Classroom Valentine's

Elle's school has a "no candy" policy when it comes to holidays. I really appreciate that I don't have to convince my 5 year old to forfeit her candy, but it means we have to get creative when coming up with little treats, like Valentines. We considered doing melted crayons, like these we made a while back, but Elle had visions of stickers and more traditional Valentine goodies instead.

So we scoured the internet for funny (by Elle's standards) Valentine jokes, I printed them on red & pink cardstock, she decorated with stickers, and then we used a Martha Stewart punch around the page punch to decorate the edges.


Waalaa Valentiney bookmarks:

A little Valentine humor for you... 5 year old style:

Q - What do you call a very small Valentine?
A - A Valentiny

Q - What did the boy squirrel say to the girl squirrel on Valentine's Day?
A - I'm nuts about you!

Q - What did the boy octopus say to the girl octopus?
A - I want to hold your hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand!

Q - What did the boy cat say to the girl cat on Valentine's Day?
A - You're purrrrfect for me!

Q - What did the boy rabbit say to the girl rabbit on Valentine's Day?
A - Some bunny loves you!

Q - What do you call two birds in love?
A - Tweethearts

Q - What did the chocolate syrup say to the icecream?
A - I'm sweet on you!

Valentine's Projects

I was looking for inspiration that would spark an idea for Valentine cards that Elle could give her friends at school this year and decided to start with my own past Valentine's projects.  In case you haven't been following along for the last three years here they are:

Love Notes jar

You've got mail!

Felt Heart Garland

I still haven't come up with the perfect idea for Elle's Valentines yet though... have you made or seen anything creative and fun for a 5 year old's class Valentines?

 

You've Got Mail

Yes, I realize this is a bit late for Valentine’s Day posts, since it’s the day after next, but what’s a girl to do when she has 8 shirts, a sling, a towel, and a wrap to embroider along with 2 tag blankets to make?! I’ll tell you what, wait until the last possible minute to make the Valentine prizes for her daughter's classmates, make an emergency trip to the fabric store at 8:53pm for more white felt, and stay up entirely too late to get them finished! Hopefully the kids will think it’s worth it.

I found these cutesy little tin mail boxes about a month ago at Target in the $1 section and knew they would be perfect for Elle’s friends at “school”. I later found this tutorial for felt mail. While we’re on the subject of felt, this was the first time I’ve used wool felt. Until this project, I had always just used that super fuzzy and not very thick kind that comes on the huge bolts. I’ll never use the fuzzy thin stuff again! Wool felt is completely different, so much nicer, and easier to work with… definitely worth the extra expense in my opinion! Okay, so back to the mail, I used the dimensions from the tutorial, but sewed on the Velcro instead of hot gluing it, embroidered the addresses, and made the stamps Velcroable (yes that’s a word!) too. I also put a Valentine-y spin on it with the “I {heart} U” postcard and heart stamp.

I made the post card by creating a template of the design, tracing it onto the white felt, cutting it out and sewing it to the back of the pink. I embroidered the address and return address labels with the kid’s names and even made a set for Elle with her real address on it (it didn’t cross my mind until this project that she doesn’t know her address). Oh, I also discovered a new notion… gotta love that… iron-on rick rack! I used one with a shiny/glossy finish for the “writing” on the letter and postcard.

If it hadn’t taken me until nearly 2am to finish these I would’ve used rub on letters to add the child’s name to the mailbox, and maybe tied a ribbon or two around the flag.

It was a fun little project and I don’t feel too bad about posting it so close to Valentines Day because you could do this without a Valentine-y spin any time. In fact, it would be fun to “deliver” more mail to add to their collection throughout the year at each holiday… although that will eventually necessitate a bigger mail box to hold it all. Hmmmm, do you have an idea for how to craft a mailbox or other means to store lots of felt mail?

Love Notes

I’m so excited about this really simple and inexpensive idea for Valentine’s Day! It doesn’t take long to do either, so there’s still time to make one for your Valentine. Here’s what you do:

1)Print several copies of this page

2)In each box on the page, hand write (no typing allowed! This is definitely the sort of thing that requires the personal touch of your own handwriting… I don’t want to hear how your handwriting isn’t pretty… just do it!) a sentence starting with “I love” about the subject of your affection. Get creative and challenge yourself to write as many love notes as you can! The notes can be anything from simple things they do (I love when you take out the trash. I love that you indulge my sweet tooth), to physical features (I love your almost salt & pepper hair.), to things you like to do together (I love kissing you), and characteristics you admire (I love your sense of humor). Write out what immediately comes to mind, but give yourself at least an afternoon or so to mull it over and write more notes as you think of them… the more you write the better!

3)Cut out each of your love notes into little slips of paper & fold them in half

4)Put a little filler of some sort in a clear jar/container. I used a piece of tissue paper, but paper shred or marbles would be cute too. Put all your love notes in the jar. Just fyi: my jar (pictured above) is not terribly big. I wrote around 120 love notes and still needed filler so that it wouldn’t look sparse… so take heed to #2 and you better really love this person!

5)Decorate! I tied a few ribbons around the neck of the jar, cut a piece of Valentiney card stock for the lid, and added sparkly letter stickers to spell out love notes.

This would be a great idea not only for your significant other, but also for your kiddos… don’t you think?!
Happy Valentines Day to you, my dear sweet readers! I hope there’s so much love in your life that you could write jars… no buckets… no rooms full of love notes!

Crafty Cupids

Happy Valentine's Day! For the second year running, the Florida Etsy Street Team (FEST) has given Valentine's cards to an organization in the community. Last year it was an Assisted Living Facility for the elderly, this year we picked All Children's Hospital. I volunteered again to collect and deliver the cards and although we didn't get to visit with the children (so as not to spread germs) it was a great opportunity to hopefully bring a smile to some little ones' faces and teach Elle about giving.

I made a really simple little card... just a word search of Valentiney words printed on white card stock, cut out, and the corners rounded (gotta love the Creative Memories corner rounder!).

Check out all these great Valentines other FESTers sent in... we're a talented bunch!


I didn't count them individually, but I'm pretty sure we had close to 75 handmade Valentine's to give. Thank you so much to those of you who contributed: Purple Cloud Studio, Wonderful Wire, The Crafty Hag, The Geloneck Family, Miele Melograno, Becky Sinn, 23rd Street Vintage, Kelley Love Designs, and Me - Elle Belle :)