Mom & Me Valentine Inspiration

Welcome to Day 5 of Papertrey Ink's December release countdown! Today we have some darling products to help out with your Valentine crafting. Today's projects are kid-friendly -- perfect for Mom & Me Valentine crafting!

All of the new products will be available at 10 pm ET on December 15 in the Papertrey Ink store.

My first project features Jumping For Joy, designed by Nichole Heady. I absolutely love these! They are modeled on the old wooden, jointed doll toys where you pull the string and the arms and legs move. Super quick and easy to cut, stamp and assemble, too. If you're a mom crafting with kids for Valentine's Day, this would be a great project to work on together. Even very young kids could put the arms and legs on with the brads and stamp the different parts of the face.

Attaching the string is pretty easy, too. The dies cut not only the holes for the brads, but tinier ones for the pull string. (Nichole will have a video showing the assembly.) At the bottom, I attached a tiny tag that says "pull."

Once the doll is assembled, you can slip it through the slit on the Jumping For Joy Card for presentation.

What I've always found with my kids is that they like to see one card through to finish, rather than assembly-line stamping and assembly. It takes a little longer their way, but it keeps them interested. A couple of other tips for success are to keep the project simple and, when making multiples, spread it out over a few days. I can remember the preschool days, where just writing their name took them multiple days!

Stamps: Jumping for Joy

Dies: Jumping For Joy

Ink: Sweet Blush, Fresh Snow, Smokey Shadow, Pale Peony

Paper: Stamper's Select White, Pale Peony, Sweet Blush, Soft Stone, and Smokey Shadow card stock

Other: brads, True Black baker's twine

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Most kids love being silly and being center stage. My kids have especially loved the Valentines where their picture is somehow incorporated (holding a lollipop, holding a glow stick as a light saber, etc.), so I thought it would be fun to give Betsy's Dress Up Doll a new head -- my son Gabe's!

I found the easiest way to do this was to print Gabe's head, stamp the body (Dress Up Dolls: Basics), die-cut the panel down to size, and then add all the Dress Up Dolls: Puppy Love extras (clothing, puppy, leash, etc.). 

My kids are a little older now, so with some supervision, I think they could pull off almost all of the assembly on these. Younger kids would still have fun coloring the clothes, puppy, and leash.

Stamps: Dress Up Dolls: Basics; Dress Up Dolls: Puppy Love

Dies: Dress Up Dolls: Basics; Dress Up Dolls: Puppy Love, Double Ups: Rectangles, Valentine Pin-Ups (heart tag)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Paper: Stamper's Select White and Pure Poppy card stock

Other: True Black baker's twine, enamel dot, ink blending tool and foam, Copic markers

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For more Mom & Me Valentine Inspiration, visit the Papertrey team:

Nichole Heady

Ashley Newell

Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Schmidlin
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips

Thanks for visiting!