Valentine’s Day Card Boxes for School

It is that time of year again to receive candy from others… no, not Halloween… not Easter… we do seem to have a lot of these…  it is Valentine’s Day!  Which comes with the annual card exchange at Elaina and Gabriella’s schools.  Elaina had to make a box at home to receive all her cards, and while none of us are particularly amazing at arts & crafts, we managed to get our projects completed on time and in style.

About two weeks before Valentine’s Day, Elaina got the note in her daily school folder that gave us the task of creating her a Valentine’s Day card box.  Which meant a trip to Hobby Lobby, which is quickly becoming my go-to store for every one of the girls’ activities (but please do not tell my boss, my colleagues, or my fellow miniature wargamers).  There we picked up photo boxes, (purple) children’s glue, and plenty of sheets of colored paper, some with heart and unicorn designs.  Even though Gabriella did not need one for her school, there was no way that she was going to be left out of the fun (we also got a photo box for Elaina’s best friend Elora, as she was coming over for a playdate on the day we were making them).

After I prepped the boxes by cutting out the tops, the girls wasted no time decorating them.

Gabriella went with the minimalist approach, only gluing a few large hearts onto her card box before following up with some of the red and pink heart stickers.  Maybe she just got bored, but quickly handed the project off for me to complete.

Elaina, on the other hand, put Dad the Factory to work cutting out hearts of all sizes and colors.  While I was doing that, she wrote her name in beautiful script atop her card box (with a possible backwards “N” to boot; still working on that).

She also began cutting out hearts on her own, because two hearts (at a time) are better than one.

Glue them to the outside.  Glue them to the inside.  Repeat.  Again and again.

The girls had a great time creating their Valentine’s Day card boxes and there was only a slight mess to clean up… so it was a win for everyone!

That night, Elaina started working on writing her classmate’s names on their cards/candies.  And just never stopped.  The school note recommended that your child complete three to five a night, so as to not get overwhelmed, but Elaina just plowed on through.

After about an hour, Elaina finished with her cards.  She was happy to be able to stay up late with Dad and I was happy that she completed it without complaint (she actually had fun)… win-win!  Just wait until you start writing Christmas cards, Kid.

We had a great time making the Valentine’s Day card boxes and we all look forward to our next themed art project.  After seeing some of the boxes that came in to Elaina’s school that day (a three-tiered, color-coordinated, perfectly symmetrical card box… sure your child did that), it made me feel even better that we did our project together.  While it may have not been the best in the class, we definitely met the intent of the project by working on the card box together.  Now time for us to get their far-too-much-green Saint Patrick’s Day outfits together!

Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!