It's deemed by many as "Just another Hallmark holiday," but in this house, we ♥ Valentine's Day! When it came time to start thinking about making our Valentines, I knew I wanted them to be personalized, special, and fun, and the kids wanted to share a sweet treat with their best buddies. {Best buddies/future spouses?? Greta has narrowed her husband down to two boys in her kindergarten class - yikes!} I remembered seeing a special 3-D card idea once upon a time, so I ran it by the kids and got their approval.
I started with hanging a large piece of lovey dovey Valentine's Day fabric, and snapped a few pictures of each kid. Here's the key: I had Greta and Charlie pose extending an arm as though they were reaching it out and handing me something. Actually, to make it easier, I had them hold a pencil in the hand they extended to make it easier for a later step in the card making process. Here's what we started with:
For the second step, I uploaded the pics to Walmart's handy dandy photo center and ordered enough Valentine's Day photo greeting cards for each kid's class. You could easily make your own cards if you're feeling extra crafty, but I already told you about life being consumed with painting and hockey; I opted for Walmart's version to make it easier on myself. And don't worry - there's plenty more craftiness in the next steps! The kids knew they wanted to give their friends suckers along with their special cards, so I picked up 50 Valentine's Tootsie Pops at Walmart along with the greeting cards. This is what our Walmart Valentines looked like:
Next, Greta and Charlie set to work writing their friends' names on some simple tags that we made from card stock, and I gathered my paper punch, the suckers, and ribbon.
Remember the pencil I had each kid hold for their pictures? I punched the pencil away with the paper punch {one punch above their fists and one below} and slid the sucker right through.
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| Ta-Da! It looks like Greta is handing you a sucker! |
When the kids were done with writing on their tags, I punched a single hole through each tag and tied them to the suckers with ribbon.
After a finishing touch of some raffia ribbon around each sucker, the Valentines were complete.
The kids had a blast making their cards and can't wait to hand them out on Valentine's Day. And if you're not so keen on loading your kids' friends up with extra sugar, pencils would be perfect for the cards, too. All in all, we were a bunch of happy crafters!
