a peek inside the fishbowl

08 Feb, 2010

If you’re so inclined, here’s a butterfly Valentine’s Day card idea (and free template too!)

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|File under crafty

So…

I am spending my Sunday evening tapping out this post instead of reading everything there is to know about the big fire at CTV Ottawa.

*fingers in ears NOTHING IS HAPPENING LA LA LA LA*

Anyway, yes, Valentine’s! It’s coming. SOON. And if you’re like me, you like to use this as an opportunity to do something fun and creative with your kids, right? Well, I suggest you start now. Many of us here in Ottawa have a P.D. day on the 12th and Family Day in the 15th, so many classrooms are probably exchanging cards on the 11th.

I poked around the interweb for ideas and really liked the butterfly card designed by Skip to My Lou. (Are you familiar with S.T.M.L? If you like pretty things and like crafts and are feeling creative you will REALLY like this site. Trust me. And wave goodbye to the next 60 minutes.)

I daresay her Valentine’s card design is much nicer than mine (I won’t be offended if you choose her template over mine, really I won’t), but I wanted one that was totally blank so the girls could write their own messages and decorate them their own way.

Here is the finished product:

Valentine's Day butterfly cards

… and here’s how we did it.

1) I made a template in Photoshop. If you’d like to make this card too, simplify your life and use my template. It’s up on Flickr (can someone tell me if you’re able to download and print it? Thanks!).

2) Print it out on cardstock, making as many copies as you need.

3) Buy a box of lollipops. They don’t have to be heart-shaped. These are just the ones I happened to grab at the store.

4) Have the child cut out the shapes, write the Valentine’s day messages and decorate each one. Sarah decided to use pink and red markers to decorate her butterflies with little patterns. She also used some heart-shaped stickers we had on hand. Rubber stamps would work really well for this, as would glitter and paint. It’s up to you!

5) Cut little slits in the butterfly body and poke the lollipop sticks through. Voila! You have wings! (We didn’t do googly eyes like S.T.M.L. but I think our solution still works.)

As you can see, Sarah decided to write her message (it reads: “I’m all a-flutter for you!”) on the white part, inside:

Valentine's Day butterfly cards

… and she did most of the decorating on the outer (pink) side. It’s up to you!

Sarah took an assembly line approach to her cardmaking. She cut them all out, then wrote all the messages, and then did all the decorating. I didn’t do very much at all.

I like how each butterfly is different.

Valentine's Day butterfly cards

Sarah worked really hard on them and is very proud of her efforts. I am too! :)

Let me know if you made these… and how they worked out for you!


7 Responses to "If you’re so inclined, here’s a butterfly Valentine’s Day card idea (and free template too!)"

3 | Christine

February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pm

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Great idea!My daughter and I are making them for sparks!!!!Thanks for the fun craft!

4 | Marianne

February 9th, 2010 at 8:56 pm

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What a beautiful idea, thanks for sharing! I’d love to make these with my grade 2 class this week, if I can find time to get to the store for the lollipops. If not, we might make these for mother’s day instead, as I think they’d also be lovely decorated with messages for their moms.

5 | Dee

February 9th, 2010 at 10:23 pm

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Thanks for the great idea! Yesterday I saw your post on my igoogle (direct feed from you to me…nice!) and because I’m a Brownie Leader in Glebe I decided THIS would be our craft last night! Yes, parents of our Brownies…we sometimes organize their weekly (fabulous, educational and inspiring) nights last minute ;-)

The girls ~loved~ it, even though we wouldn’t let them eat the lollipops until AFTER they decorated the heart-shaped cupcakes they were baking.

Oh yes, we’re very strict :-D

6 | Sue1788

February 10th, 2010 at 1:52 pm

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Great idea! I’m so last minute this year, perhaps we’ll do this idea tonight. if not next year for sure.

Thanks!

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