Kids' Personalized Valentines

It's February! The lovely month of valentine cards, hearts, chocolate (oh wait, that's every month), and when my boys' favorite colors temporarily change from blue and green to red and pink (and more pink this year than ever!).

When I was growing up my family had a tradition of making valentine cards for each other. I still try to carry on that tradition, and I've even started getting the boys involved. But I quickly tire of the commercial cartoony valetines from the stores. Yes, they're inexpensive and easy, and even fun. But every now and then it's nice to do something more personal. With the baby due in a couple weeks I'm not making any promises about fancy cards this year. But I was quite pleased with what we did last year. I've been saving them to share with you:

Last year we made our own cards to print and send. First we started with a photo shoot. Five-year-old Alexander was great at doing all sorts of funny (and scary) poses, as well as sweet ones. Lincoln's pictures just came from photos we already had.

I made a letter-size template in Photoshop, and let Alexander go wild. At the same time I made it a learning experience, as he had to do the typing himself. He "drew" the hearts how he wanted and chose the sayings, pictures, and colors. He got quite creative. I made sure we had some sweet and normal ones to send to the grandparents, and let him send the silly ones to his cousins. (One of them asks, "What do you want for Christmas?" Yes, crazy and nonsensical, but it shows his personality.)

Lincoln's template was fairly uniform, but I did switch it up with four different pictures.

I had the valentines printed on cardstock, then I cut them up with my handy paper slicer. In the meantime I had also made a spreadsheet list of all the relatives and friends to send cards to (with Alexander's input, of course).

Alexander did almost all the hand writing himself using the list I had printed for him. He checked off each name after he wrote it. I was proud of him for doing such a big project.

Lincoln, not even two years old at the time, just scribbled on most of his cards while I wrote the names in for him. I had to make sure to place a new card in front of him every couple seconds, and even then we didn't get his cute scribbles on each card. But we got pretty close.

And now... I'm going to share a simple template with you. This is the one I used for Lincoln. Save it, print it, and paste your own pictures on top.

Pink Valentine Template - Here
Blue Valentine Template - Here

Enjoy!

Or, if you plan on making your own, here are some additional ideas:
-To save time: Have the child design just one card and duplicate it, making them all uniform.
-To save time: Make your own templates without involving the kids. They might still enjoy signing their names and addressing them, especially with their own picture on it.
-To save money: I don't have a color printer, and so the 8.5x11" color copies can get expensive when printing a lot. Try making the templates in 4x6" format and get them printed as photos for cheaper (Although the photos might be harder to write on).
-Just for fun: Make a space for drawing pictures. Or do what my friend did a few years ago and have the kids simply draw a picture, then duplicate and print that as the card.

By just modifying our existing template, my kids might send out valentines this year, after all.
Happy crafting!

P.S. I just added the "You might also like:" widget with hopes that it would link to related posts i.e. for this post have links to other valentine posts. But it seems more random than that, at least right now. So here's just an additional direct link to all my posts labeled "Valentines".

Links to more cute Valentine ideas and printables:

Candy bag toppers from I Am Mamma Hear Me Roar

Heartbreaker printable on MADE

Love Mail Valentines by Noodlehead

Love, Lily Lollipop holder valentine on Grosgrain

Family Mailbox

When I was little my mom made us an indoor family mailbox. It looked like a little cottage home with slots on the back for each family member. We sent each other notes and items we had ordered from each other's mail order catalogs throughout the year, but the busiest time for our family mailbox was Valentines Day. A few years ago I bought a paper mache house to make my own family mailbox. Since Valentines Day is right around the corner I thought now would be the perfect time to paint it.



I tried to make the coloring and style look a little like our own house. Wouldn't it also make a fun toy house to play with a little wooden peg family?


What's inside? Two Valentine cards!


I thought the house would be so cute photographed on our front lawn. Then I remembered that it's January and all we have is footprint-covered snow. I tried it on the snow, but the white washed all the color out of the pictures, and my little monkey wouldn't stop throwing snowballs at it. So the Christmas tree skirt and my front porch steps will have to suffice.




I was having a lot of fun painting the jasmine plant climbing up the side of the house. Then it suddenly reminded me of a Thomas Kinkade painting so I immediately had to stop. The other side has a birdhouse and agapanthus plants. Hmmmm... I wonder if it would work to paint flowers on the side of my real house to make it look like I have a garden. Do you think my neighbors would notice?


Here's the before picture. House purchased from Hobby Lobby.


My oldest little monkey and I have already exchanged several letters with each other using our new mailbox. A new (old) family tradition!

Valentines!

1991 to 2009
I need to start back-blogging some of my older craft photos. As a kid my family and I used give each other homemade Valentine cards every year. We put them in our family mailbox, which had a slot for each person in the family. I saved every valentine. I have a whole collection of beautiful handmade cards from my grandma, and I cherish them as a special reminder of her talents and generosity. In fact, I could say the same about the cards from my mom, aunt, brother, and all my hundreds of sisters (actually I only have four). I don't have most of the valentines I made as a kid because I gave them away. I wish I did have them! One year I watercolored then laminated one for each family member. Another year my younger sister Sadie and I combined forces to make pressed flower cards that we trimmed with lace. (If anybody reading this still has any of those--or any that I've made--could you please take a picture or scan it for me?). Another year my family was on vacation during Valentine's Day, and hadn't had time to make some before we left. So I took the little scalloped edge paper coasters from the hotel and drew pictures on them with colored pencils.

These days I still carry on the tradition. Every year I hang my valentine collection up along the ceiling for the month of February. I've never sent out Christmas cards, but Valentine's Day just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without sending pretty love notes to my family and a few close friends.

1991 or '92

This first specimen is the earliest valentine I have that I've made. I made it for my older sister Bridey (who plays the piano) when I was ten or eleven. I must have just learned how to make snowflakes, then modified the idea to apply it to the next best holiday. The piano, pink hearts, and text are glued onto the heart-snowflake. Let's move on.

1997

These I made when I was 16. I mass-produced them and gave them out as a service project. Pretty, aren't they? They resemble some of my Grandma's, but only in a very primitive way. I hand-punched every little whole and edge you see and embossed them all. I used my mom's scrapbooking supplies, paper, and ribbons. Then she drove me all around the other side of the tracks to help me deliver them all. Now who did the service here?

2005

Only a few people got valentines from me in 2005. I had a 3-month old baby. This one was for my husband using a pencil and a ruler, then watercolors.

2006

Now we're getting someplace. This year I incorporated my one-year-old son into the cards by tracing his hand. Also, for one of the first times ever I veered away from traditional valentine colors (for the most part) and used all different bright colors. I love them spread out like this so I can see them all.


Here's the one I made for my son that same year. I liked this photo, even though it was blurry, so I incorporated it.

2007

For my son. I laminated the pencil drawing (gotta love the laminator!) and glued it onto this textured, coated scrapbook paper. I liked the kissing picture from the year year before so much that I had to use it again.


Same year, for my husband.

2008

I was proud of these! I stitched them with felt and embroidery floss. I also made some with the colors reversed, but I guess I didn't get a picture.


Passing on the tradition! I had my three-year-old glue store-purchased cards to hearts, then encouraged him to decorate the backs and write each person's initial.


Here's the 2008 valentine for my husband. I was playing around with a beautiful digital scrapbooking kit found here. Hmmm, I guess I made this mostly for myself. It's not his style at all! The picture was from our engagement photos (taken several years earlier).

2009

Now this was fun. I Photoshopped our heads together and glued them onto the inked edges of this adorable retro scrapbook paper from JoAnn's. Other versions of this year's model turned out better, but I sent out all the good ones before I remembered to take a picture. Does someone want to send me a picture of theirs?

I'm obviously a very sentimental about my valentine cards. I hate to see traditions die, and I love seeing new traditions born. So I encourage you all to tune into your crafty side and spread the love next February 14!