two.little.valentine's

I love projects.  Especially ones I can complete fairly quickly with little clean-up.  Unfortunately, this project allowed little help from my preschooler but she still enjoyed watching.  When Peyton's preschool announced the students would be doing a valentine exchange I immediately thought of an idea I had on the back burner of my brain.  My sister-in-law did these as a thank you to attending guests of her daughters birthday party.  I knew the second I saw them I would be copying them.  And I did:

Supplies Needed:
Heart Shaped Suckers
Valentine Greeting Cards
Paring Knife
Cutting board or cardboard

The suckers were easy for me to find.  Peyton begs for them every time we go to Michaels.  They cost around 39 cents each.  I love these because of the fun long bendy sticks.  Any sucker will do, really.

I designed the Valentine card then sent them to Costco for printing.  Since Peyton isn't old enough to write on the Valentine's yet I did a generic blue for boys and pink for girls.  Printing at Costco only costs $.39 for 4 wallet sized prints!  Great value.  If you don't have an accommodating computer program you can do one of two things.

1.  Us a photo that has plenty of space around your child's face to write a personal greeting.  This would work great for older kids.  I would probably shoot for a solid background like a light colored wall, house or even the sky.  Be creative!

2.  You could drop the photo idea all together.  Cut out heart shaped pieces of paper in red and have your child write his or her own message.  Decorate with a personal drawing or stickers.  Again, be creative!

When I got the photos back from Costco I simply used a paring knife (after my first attempt with scissors made the jagged cuts you see above) to cut slits at each end of the photo card.  This will allow you to slide the sucker stick through.  I found that if you didn't cut them long enough it would bend the photo so make sure you do a good 1/4" cut.  Obviously if you cut them too long they wouldn't stay on the stick so don't overdo it.  It's also important to cut them centered on each side or they will be crooked.  Not bothersome to most but enough to drive me crazy!!

 Voila!  The project is done.  Sorry the photos aren't better.  They are much cuter in person and we got tons of compliments from teachers and student's parents.  Funny thing, the 3 & 4 year-olds only seemed to care that there was a sucker attached.  Kids...love them!