Valentines Day Preparations

This idea has been floating all over Pinterest so when I heard that Sammy's preschool class was going to exchange valentines tomorrow, I decided to give it a try!

The finished valentine

They requested that we just write "to my friend" to make it easier to pass them out.  It saved me time and I can't imagine the poor teacher trying to sort out the 256 valentines in a class of 16 preschoolers who can't read the names so that was a great idea all around!

The original photo

I had him hold a pencil for the picture, and then I used Photoshop to remove the pencil and do the rest of the text and layout...

Then I used an X-Acto knife to cut slits on the top and bottom of his fists to slip the sucker in, and used a little piece of clear tape on the back to secure it.

I realize of course that not everybody's mom is a designer with Photoshop.  So here's another way you could do it.  Take a photo with your digital or film camera.  Pick the best one and have a bunch of prints done at your local Walgreens, Target, etc...enough for all your valentines.  Use a knife and slit the photos just like I did...you can write on the backs, and even put some Valentine's stickers on the front!

I've really been enjoying having a mantel to decorate since moving here a year ago!  Here's our mantel this year for Valentines.  The mini picture frames have each of our faces in them, and I use them as place cards when I set the table for Valentine's day.  The tall glass candle holders I just picked up at Goodwill a few weeks ago.

I wanted some sort of Valentine's wreathe to hang in the house and I had a wire wreath frame that I picked up at a thrift store a while back.  I was excited to find a big bag stuffed with flowers for just $3 in a clearance bin at Michaels:

...I cut the stems shorter with a wire cutter and wrapped them around the frame, filling in the top with some ribbon from my scrap ribbon bin.  Here's how it turned out in the end:

Not too bad.  I'd love to try making a wreathe of felt flowers one of these days.

Today I'm busy with my boys baking sugar cookies, cupcakes, and meringue kisses in preparation for tomorrow's Valentine's day dinner!  More photos to come!