I love when the kids make cards and gifts themselves. They always have creative ideas. And their cards and gifts are made with
love. They really put themselves into
all they create. I know family and
friends are always impressed when the kids put in time and effort instead of just
buying something at the store.
Speaking of buying, since this month is our Spend-Freeze
month (read about that here) it is necessary for us to create all our
Valentine's cards this year. We have no
money to spend!
Ideas
I've collected some great ideas from across the internet here. Each idea would be easy for a kid to create. And I think their classmates would enjoy them too! They also use very few supplies. Click on each to view site/pictures:
by funhandprintartblog.com
by danamadeit.com
by dandee-designs.com
by alisaburke.blogspot.ca
by iheartnaptime.net
My favourite idea is definitely the finger print hearts. We'll incorporate that one for sure!
Supplies
Now that we have ideas, I need supplies! Thankfully I bought a whole box of supplies
from a church yard sale this past summer.
It only cost me $1. The box was full of Valentine's doilies, paper tablecloths and shiny
heart garlands. Just perfect for our
homemade Valentines. Of course we have the
standard construction paper, scissors and glue on hand (Where there are
children, there will be crafting supplies!). These can easily be purchased at any dollar
store. I've also saved some leftover Valentine's
stickers, stamps and mini stamp pads from previous years.
They were given to the kids as gifts from family.
Creating
I laid out all the supplies on our kitchen table and let the
kids go wild! Brooklynn had MANY
Valentine's to create as she has a very large class of kids. That was no problem for her! She loves creating and getting crafty. Jackson
isn't crafty so he really dragged his feet to create the few he needed for
his class.
Brooklynn decided on creating a smaller heart with a thumbprint heart on top. Then gluing the small heart to the paper doilies. I cut out the heart shapes from the paper table cloth and she glued those on too. I think the resulting Valentine is very cute!
Jackson simply cut out a big heart from the table cloth and wrote Happy Valentine's Day (in French "Joyeux Valentine") on each. What do you expect from an uncrafty kid? (Spellcheck tells me that "uncrafty" isn't a word. I'm using it anyway!) Making cards just isn't his thing. But I did have some leftover Valentine's bags from last year and Jackson loves giving gifts. We filled them with vehicle shaped erasers (leftover from Christmas) and I thought up some easy paper toys to make. We made paper fans for the girls and paper airplanes for the boys.
I love having the kids write on their cards. They write who the card is for and who it's from. Jackson thinks that's asking too much but Brooklynn is happy to write out all those letters. It's great practice for writing their name, different letters (for the other kids' names) and adding a personal touch to the card.
I hope you have fun crafting your own cards with your family. Even on a tight budget you can still be creative and give out great cards.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy thoughts,
Andrea
 |
| Brooklynn crafting. Overseen by her sister. |
Brooklynn decided on creating a smaller heart with a thumbprint heart on top. Then gluing the small heart to the paper doilies. I cut out the heart shapes from the paper table cloth and she glued those on too. I think the resulting Valentine is very cute!
Jackson simply cut out a big heart from the table cloth and wrote Happy Valentine's Day (in French "Joyeux Valentine") on each. What do you expect from an uncrafty kid? (Spellcheck tells me that "uncrafty" isn't a word. I'm using it anyway!) Making cards just isn't his thing. But I did have some leftover Valentine's bags from last year and Jackson loves giving gifts. We filled them with vehicle shaped erasers (leftover from Christmas) and I thought up some easy paper toys to make. We made paper fans for the girls and paper airplanes for the boys.
 |
| Leftover Valentine's bags. We filled them with "toys". |
 |
| Paper fans for the girls. |
 |
| Paper airplanes for the boys. Jackson coloured each with markers. |
I love having the kids write on their cards. They write who the card is for and who it's from. Jackson thinks that's asking too much but Brooklynn is happy to write out all those letters. It's great practice for writing their name, different letters (for the other kids' names) and adding a personal touch to the card.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy thoughts,
Andrea
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