Easy, economical valentines

 

I am so grateful that our parish school held the Valentine's Day parties before Lent, but that meant we spent last week making these cards. Inspired by a recent magazine feature, my four year old son and I made these valentines for his classmates (and about half of our small town). 

We split the project over a couple afternoons. On the first day, I drew designs onto unlined 3x5 index cards with a white crayon and he used last year's school paintbox to watercolor over the design. After they had a chance to dry overnight, I helped him with the text, and we taped on an Andes mint (possibly the least expensive individually wrapped chocolate). The whole project was basically sunk cost, aside from the candy. And since index cards come in such large packs, we were able to make cards not only for his classmates, but our neighbors and other people who feature largely in his life... like the butcher.