Valentine's Day Cards and Crafts

Valentines are always really easy to find for little kids that love cartoon characters.  A quick trip to the store and you are all set.  But I always find it gets harder to find something age appropriate for the last few years of elementary school.  When Oriental Trading asked me to review some of their Valentine's Day products, I knew my daughter and I could find just what we needed for her valentines.

Originally we intended to make are own with some Valentine's craft supplies from their site, but when she found these cute We Go Together valentine cards she had to have them.  

These were the same price as any valentines that we would have purchased locally, but they weren't one big perforated sheet, which means we didn't ruin a third of them trying to separate them.  And the envelopes were better quality and had cute hearts on them.  They will hold up nicely to having a candy or pencil taped to the back of them when she hands them out at her school Valentine's Day party.

Since we weren't going to spend the time making her valentines, I thought we would tackle a new Valentine wreath.  I had fallen in love with a black Halloween ribbon wreath years ago, and since Oriental Trading has a great selection of ribbon and wreath forms, I thought we could make a cute pink one to display on our mantle. 

This wreath is so easy to make and the perfect craft to put together when you are sitting on the couch catching up on your favorite TV show.  All you need is a floral wreath form a lot of ribbon.  I used a 14 inch wreath form and almost 30 yards of 1.5 inch. double sided satin ribbon.  You could also use grosgrain ribbon.  You just cut, tie, and double knot the ribbon, then trim the bows down to similar lengths.  I love the way it turned out and now want to make one in black for Halloween.

The ribbon and wreath forms were both the same quality I would have bought at my local craft store, but with the convenience of finding just what I needed from the comfort of my own home and having it delivered with all of the other supplies I bought for Valentine's Day.  All in all it saved me at least two and probably four trips to different stores to shop for decorations, cards, candy, and craft supplies.

Do you have your kids valentines all picked out?  And what about party supplies?  Do you do anything fun with your family on Valentine's Day?  

** Disclaimer **

The items in this post were provided to me by Oriental Trading for review purposes.  All opinions are my own.  No other compensation was received in exchange for the post content.