Fun & Thoughtful Handmade Valentines

I love Valentine's Day, but I'm not a fan of preprinted Valentine's Day cards for kids to hand out at school.  There is too much focus on commercialized TV characters and they don't require any though about the person you are giving them too.  So, when my daughter had her first preschool Valentine's Day party I decided I wanted her to make them instead.  I wanted her to be creative and think about her friends as she made their Valentines.  

Last year, she was 3 so we made it simple.  We cut large hearts out of construction paper and I gave her stickers, markers and glitter glue to do whatever she wanted.  She was very thoughtful, giving a lot of thought to what went on each card and who would get them.  

This year, I almost caved when I saw Lorax valentines printed on recycled paper.  But I knew that if we got those, she'd expect to buy them every year.  So, I put them back on the shelf and committed to making them with her again this year.

I was lost for ideas until Jessica of The Leaky Boob told me about valentines she and her kids did one year.  They traced their hands, put a heart in the middle, then bent the 2 middle fingers down and glued them, making the "I Love You" sign.

My daughter, now 4, loves to trace her hand.  She did it for the first time this past Thanksgiving as she made the traditional hand tracinng-turned turkey that seems to be an American right of passage.  Since then, she's been a hand-tracing fool.

So, we got our supplies and went to work.  As we started, I decided not to fold down the fingers.  I liked the open hand symbolism better.  The open hand is the symbol of friendship...much more appropriate for a bunch of 4 year olds, too.

She loved tracing her hand 14 times

And glueing the hearts she punched

The end result

My daughter also got some cute hand-made Valentine's from her classmates.  

I just love these fish made out of punched hearts & googly eyes. I may have to steal this idea next year.

I love these bookmarks.  Easy to make, and less likely to be thrown away when the holiday is over. 

For a slightly naughtier grown-up Valentine, I made this for my husband...