Hellobee

Mrs. Cheesecake’s post on 14 Crafts to Celebrate Valentine’s Day totally inspired me to do something crafty for our Valentine’s Day cards this year. I saw Thumbprint Love Bugs card and thought not only was it darling, but doable with my never-sit-still 13 month old son.

The last time I tried something crafty was at Thanksgiving. I had this great idea to make handprint turkeys and have them on the Thanksgiving dinner table. However, it didn’t go quite as planned – lots of paint on the floor, on the baby, and some on the paper. The handprint looked more like a blob, but I did get one pretty cute one that I was able to make look like a turkey. It went up on the fridge and that was that.

Thumbprints, though, that seemed more likely to be a success. To be honest, I just dived right into it on my own using the photo as inspiration for my own idea – just a variation of what the other crafter put together. It’s a simple project that didn’t require too many supplies. In fact, you might already have them all already.

Supplies:

• Cards & Envelopes
• Fine Point Sharpie Pens – red & black
• Stamp Pad
• Stamps, Optional*

* I owned a heart stamp already, but the “I love you” stamp was reasonably priced so I picked that up as well!

Steps:

1. Get Situated: Sit your child down – I used the Bumbo to try to keep him to stay in one place.

2. Grab Supplies: Grab the card and stamp pad. Take your child’s thumb and rub it on the stamp pad.

3. Make Thumbprints: Press the inked thumb onto the card. Do this a few times. I think three prints looks good. Put a thumbprint on the top corner of the inside, too. It adds a cute touch! Note: This is where the child’s participation ends for the most part unless you have an older child that can draw and/or write. 

4. Turn Thumbs into Bees: Take your fine point sharpie and draw wings on both sides of the thumbprint. They are like writing the number 3. Add some antennas with swirls at the top end. Then two slashes for eyes and a little smile. You can also put dots, swiggles, or dashes in the wings for extra fun.

5. Write the Greeting: The message I chose was “Bee Mine.” What I did to get inspiration on how I wrote it was from a font on my computer called Made with B. I opened a blank document and wrote “Bee Mine” in this font. When I wrote it onto the card, I referenced this so I could mimic the look. You can get the Made with B font here. Or, better yet, here’s how it looks:

6. Add a Message Inside: This is more up to you, but I wrote “Happy Valentine’s Day” and underneath I put the “I love you” stamp. I wrote a few sentimental sentences pretending to be my child and also signed it as my child. I threw on a couple heart stamps as well.

7. Envelope: Decorating the envelope can be fun, too. On the front, I put a heart stamp next to the address. Then I used the “I love you” stamp on the back of the envelope along with a shiny heart sticker, so they’d see it when opening the card.

Petit Macaron and I made three cards – one for both sets of grandparents and the other for daddy. I wanted to make a couple more for friends, but he started to get fussy. I did get three though, so I’m pretty proud of that. Hopefully someday soon he’ll be a bit more interested in arts and crafts!