Last-Minute Valentines

This year Oliver is going to miss the Valentines Day party at daycare due to our family's scheduling conflicts. I sort of feel bad about it, but at the same time he’s so young he doesn’t know what he’s missing. The silver lining though is that I’m not limited to “age appropriate” Valentines this year, so I thought it would just be fun to make something that was inexpensive, really fast/easy and not covered in pink hearts. (Is it just me or are most Valentines you can buy either girly or cheesy cartoon characters? And then the cool homemade tutorials are either expensive or really labor intensive?)

I started with these cute patterned pencils from Target’s dollar spot - perfect for slightly older children. Using leftover cardstock I cut out hearts freehand to give them a handmade childlike look. I decorated them with some red dots and cut out holes with a hole punch to slide them onto the pencils. If Oliver was older he could help decorate the hearts, but I also kind of really like the classic clean look of these.

This is definitely an idea I want to use when he’s older. Especially since I can cover a whole class for $2-3 and they are really fast to make. They are totally gender neutral and I don’t have to worry about candy-related dietary restrictions.