Valentine’s Day Cards (Fingerprinted)

I wish I could take credit for these lovely Fingerprint Valentines Day cards but once again it was thanks to a Google Image Search.

My daughter is 4 and managed it and I think you could do it with young babes as well but you’d have to position their fingers.

You will need:

  • White paper
  • Selection of coloured paint (I used red, orange and pink)
  • Coloured Card
  • Prit Stick
  • Gel Pen

 

 

How to do it:

1) Have your children create a couple of sheets of the heart fingerprints so you have a few good ones to choose from

2) Cut and fold the card
3) Once the prints dry carefully tear them out.  If you’re kids are old enough they could probably do this bit themselves.
4) Use the Prit Stick to glue the fingerprint hearts onto front of card.
5) Personalise them, I used a silver pen

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

 

 

 

Love Rocks!

Whenever I need inspiration for crafting, I always turn to my mate Maggie from Redtedart.com and once again she has come through trumps or should I say hearts!

These Love Rocks caught my eye as they are so simple and required very little in terms of materials.  I think they’re going to make perfect Valentine’s Day gifts. However, posting to Canada or South Africa is not an option.

You will need

  • PVA glue (we watered ours down a bit)
  • Rocks
  • A selection of fabric
  • Scissors

Method

  1. Dig some rocks out from under the frozen earth, wash in a colander and leave dry.
  2. Get your neighbour around who is brilliant with anything crafty and blag her to bring fabric, glue and scissors.
  3. Sit back and watch her do her magic.
  4. All joking aside the 4-year olds enjoyed it for as long as their short attention spans allowed.  But, Eva and I could be found carrying on long after they left the room.  However, she made me cut out my own hearts!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

 

 

 

St Alban’s South Signal Box

We’ve just returned from St Alban’s South Signal Box as part of Heritage Open Days 2011.  We’ve gone by it countless times on the train ‘down to London’ as they say but we had no idea that it’s open to the public.   In fact, it’s open every second Sunday of the month.  Do check the website for a full list of opening times.

‘Early in 2002 a group of St Alban’s residents decided that the signal box at the end of their road had been left to decay for 25 years too many.’

I highly recommend a visit.  It’s one of those hidden gems in St Alban’s.  I’m by no means a train spotter but I found it very interesting and my husband and daughter were enthralled.  We listened to a short talk about the restoration which included a demonstration of how it would have worked in action and then the kids got a chance to pull the levers, which would turn the signals on in the garden.

There’s also a historical exhibition on the ground floor and the gardens are lovely.

Do you know any other local gems I should look out for?

 

Boat for Hire

My hubby’s been itching to get Madame on the water.  He definitely has a love of the sea; he used to do a lot of scuba diving, sailing and windsurfing.  Unfortunately, a lot has changed in the last 20 years in relation to health and safety. So, it’s no longer a matter of popping down to a local sailing club and renting a dingy.  You now have to have formal qualifications, level 2, which requires a couple of weekends and a few hundred pounds.

So, as a cheap and quick alternative we opted to go to the Lee Valley Boat Centre and hire an electric boat.

It was brilliant and the weather was perfect.  I’d highly recommend it but do avoid the pub across the canal afterwards, which was responsible for probably one of the worst roast lunches I’ve ever had.   The sign on the door should have been a dead give-away ‘shirts must be warn at all times’ and no word of a lie, the grannies had tattooes!

I always thought Broxbourne was in Herts and not Essex??? ;-)