Easy Kids Valentines

This year I wanted to explore a more creative idea for Valentine’s Day for my kids. Personally, I despise the Hallmark holiday and feel the entire month is wasted upon this one day to determine levels of affection for one another. I digress. I was opposed to buying the typical boxed cards with the perforations that say some cheesy message with the same cheesy cartoon characters. The cost was also irking me at three dollars per box I couldn’t fathom this silly small dollar amount purely for waste, as I knew the Valentines would be tossed aside into my recycle the moment my children brought them home. So I opted for an easy kids Valentine’s Day card option that is functional and edible without processed junk and high fructose corn syrup intoxication on candy.

Off to the local dollar store I went with ideas in tow that I wanted to create something more fun, edible, but still offered the shallow story of love and affection in the most ridiculous way possible. My first option was those cute little individual boxes of cereal that come in a six or eight pack. You know the assorted pack, Costco generally offers a larger pack but I lacked time to fight that battle. Unable to find my initial idea of a valentine craft I continued to peruse the other aisles. Running a play on words through my head with the various food items.

Pudding. Chips. I was lacking inspiration. Until I saw the raisins. Nature’s candy baby! I knew that would be perfect and could fit into a kids Valentine’s box. Snagging enough to cover one kid’s class I knew I had to handle the twins… who sadly share a birthday the day after the silly holiday. Succumbing to the candy I saw Tootsie Pops and Blow Pops and knew my next treat idea. Upon heading to the check out I also saw these adorable felt, puffy heart stickers that would be put to good use for this project.

Satisfied with my total purchase which was equivalent in cost to the ridiculous pre-made paper Valentine’s in a box I headed home and sprawled my purchase across the dining table to have my spawns gaze upon the pinterest worthy idea in awe.

The spawn’s initial reaction was defeating. They were puzzled at my creativity. I was shattered at their lack of vision….amateurs. Until I created the first Valentine and then suddenly I was the hero! Score!!

My stickers were like sweetheart candies that they could write their own message or their name (as they opted to do) and stick these little stickers on the boxes. Additionally, I wanted the corny message plastered on the front of these boxes like the token Valentine. “You’re the “raisin” Valentine” was written on all of my various heart stickers as our Hallmark message. The puffy, felt, heart shaped stickers came in a pack of 100, excellent for these boxes of raisins. I was beaming at my choice these weren’t the typical candy Valentine.

Next were the Tootsie and Blow Pops. Sigh….candy…but I have three kids. All of whom balk at uniformity.

An easy Google search for cutouts will render various ideas. I went with cutouts in the shape of hearts that you can write your own message. Using shape cutter scissors gives this some character to cut your shapes. I cut oblong shapes around my hearts to allow enough meat on the paper to slide the sucker through the message. Write your message first so you know where to properly cut slits for the sucker to slide through. Our message was “you make my heart “pop.”” We used the left over heart shaped stickers as a backer [and signature] to hold the message to the sucker stick and again give more meat and stability to the note.

I was using scissors to cut slits for the sucker until my brilliant 11 year old suggested the hole puncher…of which I quickly delegated the task to him. These were super easy to create and were a lot of fun for the kids.

Are they fancy “pinterest” worthy crafts?

Probably not, but my kids had a blast creating their own Valentine’s themselves without using the generic and boring commercial Valentines and I know the parent’s will appreciate receiving little waste and something a bit more out of the ordinary. Have fun with this like my kids did and let their creative juices take hold like mine did after I gave them the reins.