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Here are some more crafts, coloring sheets and activities from our favorite sites:

Fun list of St. Patrick’s Day crafts at Party Elf.

Cute St. Patrick’s Day coloring page at J.Goode.com

A whole bunch of coloring and activity sheets at Printables4Kids

Some super cute coloring sheets at Animal Jr.

St. Patrick’s Day Pinwheels at Craft Jr.

Welcome to the Valentine’s Day edition All Things Family Blog Carnival. The weekly roundup of some of the best family friendly articles, tips and ideas from around the web will be hosted at a different site giving you the opportunity to find plenty of new reads! Along with all the great stuff below, don’t miss all the ideas here at FreeStuff4Kids!

Eatables

Heather Mann presents Valentine Treats! | Croq Zine – The Blog posted at Croq Zine – The Blog, saying, “A couple simple treats to make with conversation hearts. Great for v-day parties or lunchbox or classroom treats.”

Char Polanosky presents Quick Valentine Dessert ? Cupids Cloud posted at Raising A Healthy Family, saying, “Here is a simple Valentine’s Day snack or dessert that the kids can make themselves.”

For a giggle, Heather Mann invites you to check out CraftFail – Failed Valentine’s Brownies & CraftFail – Valentines Day Macadamia Nut Brittle Hearts posted at CraftFail, saying, “Giggle along with CraftFail at these Valentine’s Day treats that fell short.”

Printables

Char Polanosky presents Free Valentines Day Coloring Pages posted at Celebrate It, saying, “These free printable Valentine coloring pages are perfect additions to your Valentine celebrations.”

Wendy Piersall presents Valentine’s Day Activities, Crafts, Coloring Pages and Printables posted at Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network, saying, “All of our Valentine’s Day fun in one place!”

Wendy Piersall presents Printable Masks for Carnival, Halloween, Mardi Gras and History Lessons posted at Classroom Jr., saying, “The international “Carnivale” season is now through spring!”

Jen presents Valentine Freebies by JGoode posted at JGoode.com, saying, “Share some love with a fun grin by JGoode”

Makeables

Wendy Piersall presents Valentine Treat Bags posted at Craft Jr., saying, “Free printable Valentine’s Day treat bags!”

Shannon presents Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids posted at Partyelf.

Heather Mann presents 3 fun ideas from Dollar Store Crafts.-  Make a Fabric Heart Yo-Yo, Buttoned Valentine’s Day Card and Make a Valentine’s Day Candy Centerpiece.

Valerie presents Will You Be My Paint Chip Valentine? posted at Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Other Valentines Day Ideas

Shannon presents Valentine’s Day Party Ideas for Kids posted at Partyelf.

June Tree presents Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas: Use Ebates, Get Cash Back posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Valentine’s Day gift ideas for your loved ones.”

Madeleine Begun Kane presents A Valiant Guy’s Guide To Valentine’s Day posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Other Family Fun

Amanda CMJ presents Day by Day Pregnancy Tip #13: Have a Children’s Book Baby Shower posted at Extra (Hour)dinary Parenting.

Joanne presents Make Stuff Your Kids Can Play With posted at Simply Saving.

Sarah Clark presents The Mother Load: Choosing battles posted at The Mother Load.

Katie Hoffman presents How to Motivate Yourself to Clean and Organize posted at KatieHoffman.org.

Selina Johnson presents CAPTURING MEMORIES: A Yearly Review For Your Family posted at Tips and Snippets.

Andy Hayes presents Have Baby, Will Travel posted at Sharing Travel Experiences, saying, “Just because you have a child doesn’t mean you can’t see the world.”

Khan Ben presents Caring for Twins posted at Women Weblog, saying, “Your feelings are perfectly understandable. After all, caring for one child is daunting enough for many new parents, and having two at the same time can be a real jolt.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of all things family using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

1. Remove the top from the glass ball and put aside.

2. Choose the colors you’d like to use.

3. Starting with the first color, slowly squeeze in paint so that it runs down the side of the inside of the ball. Turn the ornament and squeeze another line of paint in at another spot. Continue until most of the surface of the inside is covered. You don’t want too much paint- there should only be about a dime sized pool of paint at the bottom when you’ve finished with all the colors you intend to use.

4. Rest the ornament on its side for approximately five minutes. (Place it to rest in the ornament box it came in, an egg carton or a paper cup for easy handling.) Rotate and tilt the ornament a quarter turn every five to ten minutes until the paint covers the entire inside of the ornament. Pour out excess paint. Then continue to rotate it every few hours over the next day. After several days, they will be completely dry. You can speed this up by using a blow dryer.

5. Replace the top and you’re ready to hang them!

Since Christmas is fast approaching, I have a couple of gift recommendations for you today as well:

I have recently become familiar with Klutz books and they are really great gifts. There are books that match just about any interest. I bought an awesome Klutz book for my niece this year that comes with paints and tracing sheets to create stained glass window clings- fun!

They are running special for 25% off your entire order through 12/16 with the coupon code HOLIDAY25 (one use per email address).

My son received Wild Planet Hyper Dash last year for Christmas and loves it. I like toys and games that will be fun for years and this one fits that bill perfectly. Not only is it fun, it also exercises both the brain and body. Amazon has it on sale right now for $11.99! That’s $18 off the regular price.

Halloween doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Here are some ways to make Halloween free or very easy on the wallet:

Recipe to make free homemade fake blood and face paint – why go out and spend money on this stuff when you have the ingredients in your pantry?

Make Your Own Halloween Costumes – huge list of ideas and resources here, including no-sew costumes, animals, creatures, cardboard box costumes, costumes for couples and more.

Free Halloween Music – yikes, this was some creepy stuff. Would be great to play on your doorstep to scare the little trick or treaters. You can save the tracks to your computer by right-clicking on the file name and choose Save Link As or Save Target As.

Free Halloween Printables – some fun coloring pages and activity sheets

13 Creative Ways to Dye and Decorate Easter Eggs (a very popular post from last year that has been recently featured on BeliefNet)

Totally cute Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppets – be sure to browse around this site- lots of good stuff.

Resurrection Eggs – bringing the focus back to the “reason for the season”.

Printable Easter Mazes from Animal Jr.

Huge list of Easter activities and coloring sheets

And… don’t forget to have a Peep War or two: When toothpicks are inserted into the sides of two marshmallow peeps which are facing each other in a microwave. When the microwave is turned on, the peeps swell and each peep’s toothpick will poke the other peep. The peep that does not explode is the winner!

Santa Claus Early Reader Activity Book

Decorate your house or room with these snowflake cutouts from Ben & Jerry’s

Printables4Kids has some cute printable gift tags to color

Christmas Story Advent Coloring Book with Bible verses on each page to go along with each part of the Christmas story

If you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, Parents.com has a great video with some ornament craft ideas and instructions for making a super cute elf ornament with wooden beads and felt. I have made the glass ornaments with swirls acrylic paints in the past and they are just beautiful.

If you’re looking for some holiday craft ideas, how about making a Thanksgiving Tree this year?  This is a nice idea to remind us throughout the holidays of the many blessings we are thankful for.

Preserving leaves: there are several methods, including the relatively simple preservation in wax paper, to the more tedious preservation method of submerging them in glycerin.  The results are beautiful, and the leaves would make a great Autumn/Thanksgiving table decoration.  Scatter your leaf collection over the table and buy a cheap, clear plastic tablecloth to cover the table and leaves with.

Leaf Placemats: this is another easy way to decorate your table for the season. Cut out two sheets of clear contact paper in the size you’d like your placemats to be. Scatter leaves you’ve collected on one sheet and place the second sheet on top to seal in the leaves.