Fun with Words Class Valentines

As usual I tend to go overboard {no pun intended...} when it comes to class activities and festivities for both my children. Now that my youngest is in kindergarten I had to do something totally quirky and fun for him to dish out to all this classmates...and what better time to share the love than Valentines Day! My girl had some fun little goodies to hand out too, but she opted for a more complex creation {I must have had sucker written all over my face...the things we do for our kids!}.

I guess it's been a few years now that one of my close friends got me started onto scrap booking, but I evolved into digi-scrapping only because I found the plethora of paper so overwhelming. I hadn't a clue where to begin or what to combine with what. And I must admit, I am a computer geek (of sorts) as I thoroughly enjoy mucking around with my photo editing program creating paper stuff.

{Enter Paper word art valentines tags for Ethan and adapted mini milk cartons for Avery}.

 My love of hybrid digital scrap crafts led me on a search one day with a score of one particular site that had oodles of templates for personal use. Why, thank-you...don't mind if I do. So, with template in hand and some Pinterest searching on valentines and up came an idea.  Goldfish cracker give aways.  Then my mind went into overdrive and I started designing play on word valentines that could be attached as a tag to an assortment of candies.  So many to choose from, so little time! There's always next year {and I'll be armed and ready to share with you in advance so you've got time to get crafty and amaze your valentines!} I may put the designs up for sale on Etsy yet...time will tell! Or better yet, would you like a FREE sample?

Back to the Goldfish, my end result an altered project inspired by this original from Tammy Mitchell Photography. {Little did I know at the time I could just print out her tags... I could doctor up the words using an assortment of fonts and colours and stick in some graphics to yield Avery's personalized, OOAK valentines!  Here we go screen time and dead computer batteries!

 Design..Print..Cut...

Score... and score some more...

Assemble...

Weigh...

Wrap & Stuff, seal shut.

 It seemed like a good idea at the time..thank heavens I quit my day job because I spent the better half of a day to get these babies all finished.!  I hope the class size is smaller next year because making 24 of these turned "this will be fun" into "am I done yet?". Wait! The light...it's dimming, oh no it's not - that's the sun setting and OMG I've been working on these for the last 4 HOURS!  12 sheets of 12 x 12 white linen scrapbook card stock (scaled down to 12" x 8.5" to fit the printer) 2 bags of Xtreme Cheddar Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, sukwang tape, some printer ink and a tweaked custom mini milk carton and VOILA! 

Hope I've inspired you to get crafty (or just confirm my madness) as to what the heck was she thinking...
it's o-fish-al, she really is nuts.

Move over Sis! Here comes your little brother and he has something Wheelie special for his friends too. See where I am going with this...  Thankfully my little guy opted for the less obtrusive valentine! YEAH! Relief!  Talk about being frugal I was able to use up the scrap strips of paper that were trimmed from the 12 x 12 sheets to print out Ethan's tags. Store bought valentines are okay, but I wanted to stay away from the main stream commercially mass produced ones because everyone would be handing them out and let's face it...I never do anything the easy way.  Ever.   After surfing a little I stumbled upon yet another play on words..."wheelie" being the operative word.  I could totally envision my son handing out his goodies, busting at the seam with excitement telling his friends one by one what they say... {or at least I hoped this is how it would go down, what I don't know won't hurt me... I will continue to live in la-la-land for happiness sake.}

2 Choices... one for the gals and one for the boys - tied with some bakers twine in valentine themed colours  around a peanut free snack...WAGON WHEELS.  The original play on words was geared towards toy cars {there I go again...geared...cars... Shiesh! When will the madness end}.

In a nutshell {minus the nut! HA! I kill me...I got lots of sleep last night, promise!} I was able to sum this one up in one easy step by step pictorial how-to.

What you'll need:

• wagon wheel cookies
• bakers twine
• tape
• scissors
• hole punch
• valentine tags (homemade or use mine)

Enjoy! Happy Valentine's Day!