Works For Me: Homemade Valentines

I have three school-aged children, each with roughly 25 kids in their class.  Add to that the 15 kids in my daughter's preschool class, and that's a lot of valentines to prepare. 

Since I have so much extra time these days, I thought I'd personally crochet 90 little Valentine-themed afghans and bake 90 boxes of homemade, perfectly-iced cookies. 

Oh, I hope you know how I jest.

This is an especially busy few weeks for our family, and I didn't feel like over-seeing the signing of 90 store-bought cards.  Instead, this year I created Valentines on the computer, and I printed them out on cardstock.  The boys are cutting them out, taping a dollar-store pencil to the back of each one (12 pencils for $1!  Score!), and we are DONE.  And nobody had to mass-sign anything.  They turned out really cute, too.  The boys' cards all look the same (except for the name, of course):

For some extra girly fun, I even tied a ribbon on Corrie's:

(And no, I don't normally organize my kids' valentines two weeks early.  I'll be out of town the country the hemisphere during the school valentine parties, and while my husband is a wonderful, hands-on father, he draws the line at valentines.)

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Comments

[Daiquiri]

Love your Valentines! Great idea - I think I'll try it this year :)

[MamaGeek]

Those ideas are fantastic!

[Michelle at Scribbit]

I'm going for the Valentine's ideas too.

[Chrissy at ToddleBits]

Mine are still too young for Valentine's goodies, but the idea is fantastic and one that I hope I will remember for when the time comes.

[Vicky]

What, no half-used erasers attached to the valentines? How will their friends know they are really loved?!

You shouldn't have explained why you were making Valentines two weeks early. I was thinking, "wow. she really has it all together. what an amazingly organized mom." Apparently, I didn't connect the whole "will be outrunning lions" trip being gone over Valentine's day.

[Heidi]

With tons of pencils in our house I think I will run this by my kid too! We love doing arts in our house. A really good get together and spend time. Thanks! And double thanks for putting WFMW up early! teehee

[Brenda]

This is a cool idea! :)

[Leah]

Great job! We've created Valentines on the computer for the last two years.... much easier - and I only have 2 kids going to school!

[Mama Duck]

Those are so cute!! Great idea ;).

[All Adither]

Am wishing I had a good color printer. You're a smart lady.

[Stretch Mark Mama]

Now that I was finally getting past the spelling bee memories, you bring up Valentine's Day At School. Oh, the pain! Johnny loves me! Jeremy doesn't! He thinks I'm "nice!"

[Susan]

We're still working on boxes of cards I bought on clearance at 75% off oh, 2 years ago or so. Teachers here strongly suggest that they are handwritten to give the children practice. A few of my children are unhappy with the lengthy names they were given and my dislike of nicknames. Sorry, Johnjacobjingleheimerscmidt, only 25 more to go :)

[Christine]

Oh, geeze...I messed up and left a long (parenthetical) before I edited. Should I relist? I am really sorry!

[Jasmine31]

Cute cards!

[Nadine]

My kids are at home for school, thank goodness (though in truth, they're both too old for the "mass Valentine giveaway" anyway). Great idea for yours, but WHY on earth you didn't do the afghans, I just don't understand! ;)

[Kelly]

Oh, I can't even fathom doing valentines! Way to go. On another note, my tip says envelopes for lists, but it's not, it's clumpless mascara! Any idea on how to change this?

[MomOnTheGo]

My daughter is only 3 and so the Valentines are mostly Mom work - what I do and what I clean up from what she does but it's fun. There are only 15 other kids in her daycare class and I'm planning to have her help me glue pics of her with a hear to paper doilies and then I'll write a message and her name. I bet she'll be begging me for the computer printed ones soon enough. I seem to remember preferring store-bought cookies over the ones my mom made ;+)

[Julie]

Brilliant idea! I think I will do that this year also. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Alana]

How creative! My kids aren't at the age yet for exchanging Valentine Day Cards, but I am going to keep this idea tucked away. Thank you.

[Nicole @ Life in Progress]

This is my first year for Valentine's so I've been on the lookout for cute ideas. I think this will work perfectly for us. Thanks!

[Dawn @ Baby Addiction]

This is baby's first valentine's day, so we'll do this for his friends at daycare. He is part of a class of ALL boys, so we'll have to find something age and gender appropriate that is CHEAP to go with his cards. Maybe chocolate for the Mommies wouldn't be a bad idea??? Thanks for the tip!

[Mrs. Nicklebee]

Good idea! Individually signed is nice but not always practical during busy times.

[Amy]

I hadn't thought of doing Valentine's on the computer. Usually I buy Valentine's on clearance after Valentine's Day is done for the next year.

[Amy]

P.S. Great idea, though... :)

[ames]

I don't think I ever received a pencil for Valentine's day, but it makes total sense when you're handing them out to all your schoolmates! Who doesn't need a pencil? Great idea!

[Stephanie]

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing. My Princess is still kinda young, but I will keep it in mind for later.

[Katie in Ohio]

This is my first year to experience Valentines... Thanks for the tip!

[Shelley Hale]

Thanks for the great idea! I need to get busy on those so it is not so overwhelming having to do it for three kids :)

[Queen B]

Great idea! We are SO doing that!!

[LeeAnn]

I especially love the pencil idea- the last thing my kids need is more candy!

Too cute!

[Teresa]

Great idea! I'll def. remember this when my son is school-aged.

[Busy Mums]

Wow what a great idea.

[Jennifer in OR]

Very cute!! My kids would have a great time designing their own on the computer, too, if I can figure out how to do this!

[Jen Madsen]

Awesome and easy. Sounds perfect for me!

[suzzcq70]

I did the same thing last year . . . great minds think alike!
b

[Girlymom]

These are a really cute idea, I already have the assembly line of kids signing their autographs for this year, but I will have to remember that for next year.

[At Thy Word]

Thanks for the valentine help! :-D

[Karen @ Simply A Musing Blgo]

that is such a cute idea. I might do that for my kid's church friends, since they are homeschooled. ;)

[Pieces]

Shannon, that's a great idea! I agree that supervising all the signing is a drag. Good job finding a solution.

[warillever]

This is the first time in a while I posted a wfmw.

We have store-bought (but still artsy) valentines this year b/c my B.I.L. gave them as a Christmas gift. Odd, but thoughtful.

[CC]

fun fun!

[Proverbs31]

I love that idea!! It's better than giving candy, and I like giving pencils anyway because they're useful too. :)

[MacKenzie]

I don't have kids yet, but I always liked to do cute valentines with my little brother. Homemade ones are so much more thoughtful and cute than Sponge bob or My little pony.

[Susana]

Great carnival!

Have fun being out of the country!!

[Betsy]

It's my first time! Hope it all posts...

Love your blog - I've mostly been a lurker, so I'm stepping out!!

[Pinkaholic Mom]

This is my first time participating too. I hope I did everything right.

Valentine's Day already? Wasn't it just Christmas not too long ago? I guess I'd better get on the ball with Valentine's for both of my boys. Thanks for the great tip!

[Ann]

I've found a lot of very useful ideas today! Wish I had time to read each one!

[mykidsmom]

Great idea! Think I'll be a copycat on this one. Thanks!

[Gina]

What a darling Valentine idea! I love how you tied the lollipop to it. I'm sure the kids will love making them and giving them out! Great Job!

[Betsy Bird]

I miss Valentine's!!! My boys are 14 and 17,and if they gave them out at school now, we'd have to move for the shame of it.

[Jen]

What a great idea, and the older ones can even personalize on the computer if they want. So much better than those cheaply made, but highly expensive ones from the store!

[BLMOM]

Oh, love that easy valentine idea! Thank you !

[Amy]

Yikes! I had forgotten about the whole class valentine thing. Thankfully, my kids are a few years away from that nonsense. Yup, I'm a party pooper. Kudos to you for the effort on behalf of your lucky kiddos though.

[Amanda]

:( It's only 10:00pm my time on Wednesday and I pondered all day long on what I was going to share so I finally get my crying baby to sleep, and FINALLY get to sit at my computer and I post my post on my blog and come over here to put it on Mr. Linky and I read that Mr. Linky is CLOSED? And I have to wait until next week??? I'm kinda devastated here. LOL I look forward to WFMW and I hope that you change it to allow people on the West Coast to be able to post until 11:59pm PST.

[Autumn Dahlia]

That is SUCH a good idea. We have a hard time with the writing over, and over, and over, and over.... this will be a great change of pace!

[ttlyeightmom]

try 6 kids..thats 6 times 30=gulp..alot of valetines!

[Rivster]

First of all, I seriously almost slit my mommy-wrist before realizing that you were in fact kidding about the afghans. It made me feel like the worst mom in the world.

D-e-e-p b-r-e-a-t-h!

Next, I LOVE this idea!!! My two little ones are still at a Jewish preschool so I've only one kid's class to worry about this year. But getting him to write the names is like pulling teeth! So I think I'll give this one a try this year.

Thanks so much!!

[Milk in the Closet]

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your giveaway idea. I love the contests, of course, but as a new blogger, it's been a fun way to see what others are doing. I've seen lots of ideas of things I want to do on my blog!

Hope you and your family have a great day!

[Missy @ It's Almost Naptime]

You are a brilliant, brilliant woman.