Lisa Storms

valentine lunches

I've been a little obsessed with heart shaped food this past week.  I apparently have too many heart gadgets to use on one lunch alone, so it's kind of been Valentine week around the geeky Storms household.

First up is breakfast for lunch.  The kids always buy lunch at school whenever they have breakfast for lunch.  They are their mom's kids after all.  Breakfast is the best.  I found a heart pancake mold in my stash so figured that was the way to go.  The heart pick looks cute as a little arrow but is really just to eat their melons.  I didn't want to deal with sticky syrup, so we opted to include strawberry yogurt for dipping.  And sprinkles just make the world happy.

I called this one "bee mine" due to my half-hearted attempt at making bee fruit kabobs.  The heart picks I've been using are meant to be cupcake picks.  I like these for their lunches because the tips aren't sharp as opposed to skewers/toothpicks.  This was my second attempt using a "toast stamp".  The lunch before I didn't even bother photographing.  It was a detailed stamp that you couldn't really even tell what it was.  But my youngest was thrilled that it included a Mario mustache (which was actually a pair of love birds, but I'm glad he found happiness in it).  In hindsight I should have taken a pic lol.   But this simple heart is fine.  Just kind of not what I was going for.  I did figure out I like stamping the bread before toasting.

And of course I had to bust out the sandwich cutters.  I see this heart cutter hanging in grocery aisles all of the time.  Had to do the traditional Valentine strawberries by cutting in half and trimming out a more exaggerated "v" at the center with a knife.  I really like these silicone baking cups from Wilton.  This set of hearts comes with a mix of red and pink.  We got lots of use out of these this week, and they fit well in our lunchboxes.   Here the heart cup isn't necessary, just cute.  Which to me was necessary =) but another day I used three hearts in the large compartment to separate out meats, cheeses, and crackers for homemade lunchables.   Happy Valentine's Day to all!

View more of my Valentine ideas here: Valentine Posts

And view more of my lunches here: Lunch Posts

paper fortune cookie valentines

We are finally ready for Valentine's Day!  We just finished up the teacher Valentines, and they turned out super cute.  Today I had a change of plans as my original idea just didn't seem very "valentiney" ... so I'm saving it for Teacher Appreciation Week or an end of school gift and will share later. Had to come up with something last-minute with what I had on-hand.

We made paper fortune cookies with an "I'm fortunate to have you as a teacher" kind of filling.  I won't bother with instructions on making these as they are all over the internet already much better than I could explain. 

The kids were amazed how cool it was to make these out of a circle of paper.  So once we were done, I couldn't figure out a way to address them that I liked.  So I ended up cutting out take-out boxes using my Silhouette.  If you have a Silhouette, the box I used is called take_out_box_c00698_18816.  I mention it specifically because I highly recommend it.  Went together very easily. 

I printed the boxes just big enough to fit a cookie inside and added a simple label using a font called Bonzai.  These were easy, and I just think they are the cutest.  =)

photo valentines

We knocked out the other two kids' Valentines today. 

I ended up going with Candi Gershon's genius "peeps" valentines I mentioned in my last post after finding the Peeps 50% off.  I also scored on Pop Rocks at the Dollar Store of all places while there for something completely different.  They were in assorted 3-packs.  I was originally going to do them as I did for the Fiskars' site, but Kaylen was bummed that only Logan would have photos on his.  This girl loves to be in front of a camera.  So I modified the design to include a photo for her, too.

I took photos of both kids composed flush left with a white sheet behind them.  For the Pop Rocks, I measured the width of the candy and as tall as I could go without covering up the logo to size the photo.  I added a text block to the left the same size.  Then when printed, fold in half and staple once in the right seam of the candy.

For the Peeps, I measured the front of the package down to the top of the word Peeps.  I added a little to the width of the package.  This was my photo size.  Then I added a text box the same size to the top and added my text upside down.  This way once printed and cut, I can fold the card over the top of the candy and staple once in the top seam.  It takes a while to get everything set up in the beginning, but then the assembly is a snap.  I printed out their sentiments onto cardstock and punched out with a Fiskars speech bubble punch.  In hindsight I'd probably make the speech bubbles a different color instead of using a foam dot to make them "pop". 

Since I printed the cards out on photo paper, the kids used a red permanent marker to add the names so we didn't need to worry about smearing.  It is also easiest to fill in the names before stapling onto candy. 

robot valentines

My youngest son and I made robot Valentines today for his kindergarten class.  He did most of the punching and I did most of the assembling.  He also enjoyed picking out papers from my scrap bin for each of his friends.  This is a wonderful project for using up scraps!

These are based on my robot Valentine featured in the February issue of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.  I have had lots of inquiries on specific directions, so I figured I would tell how I made these.  The fun thing about robots is that you can make them any way you'd like with what you have on hand.  I think the sillier and more random the better! =)

Begin by wrapping a miniature candy bar with patterned paper to cover the logo and adhere.  Trim a ¼" strip of gray cardstock, run through a paper crimper and trim into arms and legs.  Cut a gray punched circle (Fiskars pop-up circle punch) in half to form the feet.  For the hands, punch a ¼" hole punch into gray cardstock and punch the negative piece with the circle punch used for the feet to form a washer shape.  Cut in half for each hand.  Mini Glue Dots really speed up this project!

I used Fiskars' limited edition Bistro Brew squeeze punch for the head, but any square or rectangle shape would work.  I adhered the head with foam adhesive so it wouldn't be so much shallower than the body.  I added a heart punch on the chest and a strip of cardstock behind the head for bolts, a hand-cut smile (using self-adhesive foam), and googly eyes.  Robots are all different, so have fun decorating him as you wish!

To view all of my Valentine blog posts for more project ideas, check here.

handmade valentines

I have lots of handmade Valentine ideas to share this week ... but yikes, it's already Wednesday.  Unbelievable!  Life just keeps going at warp speed.

So let's start with some Valentines I made for Fiskars.  I have to say I'm completely in love with this monkey.  Completely.  And he is so easy to make by combining a few punches. 

You can find photos and directions here.  More to come soon!

Valentine's Day Party

I hope to have lots of Valentine inspiration to share next week (it's just been crazy around here) but until then, I wanted to share an article I did for Fiskars on adding cute, handcrafted touches to your Valentine Party. 

This may be my favorite place setting ever.  From the fork arrow/heart napkin (which I'm adding to the kids' lunchboxes as well) to the XOXO built-in tic-tac-toe placemat that can be achieved different ways. Lots of useful decorating going on here =).

You can find the full article here.  Until next week . . . when I will hopefully also have my blog banner updated from Christmas! =)