Our Valentine Tree

It's true.  I love Valentine's Day!  The colors, the hearts scattered all over everything, the romance and flowers.  It may be a Hallmark Holiday, but I love it nevertheless.  To add a little Valentines feel to our dining room, the kids and I created a Valentine's Tree.

We used Perler Beads to make the ornaments for our tree.  We have so much fun with these little beads...even if I end up sweeping up half of them.  We used the same method when we made ornaments for our Perler Bead Christmas Tree.  That posts gives directions on how to use the beads as well as where to buy them.

Aside from the fact that you can have fun creating cute shapes, it's also excellent practice making patterns and using your imagination.  Problem solving skills come into play and hand eye coordination is used, as well.  Those little beads can be tricky to place on their little boards.  Once we had our ornaments made I used floss to create simple hangars.  The next step was to color the rice.

This couldn't be easier.  I just put some rice in a mixing bowl, squirted a few drops of red food coloring and then a few drop of hand sanitizer.  Then I mixed until all the rice was colored.  The more drops of color you use the darker your rice.  Then I just put them in casserole dishes to dry for about 30 minutes.  Then it was ready to go.  I reused the branches from our Christmas tree, and placed them in my glass container, then filled it with rice.

I also added some felt hearts that I bought from the Etsy shop i felt sprightly.  They have all kind of fun pre-cut felt shapes.  Then we decorated to tree.

So pretty and fun!  I would like to get some of the branches that come with little white lights to stick in among the ornaments and branches.  But, I think it turned out lovely, and it adds a fun touch of color to our room. 

I have my sights set on an Easter tree next.  How do you decorate for Valentine's Day?

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