birthday. It's also a great project now that the new movie The Good Dinosaur is almost out in theaters!

Footprint Birdie Birthday Card

Sometimes we plan out projects that we know will turn into a post, and sometimes something turns out so cute we just have to share. That's how it was with this Footprint Birdie Birthday Card we created for a family member this week.

This week was our "Pamma's" birthday, and the boys were excited to pick her out a hummingbird feeder as a gift. To go with her present we decided to put together this sweet card. 

Teacher Appreciation Gift: Seed & Flower Craft

We had a lot of fun this week thinking of ways to treat the boys' teachers. Although I always appreciate the things I receive as a teacher during this week, I also know how much I value the teachers who take care of my boys when I need to be working. It takes a lot of energy, care, and dedication to be a teacher of young children and we definitely know some of the best.

Throughout the week we thought of small ways to say thank you, so that we could provide treats for more than one day. These Teacher Appreciation Seed & Flower craft gifts were easy to put together and such a great kick off for spring. Our inspiration for the gift came from our Teacher Appreciation Sunflowers a few years ago. 

Easy Easter Egg Pop-Up Card

I woke up the other day thinking about spring and what we could do to get ready and bring a little spring into our lives. Which of course made me think of Easter being right around the corner.

We love making pop-up cards for different occasions. Check out our Easy Christmas Pop-Up Cards and our Easy Flower Pop-Up Cards. This method worked a little differently.

Simple Sticker Valentine's (with Free Printables)

I absolutely love all the amazingly adorable and fun Valentine's ideas you can find these days on Pinterest. We've loved sharing them this month on Facebook and adding them to our Valentine's Day Pinterest Board.

And while we were tempted to recreate some of these amazing ideas, this year we decided to keep it simple with these Sticker Valentine's Day cards.

I originally didn't plan on sharing them, so we're posting this a little close to the day, but they were so simple and easy to create, and looked pretty cute in the end we couldn't resist posting anyway. 

Rolling Pin Valentine's

I first saw using a rolling pin and foam stickers to paint this fall over at Fantastic Fun and Learning when they were creating Rolling Pin Fall Leaf Paintings. I tucked it into the back of my mind as something I wanted to try with the boys. When I was trying to think of a way for Little Brother to be a little more hands on with his Valentine's, it came to mind.

I decided to use the smaller rolling pin that the boys use in their play kitchen or play dough play, with the idea it might be easier for Little Brother. Even though it's a rolling pin used for play, I took the tip of wrapping it in plastic wrap. On top of the plastic wrap I added a few foam heart stickers. (Foam stickers are pivotal to the project as they are thick and are raised off the pin.) 

Love Bug Cards & 20+ Love Bug Crafts & Activities

Last year we discovered the fun of creating "Love Bugs" for Valentine's Day. Our egg carton love bugs were simple and fun to create. This year we decided to extend our love bug fun into an easy to create card idea.

While creating we discovered lots of other great Love Bug ideas, make sure you check out the list of awesome ideas for incorporating love bugs into all elements of Valentine's Day at the end of this post.

Homemade Valentine's Craft Tray

We're excited to be participating in our third Read + Play event!  This time 20 + bloggers have all connected a favorite Valentine's Day book with a great play, craft, or learning activity.

In the last few years we've discovered the character Pete the Cat and really enjoy this series. In his Valentine's Day book, Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day is Cool, he begins the book thinking Valentine's Day isn't cool. But as he makes Valentine's for his class, family, and friends he discovers Valentine's Day is cool.

Monster Truck Painting & Note Cards

Monster Truck Painting has been one of our go to activities for quite a while now. We car and truck painted quite a lot when Big Brother was a toddler, and around the time he turned three we discovered that the best way to create this kind of painting was with Monster Trucks.

Monster Truck tires are perfect for this type of painting because they have a great tread on their tires, which make great prints when painting.

Easy Christmas Tree Pop-Up Cards

It's been a quiet post week as we've been focusing on lots of Christmas projects, parties, and fun. But I've also been down and out with a knee injury, which has made me a little distracted. However, we did want to share these Easy Christmas Tree Pop-Up Cards we've been making over the last week.

Easy Christmas Tree Pop Up Cards

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A few weeks ago we shared a tutorial post on how to create an easy flower pop-up card. To put a holiday spin on it we've been creating a small stack of these easy Christmas Tree Pop-Up Cards for family and friends. For the full tutorial, check out the original pop-up card post. 

Easy Flower Pop-Up Cards

Although this week officially marks the rush into the holiday season, for us last weekend was a rush of birthdays. We had quite a handful or friends, big and small, who were celebrating their birthdays. One of our favorite types of cards to make for friends are pop-up cards.

Easy Flower Pop-Up Cards

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This method makes it easy enough to make more than one at a time, so while Big Brother created one for his friend's birthday present, I made one for a friend too.