O Valentine Tree! O Valentine Tree!

This little project was super quick and easy and came together in just one morning with a little help from my toddler girl.  We always assemble an old fashioned tinsel tree in her bedroom for Christmas, and as we were taking down all the other Christmas decorations and storing them until next year, I held out on her tree.  Even after all the ornaments were packed away, I still lit her color wheel each night at bedtime and shone it onto the (bare) tree because our baby girl loves it so much.  Then one night, my husband said "why don't you make it into a Valentine's Tree?"  And that's all it took!  The seed was planted and we ran with it.

For this project, I simply hunted down a couple of packs of vintage Valentine cards featuring her favorite cartoon characters, and they became our ornaments.  Lexi loves Scrooge McDuck and the Mickey Mouse gang, so I knew where to start.  A quick eBay search turned up an unused pack of old Ducktales Valentines and a second pack featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Of course, I started with her all time favorite- Scrooge McDuck, and put him in a red heart cut out, and affixed it to the very front and center of the tree.  

Here are a few other of the sweet little Ducktales cards that we transformed into ornaments.  I used colored paper to make little cut outs, and Lexi helped paste the Valentine card to each one.  We used ribbons to make bows on many of them, and then just attached a wire hanger to hang it on the tree.

And then as we neared the end of our project (and my tot's attention span) some of our ornaments became decidedly more simple in nature.  But I just sprinkled them all around the tree, and the effect was every bit as charming. 

The package of Mickey and Minnie Mouse cards were all "Hollywood" themed, which I thought was adorable too.  Lexi also really liked these sweet cards, and we had a big time decorating her tree with them. 

So there you have it!  A super fun and simple project that added a ton of sweet Valentine charm to Lexi's bedroom for this season.  And as her tastes change, we can certainly make new ornaments in the future, although I can't see myself getting rid of these.  They are just so sweet, and will always remind me of her 2 year old preferences.  :)

 
And we are still running her color wheel every night- just now on her Valentine's tree! Happy Valentine's Day with love from our house to yours!