Valentine's Day Inspired Projects

I admit it, I am now officially addicted to Pinterest.  I just love trolling the site for hours at a time but my Pinterest habit has seriously eaten away at my blogging and creative pursuits this year.

But Pinterest is a great source of ideas and we have been very busy doing some great Valentine's Day and Winter themed projects inspired by some of my great finds out in the blogosphere, so I'd like to share a few of our fun crafts we have been doing so far this year.

Since it is one of my most popular projects- no matter the season- I've brought back Fabric Topiaries for Valentine's Day.  They have been a big hit with my ladies and always turn out pretty- and so unique- even though everyone starts out with the same exact supplies.  Here are a few of our creations at Franklin Park in Plano.

  

Valentine Topiaries at Franklin Park

Close up of the fabric topiary

I just love this picture of one of my ladies heading home with her masterpiece!

This project takes a good amount of prep time in advance- I estimate that each topiary- and these are very small styrofoam balls- takes at least 1/3 to 1/2 yard of material cut in 1 1/2 to 2 inch squares ( depending on how fluffy you want your topiary to be.

And it takes my classes at least an hour and a half to paint their clay pots, paint their stems and poke all their fabric into their styrofoam balls.  Then they have to que up for me to do the finishing touches.

I have never had anyone leave that was not completely happy with their project no matter the season, or their skill level so I would highly recommend this project for all ages!

Button and Scrapbook Paper Framed Hearts

This project was actually inspired by a couple of crafts that I found on Pinterest.  With a couple of tweaks, it was great for both Active Independent Seniors and my Memory Care Residents as well.  Unfortunately I did not get photos of the projects I did with my Memory Care folks- but did catch a few of my ladies at Franklin Park Canyon Creek before they could run out the door with their finished projects.  

This project is fairly inexpensive but the finished product is quite cute!  I always try to use the $1.00 frames from Michael's and love it when they have their 25% off everything coupon.  I used old book pages, pretty Valentine's day Scrapbook papers, buttons and ribbon to embellish the frames in some of my classes.  My small round hole punch came in handy- and I made a template for the large heart out of cardboard.

Here are a few shots of the finished projects:

When we did these projects with the Memory Care Residents, we just left off the background book page and the buttons, otherwise the project looks much the same and my ladies were all very pleased with the outcome!

January has been a very busy month full of fun crafts, Latin Rhythm Classes, Gardening and so much more.  Will share much more in my next post!

Until next time- Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

Spring Fabric Topiaries and Fabric Tied Wreaths and Much More!

April was such a busy month  I  did not have a chance to share most of the projects we did to celebrate the beginning of Spring and the Easter holiday with you until I finally have had a chance to catch my breath.

One of my very favorite projects is the fabric topiary- and for Spring we put a new, colorful twist on an old favorite. These are some of my ladies creating their topiaries at Park Place in Plano Texas.

 

One of my favorite things about creating the fabric topiaries is that even though we all start out with the exact same choice of fabric, paint colors and accessories- every topiary is unique and really shows the personality of each class member!

Another fun project we worked on in March and April was hand tied fabric wreaths.  I offered a couple of different options- either wrapping the wreaths with fabric or tying the strips onto the wreath form.  Some ladies have arthritis in their hands and tying lots of knots is a little uncomfortable.  Here are a couple of examples of our Fabric wreaths for Spring:

Hand Tied Fabric Spring Wreath

Wrapped Fabric and Burlap Wreath with Hand Made Flowers


Here are some of our Fabric Wreath Creations from our class at Meadowstone Place:

Didn't everyone do a great job with their festive Spring wreaths?  They are so unique and fun!

In addition to working on our Spring Topiaries and Wreaths, we also made Brown Paper Bag Bunny Topiaries to get into the spirit of Easter:

Paper Bag Bunny Topiary

And to round out our April projects we also made fun Paper Mache Egg Shakers for our Latin Rhythm and Movement classes and  Cork Birdie Plant Pokes and Clay Pot Wind Chimes for our container plants and gardens:

Paper Mache Egg Shakers

Cork Birdie Plant Poke

Clay Pot Wind Chime

In addition to all of these wonderful craft projects, we did a lot of gardening- including planting upside down tomatoes and seedlings and had a lot of fun learning about wines and boogied to the Latin Beat!

Will share more later!  I have a couple of fun Cinco De Mayo projects to share and more great  pics of our April classes!

Till Next time- Have a great Spring- and Stay Creative!

Stephane