Make It, Don't Buy It: Valentine's Day Cards
by Amy Brayfield
I have an unnatural aversion to those glossy, cellophane-wrapped boxes of Valentine's that start appearing in supermarket aisles about this time. Something about them just rubs me the wrong way, and I’m so grateful that all my daughter said when we walked past them this week was “Mommy, when can I make my friends Valentine's?”
Valentine’s Day is one of my daughter’s favorite holidays, partly because what 7-year-old girl doesn’t get a little excited about hearts and flowers and the possibility of breaking out the glitter. And since the coming weekend is a long one, I thought we might as well go ahead and come up with a game plan for this year’s cards. In the spirit of minimizing waste and cost, I wanted a plan that would use materials we already have around the house. My daughter just wanted something pretty. So together, we came up with these cards, which I think are both charming and easy.
What You Need:
- Sheets of construction paper, one for each card (or cut to make enough cards for the class)
- Leftover paper scraps (we have these from scrapbooks pages, dilapidated picture books, old cards and calendars, etc.)
- Scissors
- Thick thread or yarn
- Wide-eyed needle
- Straight pins
- Small hole punch (optional)
- Pen
What You Do:
- Start by cutting out hearts from your scrap paper. Lots and lots of hearts. My daughter has a great time doing this — she does it the simple way, folding the paper in half and cutting a half-heart along the folded edge. They don’t need to be a uniform size or shape.
- Next, fold your sheets of construction paper in half to make cards. You can fold them to open on the right or, as we did, to open at the bottom.
- Thread your needle with a long string of yarn, tying a knot in the end of the yarn.
- Let your child arrange hearts on each construction paper card until she has a design she likes. (My daughter made a row of similar-sized hearts in a straight line across the front of our practice card.)
- Secure the design with straight pins, then let your child stitch each card into place. (You can get fancy and stitch around the edges if you want, but one wide stitch in the middle works just fine, too.) You can use the hole punch here, if you want to, to make the sewing a little easier, but it’s not hard to push it through the construction paper if you don’t have a hole punch.
- Once it’s done, let your child write a Valentine’s message inside and sign her name. My daughter wrote “I hope your Valentine’s Day is sew special.” (Get it?)
Sure, it’s a little more time-consuming than opening the plastic box — but not much. Now let's just hope she makes one for her mom!
Amy Brayfield is a cheapskate, and she's not afraid to admit it. In addition to torturing her children by not taking them to McDonald's every day, she writes about parenting and family topics for various national and local magazines. She lives happily in the Midwest with her husband and two children.
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