Homemade Valentines

The good thing about starting early to make homemade Valentines for three separate classrooms, and one softball team... is that we aren't rushed.  The bad thing about starting early to make homemade Valentines for three separate classrooms and one softball team is that we aren't rushed, so we leave construction paper, heart stickers, chopped up crayons and glitter glue all over the tables and counters for days...and days... and days...

I blame the mess for the amount of SweeTart Gummie Hearts I have eaten.  Ha!

 All joking aside...  it was fun watching the girls pick what they wanted to do, and watch them put their own stamp on their Valentines.

I searched the interwebs and gave them a couple options.

Addi picked these.

Ali and Ainsley picked these.

If you remember a couple of years ago, we made these homemade ones.

I tried really hard to encourage the girls to make them again this year, but as you can see... no one listened to me.  The story of my life these days... Ha!

 With Addi's, I did a little research on melting crayons, and read that Crayola Crayons melt the best and don't leave a waxy residue on the top after melting.

And if you buy new ones, you can use a knife and carefully run it down the side of the crayons, so the paper comes off easier.  And no, Addi didn't use the knife, RB came home from work one afternoon and got persuaded (read: forced) into helping us out.

Then we bribed (cousin) Abby with some Scratch Cupcakes to help Addi cut out the circles with her fancy little Cricut machine.  Thanks again Abby!

 As for the mold, they suggested a rubber candy mold.  I looked at a couple of our local stores and couldn't find one, but the dollar section at Target had rubber heart ice cube trays, so we used that.  I watched it very carefully to make sure the tray wasn't melting, or catching on fire, but it ended up working great.  Whatever you end up using (rubber or tin), just know it won't ever be used for anything else again. 

 She was supposed to be putting stickers on her butterflies.  Ha!

 Ali and and Ainsley's were pretty easy.  I bought cardstock, used the template and printed the butterflies (two to a sheet), and the hardest part was cutting them out individually.  Ali, RB and I all took turns cutting even though RB was quick to remind me he almost flunked kindergarten because of his lack of scissors skills.  Ha!

 I had the big girls working on their Valentine's on our little card table that I brought up from the basement (because of all the glitter glue they were using).  I went to take it down the next morning, but Ainsley insisted she had to do her Valentines on it also, so it stayed up for several days.  If you know anything about me... know that I don't like things out of place and tripping over a card table in the middle of the dining room caused me to eat at least one bag of Gummie Hearts.  And maybe a serving of Girl Scout cookies.  It's well known that one sleeve of Thin Mints is one serving....no matter what the box says.

 Another helpful hint:  If you work on your Valentines wearing a gymnastics leotard, your mom has a hard time getting mad when you refuse to write your name on them.  Even though you can totally write your name.

 One of Ali's Valentines.

 She wrote her name, and the recipient's name on the backs.

Fun Fact:  The only time I call her Alivia is when she's in trouble but at school, that's all they call her.

 So. Much. Glitter. Glue.

It was suggested that you could use googly eyes and a hot glue gun.... but this mom burns her hands enough curling hair... so we opted for hand drawn, permanent marker butterfly faces.

I don't know what is cuter... The way she writes her name, or the smiley faces she draws.