Valentine's Day is next weekend, which means it's time to come up with Valentine's for the kids to pass out to their friends. This year, I cheated, and just bought some. We were just too broke to come up with something we could make cheaply, and Dollar Tree had a decent selection.
Back when Raegan was in either the 2nd or 3rd grade, we got creative. I bought 2 packs of multi-colored foam hearts (pink, red, and white), and then sheets of purple foam with a glitter finish, plus glitter glue, and thin tipped sharpie markers, and magnet tape.
I cut the purple foam sheets into small rectangles about the size of a standard Valentine, then let Raegan arrange the hearts on each one, and embellish them with the glitter. From there, we hot glued the strips of magnet onto the backs of each one in the middle.
Then, she carefully wrote out the To & From on the backside. This left a cute, homemade Valentine that the kids could put on the fridge later. I think all said and done, we spent almost $10, though. It could have been done cheaper if I had some of the supplies, or looked around at other places like Dollar Tree for supplies, but it was still cute enough.
Here are a few other idea's on homemade Valentines.
Love Bugs:
Hinged Clothes Pins
Hot Glue & Glue Gun
Pom Poms- in red, pink, or white. Not sure the size, but you want each one wide enough to cover the clothing pins.
Small googly eyes
Card stock paper- thick paper, in red, pink, or white.
Marker or Metallic pen
Metallic pipe cleaners- silver or red.
Magnet Tape- optional
Cut the card stock into 1 inch by 2 inch rectangles, and write "Love Bug" on it from the front. From the back, do the To & From.
Take one corner of the paper, and glue it at an angle to the front of the clothing pin- not right on the front tip, but near the front. From there, glue the pom pom's onto it, leaving the "head" off. Clip a 1 inch section of pipe cleaner off, and shape it into a V, curling the ends slightly. Glue the point of the V to the front of the pom pom, then glue the head pom pom on it, sandwiching the V.
Glue the eyes onto the head pom pom. If you have the magnet tape, you can add some to the back side of the clothing pin, so it can be used as a magnet on the fridge.
For some fun, you can alternate the colors of the pom poms- Red, white, red, white, red, or pink, red, pink, red, pink, etc. These are especially cute with the younger kids- Pre-school, Kindergarten, First grade, etc.
I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine, and it was adorable!
Tape
White String
2 Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (per "iPod")
1 Box of Conversation Hearts (per "iPod")
Pink, Red, or White paper
White Printer Paper
Glue Sticks
Aluminum Foil
Tape each end of a piece of string to a peanut butter cup. Tie on the other piece of string as shown, then tape the loose end to the candy box.
Wrap each peanut butter cup in a circle of aluminum foil.
Wrap the pink paper strip around the candy box and secure it with a glue stick.
Cut paper shapes and write text for the scroll wheel and playlist (or download and print Family Fun's), and use a glue stick to attach them to the box. Write a valentine message on the back of the box.
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I actually got Valentine's on clearnace last year, after Valentines Day for 24 cents a box!
We had a few great ideas, so next year we are doing origami bugs and flying hearts to give out. Most likely will do some simple flower ones for the teachers as well. My 11 year old is really good at it, and she was teaching me how to make a bunch of them... I knew I should not have bought her that book on folding them without reading it and learning them myself... LOL!