Valentine's Tree

VALENTINE'S Day is not a festival we usually celebrate at home. However, when Emma was invited to bring 21 homemade valentines to school to exchange with classmates, my creative juices took over and we spent several afternoons creating pretty paper decorations to share.

We built on our recent discovery of rose windows and began by cutting out heart-shaped and circular frames. These were covered in a single layer of white tissue paper. Then we tore red, pink, white and lilac tissue paper into tiny pieces and stuck them all over the white background. The top frame piece sandwiched the mosaic together. Other decorations were made by cutting out heart and flower shapes and decorating them in different ways with paper scraps. To those who may protest this was supposed to be Emma's project, let me assure you many of the decorations were entirely her own creation. Her favourite response to any hint of direction these days is: "No Mama; people like to do what they like to do." How very right she is.