Ah, school Valentines...
Hands up if you're still scrambling to get goodies sorted out for your kids to hand out to their classmates!
Don't worry - I am totally there with you! I'm also here to help with a super simple DIY that's sure to be a hit with the kids.
This year for Valentine's Day Lola and Mathilde were keen to make the strawberry heart meringues that we made last year (you can find the recipe here). Lola will be making them later this week for her class, but unfortunately Mathilde's class was required to bring in their Valentine's goodies today. That meant that I had to come up with a non-perishable option for her to hand out instead.
While ordering Chupa Chups lollipops on Amazon for Ava's recent birthday party something caught my eye. It was a treat that I loved as a kid and hadn't seen in an awfully long time. Melody Pops! Do you remember those? The lollipops that double as a whistle and actually change notes when you move the stick. As soon as I saw them I knew that they'd be perfect for class Valentines and my head started filling with ideas for cheesy card text - because a Valentine's gift isn't a Valentine's gift without a cheesy card attached, right?
Anyway, I ordered those suckers (pun totally intended!), made up a simple backing card with a cheesy Valentines caption, Mathilde wrote "Love Mathilde" on each and every card, and I stuck everything together. Voila! Valentines sorted!
Here's what you'll need (with shoppable links):
Melody Pops lollipops
White Card Stock
Cutting Knife,
Ruler &
Cutting Mat or a
Paper Trimmer
Adhesive Dots
Baker's Twine
Darning Needle
I use these supplies for so many different crafting purposes so they're not just a one off purchase. You'll be able to use them all for a lot of different activities. They're all great basics in a crafting kit.
You'll also need the template for the backing card which you can download
here.
Print the backing cards on card stock and cut them out with either a paper trimmer or a cutting knife and ruler. If you do a lot of cutting I highly recommend investing in a paper trimmer or guillotine. It saves so much time.
I made sure to leave space at the bottom of the design for kids to write a small message, so get your kids involved personalizing each card. Trust me, they'll complain, but they've got to do something, right?
Take an adhesive dot and stick it to the back of a Melody Pop, then place the Melody Pop down onto a card. The adhesive dots hold pretty well, but I decided to add a little extra reinforcement (and an extra detail) by also tying the Melody Pop stick to the card. There are always random candies sitting loose at the bottom of the Valentine's box each year so we want to avoid that happening.
To tie the Melody Pop stick to the card, thread the needle with the twine, poke it through the front of the card along side the stick and then back through the card on the otherside of the stick. Cut the thread about 1.5" on each length and tie a bow.
Now repeat this 30 times (or however many kids you need to make them for) and you're done!
See that rainbow below? That's Mathilde's Valentine's Day box. Isn't it cute? This was our first year making Valentine's Day boxes and I had a lot of fun being creative with the kids (Lola made one the same). I'll be sharing the DIY soon. Spoiler alert, it's pretty much exactly the same as my pinata DIYs!
Let me know if you make these simple Valentines. I'd love to hear!
