In search of home-made valentines...

When my girls were growing up, Valentine's Day was one of our favorite Holidays. I would say it came in right behind Christmas and Easter. My husband and I never actually went out on Valentine's Day because we had a family celebration. All of the food for dinner had to be red, pink or white. I've had more pink mashed potatoes, red jello hearts, chicken fingers with ketchup hearts or messages on them and strawberry milk than I can remember:-) We decorated the house with red and pink hearts everywhere and we always made special, homemade valentines for their classmates. I know, I know...who has time, Spongebob and Barbie are calling, they make such cute ones these days...I've heard it all. But I tell you, this was one of my girls favorite memories and they both say they will make valentines with their kids someday. (Of course, I had girls. Maybe it's easier to convince them to pass up the spiderman valentines:-) We still bought a box of fun valentines and they gave them to neighbors, each other... But for school, homemade all the way. (I know, Martha, Martha, Martha...and yes, of course there are some ideas from Martha in here:-)

Yep, these are her crayon hearts. We made this mobile one year using crayon shavings, wax paper and an iron.

Anyway, I didn't save pictures of our old valentine's so I'm going to post a few ideas I found online. I am not the most creative person but the idea is, it doesn't take much. It's popular to attach candy to a valentine and we always did that, too. But first, one of our favorites, which I don't have a photo of, was a candy kiss valentine. We used poster board and cut out a shape of a candy kiss...about the size of your palm. We covered it all over with tin foil and smoothed it down. On the computer, I typed "A kiss for you on Valentine's Day" and cut them into strips. My daughter wrote her name on it and we attached a candy kiss. It was adorable...and super easy. Another one we did was to cut out circles on cardstock and embellish them with scrapbbok hearts, doilies and other stuff. We taped a lollipop to the back and wrapped them in clear cellophane and attached a tag on each stick. If you're lucky enough to be able to bring in home baked goodies, a cookie pop is the way to go! Paper Creations Magazine has some great ideas. Whenever I get one of these mags, I keep them forever!


Here are a few other ideas I found online. They look pretty self-explanatory by the photo alone.
This one is a Valentine Mouse, using 2 candy kisses.

Flower Valentines...I know that my girls used to have to decorate a "mailbox" using a shoebox for the valentine exchange. Be creative...Maybe use a theme your child really loves...a box to look like spongebob or something. One year, Jordie's class had a contest. She wanted a tiki hut/surf shack theme. (She is very artistic and made cut-out surfboards as her valentines and decorated them sooo cute. ) She painted the box turquoise and made cute little surfer signs for it. I bought corn tamale things from the grocery store and she fringed them for the grass roof. A few flowers here and there and...you guessed it. 1st place. (That's my girl! hahaha) Here is a photo of a puppy mailbox that would be so cute and easy, too. By the way, if you don't like this kind of thing, just buy some cute valentines. This is for the crafty mom who likes this kind of thing. No stress:-)

Okay, on to Valentine's with Martha Stewart. First of all, this month's cover is so tempting. Check out all of the cupcake recipes. Next she has a cute idea for a valentine that includes a lollipop. Adorable! And for decorating or maybe as a cute teacher gift, look at this flower arrangement using candy hearts. So cute! "It's a GOOD thing." haha

Happy Old-fashioned Valentine's Day!