Easy and fun ways to personalize classroom valentines

Americans spend billions of dollars each year on Valentine’s Day, and no small amount of that total is spent on those little cards kids put in each other’s cubbies at school. With classrooms topping 30 students in elementary schools this year, that’s no small outlay of cash for a family with two kids. And after Valentine’s Day, the likelihood is that those purchased cards end up in the recycling.

Even families that aren’t big at crafts at home can create fun, memorable, and sometimes usable cards in a small amount of time with an even smaller outlay of cash. Depending on the age of your children, consider some of the following ideas, or make up your own with the help of your kids:

Doily time: The standard homemade valentine is still good after all these years. Buy a package of heart-shaped or round paper doilies. Cut out pink and red hearts from construction paper. (To make a perfect heart, fold the paper and cut half a heart so the unfolded heart is symmetrical.) Glue the hearts on the doilies and, if you want to do more, use glitter glue and stick-on decorations.

Potato stampers: Cut standard white copy paper or colored paper into four equal pieces. Slice a potato in half and draw a heart on each cut half. Using a knife, cut away the potato around the heart shapes to about ¼ inch deep. Dip the potatoes in red, pink, and white paint, or all the colors swirled together, and print on the cut paper pieces.

Computer art: Have your child do a drawing or painting of a colorful heart. Take a digital photo of the painting on an all-white background. Insert the picture into a document with “Happy Valentine’s Day” and your child’s name, and print as many copies as you need.

Heart crayons: Find all your broken crayons. Melt them in a plastic container that you don’t want to keep, and making sure not to mix the colors too much, pour into a heart-shaped candy mold. Let cool. Attach the crayon heart onto a piece of red or pink construction paper with double-stick tape.

Lollipop mouse: Cut folded hearts out of paper. Tape a lollipop into the folded paper so that the stick is sticking out of the fat end of the paper as a tail. Draw an eye and whiskers on the pointy end of the paper, and glue on little hearts as ears.

Deck of valentines: Butcher a deck of playing cards (especially if you’ve lost or damaged one card so that it’s not usable). Use the heart cards as the cover of your valentine, stuck on with glue, or cut the cards apart to use the various pieces in collages on the cards.

Love Coupons: Think of fun things your child could do for other children in the class and make coupons for those things: “Good for one push on the swing” or “Good for one book read out loud.”

Heart Necklaces: Make hearts out of heat-hardening clay like Sculpey, making a good-sized hole with a toothpick before baking. Put the hearts on a nice piece of ribbon and double-stick onto cards with your child’s name on them.


Suki Wessling is a local writer and the mother of two. www.SukiWessling.com
 

My Creative Valentine

By Suki Wessling