As a kid, Valentine’s Day was one of my favorite holidays at school. I LOVED all of the Valentine cards that we got. I loved getting my own box of cards and carefully selecting which card needed to go to which classmate. it was always so much fun to go around the classroom and fill everyone’s “mailboxes” and then go home and dump everything out and enjoy all of my new treasures.
A few years ago, I was feeling nostalgic and I volunteered to run the Valentine fundraiser at my daughter’s elementary school. The smart moms outsourced and got help from several different moms, but in typical fashion - I thought, “no big deal - I can do this.” I spent 2 weeks making labels for emoji pins, pencil toppers, candy bags, sucker valentines and….slime. Well, truthfully - the kid made the slime and I made the slime covers. It was QUITE the production. Here are the labels that I created:
The kids went NUTS over the slime. Slime was at its peak rage during this time, and we did wind up outsourcing the slime production to some of my daughter’s friends as she was burnt out. In all, I think we wound up going through 6 or 7 of those giant glue jugs and I’m sure I had lots of parents cursing me, but we raised money for the school and the kids loved it, so that’s what matters, right? Right!
Here are the final products:
I’ve hung my Valentine’s Day fundraising paintbrush up, but I still love Valentine’s Day. For me, it’s not about big extravagant gifts - it’s about the small, simple ways that we can recognize the ones we love. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always delighted to receive flowers and a card, but I like being around my family and just being together. I always try to make a fun dinner for my family that night. Last year, we all ate by candlelight, which was a lot of fun and something I’ll probably replicate this year.
Even though I’ve long ago abandoned the boxed character cards of my youth, I still love making cards – especially ones that allow you to send a sweet note of love to your someone special. If you are looking for some ideas to celebrate the ones you love, check out these ideas. Whether you’re shopping for your significant other, your mom, kids or even your besties – these ideas can work for almost anyone.
Click on the image and you can go directly to the shop to browse these items and lots of other ideas. What are some of your Valentine’s Day traditions? I’d love to hear all about them in the comments below!