We have been working on a simple Valentine's Day parent gift this week and have it pretty much all wrapped up and ready to go…

I just love puzzles and when I found these large 12 piece puzzles over at United Arts and Education,  I decided to pick up a set and hold on to them until I could decide what to do with them…

I gave each child their own puzzle and set out lots of different colors of paint…

Before going to the table, I showed the children how they could use the paint to color each piece of their puzzle a different color. Then I invited the children to the table to give this painting process a try…

The children shared the paint colors with each other. I always enjoy hearing, "Can you pass me the blue paint please?"…

The children continued painting each puzzle piece until all of the pieces were a different color…

This may look like it was an easy process, but it took the children quite some time and effort to get all twelve pieces of their puzzle painted with different colors…

Once all the puzzle pieces were completed, we set the puzzles aside to dry overnight…

The next day, we printed our names on the front of our puzzles with permanent markers….

Then some of the children chose to turn the puzzle over to draw a picture on the back too…

Once all the drawings were finished, the children took their puzzles apart (for the first time) and then placed the pieces in a clear plastic bag…

And finally, the children added a paper heart that said, "I Love You To Pieces" in the bag and added a length of ribbon to tie the bag closed…

And there you have it! Our parent Valentine Gift!  But wait….. There's more!

Give Away

In honor of the heart project… 

Click the heart project button above to learn more about how you can get this beautiful collection of heart activities!

I am giving away 10 Twelve-piece craft puzzles just like the ones we used for our Valentine gift.  Of course, you can use the twelve-piece craft puzzles for any kind of activity and any time of the year!

To enter this giveaway….

• Leave a comment for me below stating what you might do or make with the craft puzzles.
• Enter a correct and current email address when you leave your comment so that I can notify you if you win.

And that's all but if you would like another chance to win the puzzles you can….

Giveaway details…

• This giveaway will be closed on February 13th, 2012 by 10pm EST.
• The winner will be announced on my blog on February 14th, 2012.
• The winner of the giveaway will be notified by email and has 5 days to respond to my email.
• If the winner does not respond 5 days, a new winner will be chosen…
• Winner will be chosen by Random Generator.

ENTRIES FOR THIS GIVEAWAY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY EMAIL or COMMENTS ON FACEBOOK! YOU MUST COME TO THE BLOG TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENT! THANKS!

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Tagged as: give-away, hearts, parent gift, puzzles, puzzles and games, Valentine's Day