Toddlers and Valentines

In order to focus on a day of love, I thought I would share some of our preparations.

I grew up with valentine boxes. You decorate a box with a cut a slit big enough for cards in the top, and then everyone in the family puts their valentines in the box. Mailed valentines also go in the box to be opened as a family on Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately, Kiddo was more interested in ripping the box than decorating it, so I ended up decorating the box, which compared to my childhood designs was positively simple (and much too symmetrical).

However, we were able to decorate some valentines together. I did my own, which I will not post here because several recipients do read this blog. I will however, highlight my envelopes.

Because I am an upcycle kind of person, I decided to take some old index cards and ripped out Ducati brochure pages to wrap my valentines. I didn't want people to pull out valentines and have to read the insides in order to hand them out. It just was better to have them in envelopes. Thus...here is Christian's for your inspection...

The front of my upcycled envelope

The back featuring a sexy Ducati motorcycle

Kiddo did pretty well with his own valentine decorating.  Through a mixture of crayons (which he chewed on repeatedly), toddler markers, and colored pencils he made a few scribbles here and there, which I augmented through some choice stamping and drawing. Mostly he just explored the media and played with the stamp blocks.

I tried to do handprints and I tried to do finger prints, but Kiddo is independent. I can't place his hands somewhere. I can't convince him to do one thing or the other. He does what he wants. He has ideas and that is what he implements. I don't know how all those pictures of toddler valentines got on the internet. My only guess is either the kids were asleep or heavily sedated. I can't imagine Kiddo doing anything so guided. Better to let his spirit come through in his cards...so scribbles it is.

Happy Valentine scribbles....from Kiddo.

What success have you had making cards with toddlers or preschoolers? Any tips or tricks? Leave a comment below!