Flannel Friday: Valentine Tree Craft

The Valentine Tree was one of the very first "Inspired by Flannel Friday" flannels I ever made. Busy Crafting Mommy did such a great job with hers (seriously go check it out now) that I immediately went and made one for myself and it was a huge hit. 

There's not much point in running you through my version when her's is so good, but I wanted to share a craft that I used in tandem with the flannel that was also a hit.

Here's a picture of my completed flannel. I don't know if you can tell but the tree trunk is a crumpled up paper bag glued onto actual felt. 

I did that for a two reasons: I thought it would be a cool texture and (mainly) I'd run out of brown felt. But using the paper bag gave me an idea. We have tons of bags in our craft closet and there're only so many times in a month that you can make paper bag puppets.

So I took a bunch of bags and drew quick tree trunks on them. You could probably also find a coloring sheet template and set your print to print on bags if you had a large group or don't like drawing.

 Then I cut out a bunch of hearts.

After story time we used glue sticks to glue the hearts to the tree trunk bags and then crayons to decorate the back. When they were done each kid had a container that they could keep all their valentines in! 

Flannel Friday's Valentine Extravaganza is being hosted today by Sarah at Read It Again! Further information on Flannel Friday can be found at the official website.

Happy Valentine's Day planning y'all!