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Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Bulk Valentines

After last year's ill-advised adventure in elaborate preschool Valentines made weeks in advance (and the heartbreak that ensued when we found out that the class Valentines were not to be addressed to individual students, nor were they to contain any sweets), this year we made it easy on ourselves and did our anonymous cards assembly-line style.

I taped two sheets of 9-by-12-inch watercolor paper down on the table in front of the kid, and masked off six rectangles on each with tape, plus a border all around the edges. She just painted over the whole thing every which way (I painted some too), let it dry, then peeled off the tape and I cut them up into cards. Then I taped together some rubber letter stamps spelling out "THALI" and had her stamp each of them one night before bedtime; we untaped and added the final "A" at the end. Done.

She can write her name, of course, but I weighed the benefits to her of practicing her handwriting on twenty-eight cards against the possibility that it would make her mom go absolutely mad, and so she stamped.

8 comments:

tara k said...

absolutely beautiful-LOVE!
{i might need one of those...} xo,tk

Heidi said...

Top on my list of things to do today is get a plan for homemade valentines. This is a lovely idea and we have all the supplies too! Thank you!

Denise | Chez Danisse said...

What a great idea. They look perfect.

Anonymous said...

This is just the perfect thing! Thank you so much for the idea. Now to go and actually give my toddler complete control of a paint brush. She's going to freak.

Unknown said...

So cute! And such a smart smart mommy -- we have had several instances of tears in years past because Aidan insists on making his own valentines (good) but was done focus-wise making them before we had even finished half the enormous class list (not good). Nice job!

cakes and crepes said...

So cute!!!

blake said...

woah, I came to your blog to soak up more canning awesomeness (really, really love the book) -- and these valentines are compelling me to make my first comment! huh. such a fantastic idea, which I will be stealing when my boy is of card-giving age :)

CorieA said...

Indeed, love makes the world go round. Valentines day is the best. But with this post, valentines can be everyday.