homemade valentine's for toddlers

Do your toddlers need to bring valentine's day cards to school?

Our school sent a random list home with each child's name printed and no other explanation. I took that as a passive aggressive gesture of saying, "Send a valentine for each kid listed below, you absent-minded mother, YOU!"

Since, I'm pretty much ANTI cartoon-character-cheesy-sayings valentines, and didn't want to spend any money, I decided this morning we should make some. Hmm, what to do? What to do?

{Remember the easy-peasy homemade valentine's I made when Scarlett was 8 months old? The ones with the stamped foot/handprints? If you have a newbie in your house, I highly recommend making these for grammas and aunties. Very swoon worthy.}

Luckily, I was able to dig up materials from my craft box, and not have to buy anything new. I used the same stamp, ink pads, and still had some left over paper and stickers to make just enough for Scarlett's preschool classmates.

And, now 2.5 year old Scarlett is DIY-ing the valentine's cards all by herself! 

I loved watching her concentrate and enjoy this saturday morning project!

{Sidenote: there has been some trouble with not participating in activities at school, so I've been doing more projects with her at home, emphasizing how it is SO fun to go to school...And we need to listen to our teachers...And clean up our work when we are done...And share with our friends...all in the up-tone, high-octave voice of a mother speaking to her toddler, with slight hints of desperation and pleading peaking through. We've all used that voice, you know what I mean.}

You can easily do these homemade valentine's with your toddler as well. This project was inexpensive to begin with and mostly reusable. I plan on using these stamps for years to come! Woot woot!! Materials from PaperSource and prices listed below.

Blossom 4-bar note card, pack of 25 - $3.25
white ink pad - $5.95
"happy valentine's day" stamp - $6.95
heart stickers - pretty sure they were $2 from walgreens!

I just laid everything out and let Scarlett have at it. I did, on occasion, have to guide her to the next card when she was stamping the same spot 38 times, but mostly, she did it all on her own. I just watched and enjoyed my coffee!

Another easy and perfectly acceptable toddler valentine's card idea: computer paper cut into quarters, red and pink markers, let your child draw. done. That was plan b if I couldn't find the stamps! I'm sure the kids in 2-year-old preschool will be perfectly happy with either one. What are you doing with your kiddos?

Happy Valentine's Day!