Valentine's Day Cards
Last night I made Valentine's cards with Max for his class party. It's been a long time since he's done any crafty activity with me. Warriors aren't much into paper and glue, so it was a real treat. I didn't come up with this brilliant card idea, it's my version of this Valentine Card. "Made" is one of the blogs I read for work and it's full of really great craft tutorials and ideas. 
Max and I both wished we had printer ink so we could have printed these up from her pdf file because the design is so great. We had to ad lib instead. I had a bunch of vintage die-cut reprints of Valentine boys and girls and also a bunch of cute dogs and cats, so we used those.
Max did all the gluing and printing out his classmate's names by hand. I realized that since we didn't start making these the previous week there was no way Max, who writes very slowly, would be able to also write out "From Max" by hand so I used my letter stamps and made a stamp instead.
Inside each heart is a butterscotch hard candy and a Jolly Rancher. I bought a small stack of stock paper intending to use pink and cream but gave Max the choice and he chose blue and green. I couldn't decide if I wanted a straight stitch or zig zag so I let Max decide and you can see what he chose.
It took three hours to make these. At least. We made 27 of them. But because Max writes and glues slowly it was all time we got to talk about cats and dogs, kids, guns, video games, friends, favorite colors, and how nearly everyone in his class has got their very own special spellings of their names and we both agreed that it would be stupid to spell Max "Maxe" or "Maxx".
It took three hours to make these. At least. We made 27 of them. But because Max writes and glues slowly it was all time we got to talk about cats and dogs, kids, guns, video games, friends, favorite colors, and how nearly everyone in his class has got their very own special spellings of their names and we both agreed that it would be stupid to spell Max "Maxe" or "Maxx".
Comments (6)
So good.
Posted by Blaize | February 12, 2010 7:57 PM
Posted on February 12, 2010 19:57
Awesome!
Posted by Anonymous | February 12, 2010 10:59 PM
Posted on February 12, 2010 22:59
Those are so cute...how did they go over in the class? Candy is always the best at that age. I helped Kirsten make some last year with lollipops. Something I found on a blog of course I can't remember who's it was. They were cute and she had fun. She loves to craft and just about dives me crazy always wanting to make something when she comes. This morning she and her cousin are making kites. Later she is going in the shop with Papa to make a shelf and he is coming upstairs to make a quilt for his puppy. I don't know what we will do with Gracie while we are all occupied. So glad you got some one on one time with Max. I sure hope he enjoyed it and might just want to to do some more with you...craftimg that is.
Robin
Posted by Robin | February 13, 2010 11:21 AM
Posted on February 13, 2010 11:21
My son and I made his Valentine's cards when he was 8 or so. Not as fancy as yours. My son was never the artsy/crafty type either and it was difficult to cajole him into making cards. Plus hardly anyone did homemade 20 years so it did mark him as being odd.
However, like you and Max, the real joy was in the conversations we had while working on a project together. Twenty years from now I bet Max doesn't remember anyone in his class or even the cards--but I bet he will remember that you guys did things together and talked.
Those are the precious moments.
Posted by mss @ Zanthan Gardens | February 15, 2010 9:15 AM
Posted on February 15, 2010 09:15
Those are really great cards! If only I can remember this a year from now - ha.
Posted by Jennifer Chowz Creations | February 17, 2010 6:17 PM
Posted on February 17, 2010 18:17
okay so yours are so much lovelier than the version I saw of this, which stapled the edges together. Was it the Make version? It say- "go ahead-break my heart" which was cute but you know I love the vintage valentines. I hope his classmates apreciated them.
Posted by Sharon | February 20, 2010 7:25 PM
Posted on February 20, 2010 19:25