It is February and you know what that means: Valentine's Day.  To me, Valentine's Day is a family holiday.  My hubby and I exchange fun little gifts (no jewelry here) and get the kids something small.  We use it as an excuse to buy ridiculously expensive desserts from our favorite bakery, Zov's in Tustin, and often consume a delicious sushi dinner.

As a yearly room mom, Valentine's Day also means class parties and creating cute Valentine's for my kiddos to exchange.  While I know that 2nd graders may not fully appreciate what goes into a home-made Valentine,my kids and I still enjoy putting in the extra effort.  My kids enjoy making theirs more than that would just writing their names on store bought cards.  To them,  store bought cards are a chore.  They don't want to do them.  BUT, turn it into an art project and they are all in!

This year, as part of my Valentine mini sessions, I am providing my clients with 32 wallet sized photos.  They come in sheets of 8 so they can choose up to four photos to use.  These wallets can then be used to make personalized Valentines.  After talking with a few of my clients I decided it might be helpful to provide some kind of tutorial on how to make these cute Valentine's so that everyone can do it!  My advice is to get everything cut and ready to go BEFORE you bring the kids in.  It makes the process so much easier.  

So here we go!

SUPPLIES:

Wallet Size Photos
Paper cutter (these make life so much easier)
Scissors
Card Stock/Construction Paper/Valentine Paper (Michaels and Hobby Lobby have a ton)
Stickers
Ribbon/Twine/Raffia
Double Sided Tape
Clear Treat Bags (mine are 4" x 2" x 9.5")
Candy

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut card stock a little bit wider and longer than your photos.  You can either make your cards flat or folded so take that into consideration before cutting your paper.  You want a bit of a border around your photo.  *Be sure to make it small enough to fit in the bag!  Cut as many as you need for your children.  You can use any paper you want, the sky is the limit!  If you want to get super fancy you can double back your photos meaning you have two pieces of cut paper, varying sizes so your photo is backed and then that backing is backed.  Make sense?

2. Using double sided tape, adhere the photo to the paper.

3. If your paper is dark and you need a lighter space to write on (on the inside or on the back) you can add a piece of white paper.

4. Enhance your card with stickers, ribbon, mini clothespins, etc.  Charlie likes to draw pictures on the inside of his.  We cut out little hearts and tied them to Claire's with twine.

5. Once your card is done put it in a clear back along with some candy and tie it with a cute ribbon. Voila!  You are done!  

If you follow my tutorial I'd LOVE to see what your kids come up with!  Please post them to my Short & Sweet Facebook page!  

Of course I have photos to go along with these instructions and this time I even have a couple of videos for you! Check them out!

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Here are the videos.  Sorry they are a bit dark.  I am a photographer, not a videographer!  ;)