3 Simple and Sweet Heart Crafts for Kids

3 Easy Heart Crafts

Oh, so easy three heart themed paper crafts are simple enough for preschoolers to tackle, charming enough for all ages  to make and give for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or perhaps a wedding gift. Use up recycled cartons, tissue paper, ribbon and doilies.

Freebie Friday - 5 New Color In Valentines

This double set of love-inspired Valentine coloring cards will go straight to someone's heart.

 Choose the designs you like best from the set of two owl pun cards (Love Owl Ways or Owl You Need Is Love) or the more traditional arrow and heart, sign language I Love You and little angle cherub Be My Valentine design.

5 Free Printable Valentine Card Crafts

Many Mandala Coloring Sheets to Print

There's been so much recent interest in adult coloring pages. Have you noticed? I saw features in major print and television media including CNN and the New York Times about the fashionable "new" art hobby to relax and get creative (not new to me, I've been making coloring pages for grownups for more than a decade).  Perhaps you've printed out and colored in a few of my designs from the mandala set, the Celtic designs, the whimsical pictures or the compicated patterns collection.

Celtic Design Coloring Page LeeHansen.com

If not, here's a quick connection to 12 Marvelous Mandala Coloring Sheets at my main web site.

This is only a sample of the many mandala designs and other line drawings you can print and color in or use to make personal crafts. No commercial use allowed, and please post links to the site not the actual drawings if you want to share.

The Real Meaning of Memorial Day

Frederick Douglass - May 30 1871

I never got comfortable with the changeover made by Congress in 1971 to move the date for Memorial Day observances to yet another Monday holiday. We observed Memorial Day on May 30 for more than 100 years -  from the end of the Civil War - when the graves of war dead on both sides were honored (decorated, as in Decoration Day) with flags and wreaths. Subsequent wars added more graves and solemnity to the "holiday" but it didn't begin to lose meaning until after 1971.

 Most people love the 3-day weekend and revel in backyard parties, BBQ events and beach outings for this now unofficial start to summer.  I welcome the spring weather, but also wage a patriotic protest every year about the true meaning of this solemn US holiday. And I hang my flags from the porch and plant my geraniums on that weekend.

I try to get to a cemetery observance and listen to the distant bugler play taps, then try not to cringe as the honor guard fires a salute. I even make a point of attending a parade and listening to speeches from dignitaries who help us to remember and honor our war heroes and veterans from all conflicts.

If you want to help share the real message, here's a poster I made featuring the great abolitionist and patriot,  Frederick Douglass, with a brief excerpt from his speech on Decoration Day 1871 at Arlington Cemetery (the entire text is short, but truly inspiring and thought-provoking) about the danger of forgetting just how we got here (and at what cost) as an intact nation with freedoms and rights for all citizens.

Santa Claus on Christmas Eve Clip Art

Christmas Mini Cards

I love Santa Claus. There, I said it. I am a grandmother who still believes ... and  I just finished a new Christmas card design with matching gift tags using a modified Santa and reindeer silhouette for my web site freebies section. The flying sleigh is a silhouette against a dark blue night sky with a full moon.

The printable greeting cards come 1 to a page; the gift tags are large, 6 to a sheet and could be used as small flat greeting cards or you can paste them to a sheet of card stock that's folded to make a card.

Santa and 8 Reindeer Clip Art

Here's a similar clip art silhouette image of Santa Claus flying with 8 reindeer on Christmas Eve you can use to design your own printables.

Two sizes available (this small size plus a larger Santa and sleigh graphic for your paper craft enjoyment).

Merry Christmas Paper Crafts and Printables for 2014

I've finished updating my 2014 Christmas printables collection on the web site this week, just in time for you to print and make holiday arts and crafts galore. Included in this year's set is a printable place mat, greeting card, gift tags, and border papers for family newsletters at Christmas or for the New Year, plus die cut templates for these cute paper garland gingerbread men.

My little paper craft  gingerbread garland was a big hit last year, but I didn't have time to offer it before the holidays so here it is, ready for you to print and cut out, or to use as a color in craft template.

If you have a Silhouette craft cutter, you'll find a freebie .STUDIO file for this design on my web site. The little icing pieces are tricky to get off the cutting mat, but the finished design is worth the effort. One version I made was actually done in two layers.

Printables and Die Cuts for Hand or Silhouette Cutouts

The back/bottom later was all white, with no cutouts (just the outline of the edges) and the top/front layer was cut from brown kraft paper. When I sandwiched the two garlands together the white icing details showed through the kraft paper cutouts

There's a full color printable sheet and a black and white template printable in this set as shown above, or you can download the STUDIO cut file and design your own gingerbread men paper swags.

Merry Christmas!

It's Time to Celebrate Canada Day!

Canada Day Colouring Poster

We're gearing up the Independence Day here in the US, but there's just as big a celebration that's coming along with our neighbors to the North - Canada Day.

Here's a maple leaf and bubble letters poster design or Canada Day colouring sheet that can also be used to make patriotic signs and for other crafts including die cuts and DIY iron on transfer.

Happy Canada Day Colouring Sheet is printable, in black and white PDF. Free for any noncommercial use or by use in camps, schools and clubs.

St. Patrick's Day Cupcake Toppers

St. Pat's printable sticker or cupcake topper

I designed two different St. Patrick's Day cupcake toppers using my own Irish clip art; they're also handy to use as stickers. One design has a green shamrock, the other bears a jaunty leprechaun hat.

Download and print out a sheet of your favorite St. Patrick's Day design - you can cut them into small squares, or use a circle punch to make round toppers or stickers like the sample show here.

Find both styles plus a nice collection of Irish clip art at my web site (LeeHansen.com).

Diamond Heart Clip Art Graphic

Heart diamond graphic

The most enduring gemstone is our symbol of eternal love - the diamond. Here's a heart-shaped diamond photo graphic clip art you can add to greeting cards, scrapbooks or to use as a very sweet gift tag.

Heart shaped diamond clip art is suitable for many occasions, from Valentine's Day to weddings or bridal showers, anniversaries or even Mother's Day crafts.

Get a larger image at ClipArtandCrafts.com - this heart shaped diamond graphic is one of many free clip art freebies you can download for noncommercial use, or share with social buttons.

Winter's Here - Let It Snow Coloring Sheet

In Vermont and most of the Northeastern USA and Canada, we're hunkered down for the first big snowstorm of 2014. This is a true Nor'easter, with frigid cold sinking in from the Arctic and a big, moist coastal storm pushing up from the south. I've already measured 2.5 inches in my front yard this morning.

Snowman family coloring page

In Vermont we expect snow totals from 3 to 12 inches or more from this two day snowstrom, with the most snowfall in the central and southern parts of the state.

It's perfect ski snow with the near-zero F temperatures and for most of us will be easy to shovel or plow on Friday or Saturday. By the end of the weekend we're due to have a "warmup" to mid-thirties for a day or so. That will make the snow sticky and just perfect for, yes, snowmen!

Our state depends on tourism and winter sports enthusiasts for a significant part of overall income, so when it snows, Vermonters do the happy dance and say, "Let it Snow" ... then just get on with life.

If you're trapped indoors from the storm or any reason over the next few weeks, print off this snowman family coloring page and make some art. Little ones will like coloring the snowman hats and sticking cotton balls or silver and white glitter on the snow people.

You could experiment making paper crafts using this snowman line art (printable available from my web site  winter coloring pages). Use the trace, print and cut features with a craft cutter to make a cutout for a mobile - combine with snowflakes and hang in the window.

Wear your lucky charm today - Friday the 13th!

Friday 13th Calendar Sticker

It's Friday the 13th! Watch out for misfortune or wear a good luck charm to ward off the bad stuff. This black cat won't cause a problem - he's an official Friday the thirteenth clip art good luck symbol.

Finding my clip art making others happy makes me smile

Every now and then I spot my clip art in use by a non-profit, school or club to make flyers, posters or newsletters.

This week I was at a charity crafts fair in the lobby of Reading Hospital and spotted one of my favorite holiday clip art images, Christmas clip art of pies in a country pie carrier, on a flyer from a local orchard offering to take orders for fresh baked pies for the holiday. I sampled the cherry pie - YUMMY!