(Zombie) Valentine's Tic Tac Toe Board

     Have an empty sour cream (or similarly shaped) container kicking around?  Use it to make a portable Valentine's Day tic tac toe board.  The lid becomes the board and you can use the container to store the pieces when not in use.  Looking for more (zombie) Valentine's crafts?  Check out my pom pom creatures and my stone "conversation" hearts from last year.

Materials:
*Wide sour cream container (mine had a diameter just over 4" at its widest point)
*5 red and 5 pink plastic heart gems (you can find them at Dollar Tree)
*Cardstock
*Mounting tape
*Scissors
*Black permanent marker
*Marker or printer
*Optional: stickers, patterned paper, or other supplies you can use to decorate the outside of the container.

Directions:
*Draw or digitally design a tic tac toe board to fit the lid of your container and tape it to the lid.
*Draw faces onto the heart pieces, either zombie faces (see above) or happy faces (see below), depending on what you prefer.

*Decorate the outside of the container however you wish.  I used self-adhesive holographic laminate to decorate mine.

Another idea:
*For a slight modification of this craft, you could use zombie pom pom creatures (or non-zombie critters) for game pieces.

Snowflake window clings

Materials:
*Dimensional fabric paint
*Cling wrap
*Tape
*Snowflake template (such as the ones found here)

Directions:
*Tape the snowflake template to your work surface and then tape a sheet of cling wrap over it.
*Trace the snowflakes using the fabric paint.  Make sure to use a thick layer of paint so that when you do peel the snowflakes off the cling wrap, they will be less likely to break.
*Let the snowflakes dry overnight.  Once they're dry, carefully peel them off the cling wrap.  They may stick a little, so if you find a part of the snowflake won't come off, either proceed with caution or move on and try another part of the snowflake.
*Stick snowflakes to the window.

Crayon Candle

     Here's a great way to use up any crayon odds and ends you have lying around the house.

Materials:
*Beeswax or paraffin wax
*Crayon(s)
*Aluminum can
*Cookie sheet
*Paper cup
*Cheese grater
*Candle wick
*Votive
*Popsicle sticks

Directions:
*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
*Grate a small amount of wax into the paper cup.
*Place the cup in the microwave and heat for about 2 minutes, or until the wax has melted.  Alternately, you can put the wax into an an aluminum can on a cookie sheet and melt in the oven.
*Pour the wax into the bottom of the votive and quickly place the metal part of the candle wick in the center of the votive on top of the melted wax.  Let harden.
*Grate enough wax to fill the aluminum can.  Add a piece of crayon to the can.  It doesn't have to be a very big piece to make some nice pastel colored candles.  For example, for the blue candle I used a piece of a sky blue crayon that was about half an inch long.
*Pop the aluminum can into the oven and heat for 10-15 minutes, or until fully melted.
*Stir the wax with a Popsicle stick and the pour into the votive.  I had some difficulty getting the wick to stand up after pouring in the hot wax, but I was able to remedy this by using four Popsicle sticks to hold it in place.  I placed the Popsicle sticks across the top of the votive to form a square enclosing the wick and this held it upright.  Leave in place until the candle has hardened.

Scrap Wrapping Paper Memory Game

     Here's a great way to recycle some cereal boxes as well as wrapping paper.  Note that these instructions will make 48 memory tiles, but you can easily modify them to make more or fewer.  With this version of the game, you have to match up both the pattern and the color, and game play works the same as with any other memory game.  (If you aren't familiar with the game, you can find instructions here.)  Also, I'd like to give a shout out to Brian for his assistance with this project.  It is a rather time consuming endeavor and I'm grateful that I had another set of hands to help me with tracing, gluing, and cutting out circles.

Materials:
*Six different patterns of wrapping paper or distinct characters on wrapping paper
*Solid colored or holographic wrapping paper
*4 cereal boxes
*8 sheets of paper, each sheet a different color
*Small (about 2.5" in diameter) and medium (about 3" in diameter) circle templates
*Pen
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Trace the small circle onto the patterned or character wrapping paper such that you end up with 48 circles, 8 of each pattern or character, then cut out the circles.
*Trace the medium circle template onto the cardstock, making 6 circles of each color, and cut out the circles.
*Trace the medium circle template onto the cereal boxes, making 48 circles in total, and cut out the circles.
*Trace the medium circle template onto the solid colored (or holographic) paper to make 48 circles and cut them out.
*Glue a piece of solid colored (or holographic) wrapping paper to one side of each cardboard circle and a piece of cardstock to the other side of the circle until you have covered both faces of each circle.
*Glue on your patterned or character paper such that you end up with two or zero tiles of a particular pattern matched up with a given color.  Here's what all of my tiles looked like when I finished:

Wrapping Paper Ornament Bookmarks

     These pretty recycled wrapping paper bookmarks can double as ornaments.  You may want to make some to give as gifts for next year's holiday season.

Materials:
*Wrapping paper
*Large and small circle templates (I traced around a large and small drinking glass)
*Cereal box or similar cardboard
*Gold paper
*Patterned paper (optional)
*Mounting tape
*Scissors
*Ribbon
*All purpose adhesive
*Pen

Directions:
*Trace and cut out a small circle of wrapping paper in the pattern of your choice.
*Cut out a large circle either from a corresponding wrapping paper or sheet of patterned paper.
*Center the small circle on top of the large circle and adhere together using mounting tape.
*Cut a large circle from the cardboard and adhere to the back of the large circle you cut from wrapping paper or patterned paper.
*Cut out a piece of the gold paper shaped like the top of an ornament and adhere to the top of the bookmark.
*Snip off a length of ribbon about twice as long as you would like the ribbon bookmark to be and knot together the ends.
*Glue the end of the ribbon without the knot to the back of the bookmark.