A HANDy Valentine card tutorial

I'm so naive.

With all the crafting we do around here, I should have known better. I should have known there was no way 3-year-old Bo would have the patience to make the same thing--in this case, Valentines--28 times.

Our score at the crafting table last night--

Bo: 8

Mommy: 20

Ah, well. At least these were simple to put together.

I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw this idea, and I'm so sorry for that. It popped up during my surfing yesterday and I didn't even read the directions, but I imagine we made them in a similar way.

You will need: skin-colored cardstock, red cardstock, scissors, glue sticks, and either computer paper or scraps of white paper and a pen.

Step 1: Have child trace her hand on a piece of lightweight cardboard (like a cereal box). Cut it out. This will be her template.

Step 2: Have child trace the template on skin-colored cardstock.

Step 3: Holding a piece of red cardstock behind the skin-colored one, cut out the hands.

Step 4: Cut or hole punch a heart in the middle of each skin-colored hand. Do not cut hearts out of the red hands.

Step 4: Print out or write messages on small, thin scraps of paper. I simply typed "(heart) Boston" so the kids knew who the card was from.

Step 5: Have the child glue the two hands together, sandwiching the paper message between them so the word part sticks out. Note how the back side is red:

My favorites of the bunch were the eight that Bo made--lots of scrawly tracing marks and a mish-mashing of the hands as she glued them together.

She came home from preschool with a pouch full of cards from her classmates, some really adorable homemade ones included. What was her favorite of the bunch, though? No, not the hands. Her favorite was a Spiderman that jumps out at you when you tilt it. Fabulous.

Comments

[Astrid]

I love the cards - what a great idea! Beautiful pictures as well! :)

[Megan]

Thanks!! Again, not my original idea, but I've always loved the heart-in-hand image.

[Karla W.]

We opted for play-dough valentines. They came with little stickers that said "to" and "from" to stick to the center of the lid. I figure there were no princesses or pixar characters and that's half the battle right there. :)