The first set of Valentine’s I did for my youngest was super simple: a hershey kiss and a store-bought, classroom Valentine.  Shortly after being so proud of my efficient simplicity, I was informed that she would need another set.  Valentine’s Day evening at at her Cubbies meeting (AWANA) they would also exchange Valentine’s.  So I figured I’d take a quick picture of her, print it as a wallet and staple a bag of sweetheart’s to it.  Yes, I had been inspired by Pinterest, but I crave simplicty too.  But  I had my wallets and I had my new heart punch.  And they weren’t connecting like I had hoped they would.  As I whittled through my ideas, and kept feeling like something was missing, I popped over to Michael’s– at 8:15pm on Feb. 13th– a good time for no things Valentine remaining.  I really hadn’t procrastinated, technically.  I had taken the picture and had all the wallets– but I had this idea when I saw the chalk on her hands and the XOXO was jumping out at me hoping to spark my creativity…

“CHALK IT UP TO LOVE” VALENTINE CRAFT:

Original image, made into wallets

Finished Chalk Valentine

Front of Valentines

Back of Valentines with John 3:16

Supplies:  Wallet-Sized Photos, Black Sharpie PAINT pen, White pigment pen (mine is from Paper Source), non-toxic colored chalk (Crayola was great), medium-sized wooden/popsicle sticks, glue stick, scotch tape, and a heart sticker.

1. Take photo of your child.  I added a cute hat with a knit heart on it, and then grabbed a piece of chalk and added “XOXO.”  You can be creative here with whatever you want your message to be.
2. I printed the photos as a batch of wallets.  This is the most cost-effective way to print.  I have my lab I use– and did–  but places like Costco, Mpix, and your own printer can work just fine.
3. Color your popsicle sticks.  I took my black pigment ink sharpie pen and colored a rectangle on the stick.
4. Add your message with your white pigment pen.  Mine was “Chalk it up to love”.  This is the back of the Valentine.
5. I added “Jn 3:16” inside a heart just below my message.  I used pink and red paint pens for the heart, and a standard writing pen for the verse quotation.  (Yes, there are other verses, and sayings you can do.)
6. Flip your stick and at the rounded bottom, color black (optional), and add a small heart and your child’s name.
7. On the “front” use a glue stick at the top to one inch down the popsicle stick.  Adhere the photo.
8. Turn the Valentine over and add your heart sticker so that it is on both the stick and the photo.  (My heart stickers were the foam ones, but there are a lot of options if you shop earlier than I did.  Just make sure the size works for both the stick and to help secure your photo.)
9. Turn the Valentine back over and now add your chalk.  Align chalk and use a 1″ piece of scotch tape to fasten chalk around the popsicle stick.  (I placed mine towards the top of the chalk, close to the photo.)
10. Admire your work.