Joyfully Jensen: Cat bag valentines

Sometime last week I asked Kiera what kind of valentine's she wanted for her classmates. I told her either she could pick out a box of them at the store or I could make her some like I did last year. Funny thing about my owl valentines I made last year, they recently popped up on Pinterest somewhere and in the course of 3 weeks have had 30,000 visits to this little blog, and 2 new followers! Oh and I gained 950 followers on my "Things to make" board. Crazy. Anyway she of course wants me to make them. I don't mind either since I only have to make 20 and I get to do a craft. Unlike a coworker of mine that has 4 kids and said she will never do that since that means she'd have to make 80+. Add that to the list of a bonus for having only 1 child!

After she thought about it she decided she wanted cat valentines. And that the box she is supposed to take to school to put valentines in needed to look like a cat also. So first we both drew up a sketch of what we wanted to do.

Not just a cat box but an angel cat box. She approved of my drawing so off to Hobby Lobby it was to get supplies. We needed some little boxes or lunch type sacks, scrapbook paper and card stock. After we left the store I realized I totally forgot to look for some little black bead thing for eyes and something for whiskers. Too bad cause I wasn't going back!

She wanted all white cats but they only had one package so I convinced her that we could do some tan cats too, you know for the boys.

Let the crafting begin!

First I worked on the ears by cutting out a little triangle tempmlate in the size I liked and traced a bunch (40) of them on the white and tan cardstock and got to cutting them with scissors. I am sure it would be a billion times faster if you have a punch or some sort of one of those Cricut things but since I don't I get do things the old fashioned way. Then I did the same with some pink for the inside of the ears. I also cut tiny triangles out for their nose, I didn't even measure for those.

While they were drying I used a shot glass to trace cheeks onto each of the bags and then cut those out.

Next I sketched the tails on the remainder of my cardstock and used an Exacto knife to cut them out.

Now it came time to assemble these kitties! I folded the bags over with enough space to fit a package of fruit snacks inside (they get pleny of suckers and candy so I try to give something halfway healthy) and glued on the little noses and used a sharpie for the eyes, whiskers and feet. I hot glued the ears and tails on the back of the sacks. The little hearts are made out of glittery felt which I cut out with scissors and glued on also. The faces weren't staying down at all once folded so I used a tiny dab of hot glue on the insides to keep them closed. She signed her name on the back so everyone will know who it came from.