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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Color your popsicle sticks. I took my black pigment ink sharpie pen and colored a rectangle on the stick.
- Add your message with your white pigment pen. Mine was “Chalk it up to love”. This is the back of the Valentine.
- 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.)
- Flip your stick and at the rounded bottom, color black (optional), and add a small heart and your child’s name.
- On the “front” use a glue stick at the top to one inch down the popsicle stick. Adhere the photo.
- 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.)
- 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.)
- Admire your work.
