Super Hero Valentine's Pops

Hello All!  Welcome to my latest blog segment, I am calling Kid's Corner.  As most of you know I am a mom of two, which means I spend the majority of my time hanging with the littles.  My daughter is currently in pre-school and this is her first real Valentine's Day (my husband and I are not big on this holiday).  Of course, her school is having a Valentine's Day Party and it's encouraged that the kids bring Valentine's to share with the other students.  Originally, I intended to hit up the store buy some goodie bags and some generic cards for her to hand out.  Than I got to thinking that this would be a wonderful opportunity to do some mother-daughter crafting, which is one of our favorite past times.

Like most people I hit up Pinterest for some inspiration, and after narrowing down my search I came across a pin for some adorable Super Hero Valentine's Day Pops.  Being that my daughter loves super hero, is obsessed with Batman, and often pretends to be BatGirl, this was a perfect idea for us.  There were so many pins for this idea, and it didn't look all that hard to re-create, so I decided to just wing it.

Materials we used:
Lollipops (about the size of a Tootsie Pop)
Construction Paper
Heart Stickers (you can always make hearts out of construction paper instead)
Scissors (Safety scissors for the little ones)
Wavey or Chevron Scissors (optional)
Hole Punch
Markers (crayons or colored pencils will also work)
and Tape

I started by creating my own templates for the cape and superhero masks.  For our capes I started with a rectangle about 2 1/2"W x 4" L, and I curved one end of the rectangle to give it a cape-shape.  I used my template to trace multiple capes onto construction paper.

I then had Briar cut out the cape shapes.  This is a task I knew she could execute, even if they would not be absolutely perfect.  They are after all her Valentine's for her classmates (as a perfectionist and control freak this is a hard thing for this Momma to except).

Parent tip: cut the smaller pieces out of the larger sheet of paper to make it easier for inexperienced little fingers to hold and maneuver while they are cutting.

After Briar finished cutting the cape-shapes out, I trimmed the edges using a wave chevron pair of crafting scissors to give the impression of the cape flapping in the wind.  I also used a hole punch to make a hole at the "shoulder" area (center of rounded end), where the pops will be inserted later.

I then had Briar place heart stickers on each cape, another task I knew would be easy for her to complete.

Parent tip: remove the sticker cut out and leave just the stickers on the backing.  This makes it easier for little fingers to peel the stickers themselves.

While Briar took a lunch break, I went about the arduous task of cutting out the little superhero masks.  I don't really have any good pointers for these pieces, other than to make sure, to make them long enough to wrap around the pops so that they are easy to tape on when you get to the assembly part of this project.  I also colored black lenses onto the super hero masks and wrote super hero Valentine's Day sayings on the capes.

When Briar was done with lunch, we assembled the pops together.  She inserted the pops into the capes and I applied the superhero masks by securing them with a small pieces of tape on the backside of the pop.

Dun-Dun-Duuuuunnnnnn!!!!

We had so much fun crafting this super cute Valentine's Day pops.  I like that they are unconventional, and Briar loves that they are superheros.  It was a great way to spend some mother-daughter time, and Briar had an opportunity to work on some fine motor skills cutting out the capes.  Plus we used this time as an opportunity to review colors and counting.  All in all it was a constructive project.

From my little BatGirl and I, to you, we hope you have a super Valentine's Day!

It's Just Me,

P.S. The catastrophe that was my kitchen counter at the end of this project.