Thank You Pinterest for Saving Valentines... {Kiddie Valentines}

Because, if I'm being honest, I'm not so creative when it comes to things like this. 

I told myself last year that I would be more organized this time, with my oldest now in grade 1 and the youngest in junior kindergarten. Which means we would be required to make double the amount of valentines this year. Last year, my daughter made each of her valentines by hand - bless her heart - and she did a great job, but it took many evenings.. right up until her valentines party at school. So I wanted to do something more efficient but still fun for the kids. And get this, we started and finished the oldest's valentines on a snow day we had last Monday (two weeks prior to when they were due!). 

Here's the ideas we went with that I found via Pinterest (and I'll give you all the sources too).

1. The "Whooo's Crazy About You?" valentine is for my youngest's kindergarten class. It totally fits his personality too because he's a crazy, fun, wild kid. Plus, he loves curly straws aka crazy straws. I grabbed the straws at Walmart ($2 for a pack of 6), and found the free printable at Happiness is Homemade. It prints 4 cards to a page, so I used 7 sheets of white card stock (from Target). We have a laser printer so we can easily print this kind of thing at home. So my youngest will practice writing his name 26 times on the back of those little owl cards (we've got 3 days!). 

2. The "Bee" valentines are great for the teachers. Who wouldn't want a new lip chap in the dead of winter? I found the idea at Jolly Mom, and went with the 3.5 x 5 size so that I could fit 4 to a page, which is all we needed (2 teachers per class). I picked up the Burt's Bees lip chaps at Target (a 3-pack plus 1 more). Then using double sided tape, I taped them to the card. Although, I think I'll get little clear bags to slip them into in case they get bumped around. I like that there's a little spot on the card for the kids to sign their names. 

3. We finished my oldest daughter's valentines, "You Make my Heart Glow," in about 1 hour. We grabbed a pack of 40 glow sticks from Walmart for $5, and printed the little cards on card stock. It printed 6 to a page which was nice. I found this idea at Delia Creates, and she's right, this can be whipped up last minute. My daughter helped cut out the cards, whole punched them herself, then wrote "To : ____" and "From : _____" on the back, and carefully picked out a glow stick for each student. It was nice that she could do most of this independently. 

How cute is she? I hope she'll be my valentine... But whew! I think we're going to make it! We just need to finish up my youngest's valentines, and we'll be good to go for Friday. Thank you to all those creative bloggers for helping this mama out. 

Here's a "what you might need" round up:

- Printer

- Card stock

- Hole punch

- Scissors (in our case, we have a cutter)

- Double sided tape

- Markers / pencil crayons

And depending on what you're using.. in our case:

- Glow Sticks

- Burt's Bee lip chaps

- Curly straws

So I'm already thinking of next year, or  end-of-the-year gifts.. because it sneaks up so fast. What ideas have you thought of, or pinned (if you're like me)?