It's In the Cards

What started as a bedtime brainstorm, ended in 4 of the cutest Valentine designs you have ever seen. I asked each kiddo that night what they wanted their Valentines to look like. Each one had a theme in mind. Chapel wanted a puppy dog valentine and even came up with a catchy phrase to put on the design. Pooch Smooch. I found a great dog design to use and she worked meticulously adding embellishments to her little pup. Her finished POOCH SMOOCH card was a detailed delight! To pull the pooch and the smooch idea together, she suggested using Hershey kisses to fill her treat bags.

Conor wanted a butterfly theme. She also picked purple and pink as her primary design colors. What made the design really pop was the princess stickers and stamps she applied. She even took her butterfly princess theme a to a higher level when she chose princess fun dip as the candy to include in her bag. I give you the final product, BUTTERFLY KISSES.....

Jude's first choice was a lion theme. However, when we started looking at the book of animals we could cut using our Cricut, he saw a lizard - more like a gecko- that caught his eye. And speaking of eyes, he also decided is lizard would need googly eyes. How smart is he? They eyes were what MADE his valentine card. He was so cute making them, he kept laughing when he glued on an eye and commented how "funny" his lizards were. Here you have LEAPING LIZARDS....

I can't say Eli's was my favorite but I can say it was the one that challenged me the most and made me smile with delight when finished. Having chose an army theme, we began looking at army themed party favors. I found a picture of juice boxes wrapped to resemble walkie talkies and knew immediately that was our design inspiration. And boy did we go all out. OPERATION VALENTINE was a labor of love, adding little design elements here and there that made these little boxes transform into something much, much more impressive. We were so enamored, we invited Teague over to make them with us.

Here you have....OPERATION VALENTINE!

What did my kids learn during this nearly 3 week process? They learned to bring an idea to life. Chapel learned that the right font can really set a mood to your project. They all learned to improvise with materials we had to get results we needed. They learned to be patient and they learned the pride associated with making your own valentines and giving them to the people you care about.