Custom Valentines on Etsy

I have had so much fun creating valentines for my kids’ elementary school Valentine’s Day parties. Every year I expect them to ask for cartoon-branded, big box store valentines and every year they surprise me by wanting something custom-made by their mom.

I have made three of these valentines available for purchase in my Etsy shop. See below for instructions on how to order. This post contains a few affiliate links. Shopping through these links earns me a few cents and it’s greatly appreciated to keep my little business running.

Airplane-themed valentines! These are about 8x2.5 inches after they’ve been folded in half. They are designed to be stapled to snack-size baggies filled with valentine treats. You can consider sending non-candy, non-food, and allergen-free valentines to school and order foam airplane kits like pictured. You can order them from Amazon here. Just staple to the top of the poly bags. These were a HUGE hit in my kids’ classes last year. I add their salutation to the back written in “clouds”.

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Expo Marker Valentines! These were our valentines for 2021. We opted to go non-edible again and gave each classmate a dry erase marker; which was a hot commodity that school year. For their teachers, they got a Ziplock back with 6 Expo markers and 4 Sharpies. The cards are set up 4 to a page and there is enough space to adhere a thick or thin dry erase marker to the card with double-stick tape or washi tape. Choose from four different color schemes. You can buy dry erase markers from Amazon or your local Costco or Sam’s Club.

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Fishing Themed Valentines! These were so much fun to create. My boys love fishing; my oldest especially. So it was only fitting to opt for a fishing-themed valentine. These are approximately 8x2.5 inches when folded in half. I turn your child into a fishing cartoon and after these are trimmed and folded in half, they can easily be stapled to a snack-size Ziplock bag. You can go sandwich-size if you’d like. Fill these with Goldfish crackers, Swedish fish, or maybe gummy worms.

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When I create new valentines, I’ll try to add them to my shop if they’re worth it. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine's Day 2021

We’re still dealing with a pandemic and I fully expected our kids’ teachers to send emails asking us not to send valentines to school next week. Our 1st grade teacher actually did, and then rescinded and laid out plans to have us send valentines to school ahead of time and kids will do lots of hand-washing before valentines are exchanged.

My 5th grader informed me that this will be his LAST year exchanging valentines at school because in 6th grade, middle schoolers don’t do valentines anymore (insert eyeroll).

Since we spent the first half of the school year attending school virtually, it became apparent how valuable dry erase makers are in our classrooms. Dry erase markers are used every day in both my kids’ classes to reduce the amount of paper used and hopefully reduce the number of high-touch spaces. Caps get lost and markers dry out, they are played with, and our teachers end up going through Expo markers like water.

We wanted to do another year of candy-free and non-edible valentines, so it was fitting for us to give Expo markers this year and we brainstormed a bunch of fun, punny sayings to put on them.

To save time, instead of drawing my kids’ faces, I created cartoons using a free Photoshop Action Set. The drawings we used on last year’s valentines are now more than two years old and my kids’ hairstyles have changed a lot, it was time for something new.

Expo markers came in packs of 18 at Sam’s Club, so I bought four packs and bagged up the extras into Ziplock bags for both teachers with their own cards.

Supplies & Cost Breakdown:

• 4 packs of 18 Expo Markers - $54.96 @ Sam’s Club. I think they were cheaper at Costco, but my local store was out.

• 1 roll double-sided tape (I considered picking up washi tape, but decided to save a few bucks)

• 15 sheets of card stock

• paper cutter

• computer and printer - I used the free Toon Artist Photoshop Action from Adobe to turn my kids into cartoons. Then I created the heart pattern, added text, and put it all together in Illustrator.

I already had all of the supplies listed except for the markers, so the cost came out to $.94 per valentine. It probably would’ve been cheaper if my Costco had these markers in stock, online lists them at 18 for $10.99. A pack of 36 markers is currently $21.27 on Amazon, or a box of 12 for $7.95, but I didn’t want to wait for shipping. I probably used a few bucks in printer ink, but I use HP’s Instant Ink program, so I have no idea how much that ended up being.

These were definitely more than I would have liked to spend on valentines, but they turned out cute and heck, next year we’ll only be making them for ONE class.

And in true reMARKably average parenting fashion, these were done a full week early because I got my weeks mixed up and thought their Valentine’s Day parties were THIS Thursday instead of next Thursday. In the end, I didn’t really need to save time and I could’ve ordered Expo markers from Amazon. I’m going to bed now.

Thankfulness and Quarantine

We hit the 6 week mark since our schools closed and they will remain closed through the rest of the school year. This makes me sad because my boys have really awesome teachers this year and this was the first school year where I was actually able to volunteer more in their classes. But I understand and I’m not complaining, just sad. I can only hope that the hot summer climate and folks continuing to maintain social distance will allow us to go back to school in August and not have to start a new school year virtually.

I know that we are tremendously lucky in that my husband still has a job and I am able to continue to do freelance work from home. I’m grateful that I am able to be home to help my kids figure out online schooling and that I never got rid of my old MacBookPro, so both of my kids can have their own designated school space. I’m grateful for Google Classroom and for our amazing teachers and how they have moved curriculum online almost seamlessly.

I’m thankful that I don’t typically struggle with anxiety when the world isn’t dealing with a pandemic, but I have am definitely having my moments with what’s going on in the world. I have a harder time falling asleep at night and when I do, I dream of things happening to me and my family that I cannot control. I dream of swimming in a lake only to have it suddenly turn into an ocean and waves are coming over my head. I dream of hiking in the mountains and rocks are falling from above us or winds are threatening to blow my kids off the trails. Why is it that in my dreams, it’s Mother Nature who’s out to get us??

Local fishing pond. It hasn’t yet been stocked this spring, so it’s been nearly empty!

We are chugging along, figuring out a new sense of normalcy in this utterly unique time we’re experiencing. Yes, there have been pandemics in the past, but this is the first in this day of instant access to news and social media. I think sometimes it’s a tremendous help. Other times it’s a hinderance. I have had to make a point to stay off of Facebook more than a few days these past weeks just to give my mind and stress levels time to settle.

Here are a few more things I’m thankful for:

· Bicycles - My 6yo got a mountain bike for his birthday so now we can do bikes rides together. We’ve been exploring paved bike paths and trails and getting some exercise that doesn’t involve whining from my kids.

· Watercolors - I’m not sure why, but I’ve been so much more inspired to paint these last couple of months. And thanks to technology, a clip to hold my iPhone, and my son’s encouragement to create a YouTube channel, I have done a couple of time lapse videos of new paintings. I have more in the works (in my head), so stay tuned! I want to make a bunch of picturesque spots on Utah’s BLM and public lands, so that’s been my current research.

· Virtual Taekwondo Classes - We’ve been a taekwondo family for years. My oldest started when he was three (he’s now ten) and my youngest started just a couple months shy of his 2nd birthday. Then I started taking adult classes about two years ago. Martial arts have been amazing for my kids when it comes to agility, focus, and discipline, but for me, it’s the longest-running workout program I’ve ever done since adulthood. Our studio has almost-seamlessly moved all of our classes to Zoom. They’re adapting and changing the curriculum to work with the tools and space that we all have at home and it’s been so nice to be able to keep that evening routine in our family. Between my boys and me, we’re doing 4-5 classes each week. They keep my stress and anxiety manageable and are a welcome bit of near-normalcy.

· Virtual Yoga - My gym closed in mid March where I happily enjoyed spin classes, yoga, and lap swimming. I really miss the swimming and spin, but they’ve created yoga classes I can do at home, any time I want. I’m so, so thankful for them.

· FaceTime, Zoom, and Google Hangout - We sang happy birthday to my niece via Zoom when she turned three and we couldn’t be there for a birthday party. We received multiple videos from family and friends when my youngest celebrated his 6th birthday at home. My oldest read a book to his cousins via FaceTime (and will do it again). My kids chat with friends on Google Hangout or Zoom while they build things in Minecraft together. My husband did a Zoom call with our cousins to share how we make mac n cheese. We regularly FaceTime with my sister, brothers, or my parents and eat dinner together. We chat with cousins who live in other states and countries and this pandemic has brought us closer. My kids’ teachers are using Google Hangout to teach lessons, administer tests (my 6yo went up a reading level, yesss!), and spend time with their students.

· Outdoor Spaces - Since the stay-at-home recommendations came from our governor, all city parks, splash pads, skate parks, and bike parks have closed. There is even caution tape wrapped around pavilions that shade picnic tables. We aren’t technically banned from leaving our neighborhood to explore outside, we’re just advised to maintain social distancing. So a couple of times each week we head out to find some wilderness to play in. We’ve driven past quite a few trailheads and parks to see nearly-full parking lots and just kept on driving. Sometimes we end up at our local fishing pond, where we’ve barely seen anyone there, or we drive an hour or more to a more remote spot to enjoy a picnic lunch, some hammock snuggles, and maybe some fishing if there’s a pond or stream. Even some sand to dig in or trees to climb can be enough to keep my boys happy. In these unique times I am SO thankful for where I live.

· My Mother in Law - My MIL was visiting us from California when shit got serious there and shelter-in-place orders were put in place throughout most of the state. She tried to fly home early on and missed her flight. Since then, we just convinced her to stay here. Our house is small (feeling smaller than ever right now), but she has her own bedroom and bathroom. Best of all, she’s cooking up a storm for us and making both my life and my husband’s life easier because of it. She’s enjoying trying new recipes and experimenting with new methods. Knowing that she’s taking care of dinner helps me not stress about having enough time to get my own work done AND be there to help my kids with virtual school. Her presence also lets me leave the house while my husband is at work and take a little alone time when I need it.

· Hammocks - Just because.

What are you thankful for during this tough time? Any positive things coming from it?

Valentine's Day 2020

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. Both my husband and I think it’s a very commercial holiday; we didn’t even celebrate when we were dating. The fact that the anniversary of our first date is January 31st (22 years!) was enough for us to just skip Valentine’s Day all together.

Since my kids started school, we’ve done a smidge more, but still not THAT much. I do step up to reasonably-above-average in the parenting department and make custom valentines for their class parties. Every year I expect them to ask for boxed sets from the store and they continue to surprise me with wanting something fun and custom.

Last year I vowed to not send candy to school. This year I vowed to not send food at all. We scoured Pinterest for ideas and saw fun sayings to go with toy airplanes. A thorough Amazon search for inexpensive airplane gliders at different sizes, price points, and availability to get here within a few days (because you KNOW we didn’t start these until a few days before Valentine’s Day) and we found these great gliders! They came in clear poly bags (which I really liked) and had a bunch of different color combinations.

I took the same cartoon faces I made of my boys from last year and turned them into pilots and I LOVE how they turned out.

I don’t think I will be able to get away with these same cartoons next year. I’ll have to make new ones.

The card stock was printed with two per 8.5x11 page and then I trimmed them with a paper cutter and folded them in half. Two staples attached them to the clear poly bags.

We found a bunch of different sayings for these, and these three were the winners. I wanted to use “you’re so fly” but my kids had NO idea what that meant. I think I showed my age.

Price Breakdown:

Airplanes: Amazon, $16.99 for 36. I ordered two boxes total for my kids’ classes, so $36.44 including sales tax.
Printing: Office Depot, color printing onto #65 card stock, $17 including sales tax
Paper Cutter: already had one
Stapler & staples: already had those

Total: $53.44 which was just about $.74 cents per valentine. And since there are 26 kids in each of my kids’ classes, we had a few extras that we gave to teachers, neighbors, and a few non-school friends. This was definitely more than I wanted to spend, but my kids LOVE how they turned out and so do I. I may have to add these to my Etsy shop for next year!

Traveling Gingerbread Man

My friend Jen has a kindergartener and his teacher was working on a project with the class; teaching them a bit about geography. The teacher sent out a paper to parents asking them to ask friends and family who don’t live in their town to send messages claiming they sighted the Gingerbread Man in their city or sometime during their travels. If they could include a photo, then fantastic. She even went on to say that email messages are fine, and even fictional messages are okay so long as they help the kids learn about different places on the map. They were mapping each sighting on a big map in the classroom.

I kicked it up a notch and had WAY too much fun in Photoshop. Here are the messages I sent:

“Hi Mrs. B's Class!

We are the Wong Family: Alex, Bill, Tommy and Matthew. We're friends of Jaxon's. We were exploring Arches National Park in Moab, Utah earlier this year and you wouldn't believe who we ran into: The Gingerbread Man! He must have been on vacation, exploring the desert. He was so nice by sharing some gumdrops with us and we shared granola bars with him on the trail. He totally photobombed us too! What a stinker!
Love, Tommy and Matthew Wong (ages 10 and 5)”

“Hi Mrs. B's Class,

It's Tommy and Matthew again, say hi to Jaxon for us, we miss him! We were on a road trip with our parents and we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah to see if we could watch some race cars break land speed records. Lo and behold, we saw The Gingerbread Man too! He was scoping out some rocket cars and enjoying the weather. Thankfully it wasn't too hot, but wow, it gets bright when the sun reflects off of the salt! Sunglasses are a must! Wonder where he was headed next?

Best, Tommy and Matthew Wong”

“Hello, Mrs. B's Class,

Tommy and Matthew saying hi and sharing yet another Gingerbread Man sighting. He must have had the same road trip plans as us this year. We ran into him in the north shore of Lake Tahoe, California and he joined us for a swim in the crystal-clear water. We bid farewell when we got wrinkly fingers and advised him to do the same. Since he's made of gingerbread, we didn't want him to get soggy!

I hope he had a great time on the rest of his road trip!
Adios, Tommy and Matthew”

“Hello Mrs B's Class,

It's the Wong Family again, Tommy and Matthew. We were hiking with some friends in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the snowy Wasatch Mountains of Utah this week and we ran into our old friend, The Gingerbread Man. He said he was hoping to get in some skiing before another snow storm came through, and we hope he found some slopes, because it's supposed to snow again tonight!

We hope you're staying warm this winter.
Cheers, Tommy and Matthew Wong”

A big part of me hopes my youngest son’s kindergarten class does a similar activity… so I could make more photos. Hahaha!