Long-distance Valentine Hug

My family and I are currently living in the Netherlands and it's often a little hard to be so far away from our family and friends in the US (and my Naval officer brother who's currently deployed). Particularly around holidays.

It helps us all feel connected when we do little things for each other - sending cards, cute kid crafts, etc, so when I saw this pin for a "long distance hug," I knew I just had to give it a try!

Source: thepartyevent.wordpress.com via Christa on Pinterest

It takes about 3 weeks for packages to get to my brother, so I figured I'd better get this project done and in the mail a little early, to make sure he gets it by the 14th.

Our favorite part of the project was measuring the kids' arms - we all got into it, even our dog! We didn't have enough ribbon, so we used black yarn.

Tracing the hands of a 3-almost-4-year-old and an almost-9-month old is always a challenge, but luckily, we got 3/4s of all the hands we needed on paper. I used 8.5 x 11" pages of colored paper and folded them lengthwise to get mirror images of Baby's hands, since I couldn't get her to sit still enough to do both of hers. My son wanted blue hearts, so I just ran with it....

I was feeling pretty darn good about my tracing skills and thought I was pretty clever about the folded paper concept. Until, that is, I noticed some pretty funky lookin' fingers! Oh well, hopefully our relations will be smart enough to realize that our daughter has not evolved into a lizard! 

The printable card in the middle was really cute on plain white cardstock.

The finished product was super cute! We had some extra foam hearts lying around from V-Day 2012, so my son added a few to the hearts on the ribbon.

Things to know before you start:
- If you're doing this one with small kiddos, it might be a little hard to sit still for more than a few handprints. If you're only doing one set (we did 5), it's not a big deal, but if you do more than that, you might want to plan for a time when the kids are calm and ready to engage.
- The printable card is really cute. You could definitely make your own version, but I say "why bother?" when you have such a great one, ready to use.
- I used tape on the backs of the papers to attach the yarn, but if you have one, you could use a mini hole punch or something even more creative - this project is super versatile like that.
- The finished hugs fold on themselves really nicely and easily fit into regular envelopes with cards.

All things considered, I give this project a tentative 2 pins up. If for some reason our recipients absolutely hate it, I'll post an update :)

Have a creative day, Pinners!

- Christa