Valentines for 20

How to make 20 valentine's (and include your child).








Supplies needed:

1-2 pieces of large paper (easel sized) - we used one
Paint, markers, crayons, etc. (we used red paint mixed with silver glitter)
Cardstock or scraps in color of your choosing
Gluestick
Assorted stamps/stamp pad
Digital photo of your child
Photo Paper

1) Encourage your child to make a big painting or drawing



2) Wait for said child to fall asleep

3) Using a heart template trace 21 hearts on back of artwork, madly cut them out before child wakes up. I would definitely talk about this prior to doing it - I had prepared Monkey and we still had a little issue.



4) Find a digital image of your child (preferably not blurry - this may take a while) and crop for a close-up.

5) Print a contact sheet of the image (my printer does up to 35 small pictures per sheet with the name of the photo - so if your printer has this option remember to change the name of the jpg before printing (I changed to "XOXO, Monkey" & "Love, Monkey" or you can print out larger pics - whatever floats your boat (I was low on printer ink and paper so a contact sheet was perfect!)



6) Cut up 20 of the pictures - use the rest to seal envelopes and send to the grandparents, etc.. I will definitely be creating more of these for birthday cards, etc.

7) Use scrap paper or cut up cardstock (I chose to make the valentines 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 so I could get 4 per page. Cut out 21 rectangles.

8) Gather some heart stamps together.

9) Wait for child to wake up. Soothe child after he cries, "PUT IT BACK! PUT IT BACK TOGETHER!" tell him he can cut up other paper and glue it on - with glitter glue!!! You can mix the glitter!!!. Explain you have picked out some special stamps for him to use. Once child opens eyes to see stamps, carry quieted child and art supplies downstairs.

10) Give glue stick, hearts & rectangles to child - let him go wild.

11) Decide maybe it would be better for him to stamp - give him stamps and WASHABLE ink

12) Have him position hearts on valentines and then glue on a picture.

Voila! Valentines for 20

I used a punch to round the corners of the cards and Monkey helped. His favorite parts of this project (after the initial painting) were the glue stick and emptying the punch.