As part of my search for my happy I decided this year I was going to spend just a little extra time on the class valentines for only one reason: crafting makes me happy.
Making pretty things makes me happy and I was thrilled to have an excuse. I thought I would share with you the three things I made for the boys classes and teachers just in case you are looking for an idea. I would also suggest checking out my Valentine's Board on Pinterest for other great ideas.
First up were very simple mason jars filled with kisses for the teachers. I followed very closely this project found on the blog Crescendoh.com.
I think these are adorable and truly were a snap to put together. My biggest struggle has been to not eat all of the kisses we bought to fill the jars.
The second project I tackled were the valentines for Owen's class. I followed this project found at Skip to my Lou. I tried to convert the PDF to a cut file for my Cameo and was unsuccessful. However, they weren't difficult to cut by hand and thankfully I was only making 16.
I printed on Epson matte photo paper that I purchased on sale at Target (after a tip from my Instagram buddy Amanda) and they printed great. I used the same twine from the teachers jars and used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes.
The only tweak I made to the file was adding "From Owen McNeill" to the PDF in Photoshop.
Now Garrett's valentines were a little tricky. My oldest has a very low tolerance for anything love or girl related. The word c-u-t-e is a four letter word in this house. So, I could pretty much guarantee that most of what is circulating Pinterest was going to be vetoed.
His idea was to give the boys football cards and candy and the girls could get candy. There would be a red card involved and that was the plan.
I wanted to do a little something for the girls so I got his sign off on a bookmark. We picked out some Fun Dip (thank you blue & red packets) and used the remaining plastic bags from Owen's valentines to package the Fun Dip with the football cards / bookmarks. I sealed the bags with a little Washi and called it done.
I had a blast making the bookmarks. It was great to craft just for fun. Knowing Garrett's aversion to anything love I decided to go with a girl power message instead that was still, dare I say, cute. I designed everything in Silhouette Designer Edition and had an opportunity to use spray mist and embossing powder. Cannot say enough how much fun I had playing with my toys.
There were only two hiccups. First, I couldn't find my embossing gun and thought for a moment it didn't survive my great purge a few years ago but then I did. Second, the space between the s & t is very fragile and had to be reinforced with my glue pen. I considered adding a layer of Mod Podge to seal it but then I thought nope they will likely only last a day or two anyhow and laundry was calling my name.
When I showed Garrett the bookmarks he said "Mom, kids don't like the same things that adults do." Fingers crossed that at least one 2nd grade girl disagrees.
Now all I have to do is pull together my own boys valentines. Thankfully I have all my supplies gathered and just need to sneak in some time.
Hope you had a wonderful start to the week!
Monica
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