February 9, 2010

BEST Valentines!

Hello fellow QuicKutz fans! My name is Shaunte Wadley, and I have been on the design team for QuicKutz since 2007.

My husband and I have five children, and I feel (along with everyone else) that my time and budget are pretty limited these days! I am excited to share with you a few cost-effective Valentine ideas. Assembling these projects forced me to get a jump-start on Valentine’s Day preparations. (Almost incomprehensible to be ready early for a holiday!)

Four of my five kids are in elementary school, so I wanted to come up with inexpensive valentines for them to hand out to their classmates. Bonus if they can help me crank them out assembly-line style. And double bonus that I can further justify the dies already in my stash!

I came up with several ideas.

The first one is very traditional:

A cute tag that can be tied to any treat of your choice.

Dies used:
tag REV-0015
nesting hearts CC-HEARTS-01
heart mini RS-0400

And then I thought “Wadley, you can do better than this…”

I challenged myself to make some non-traditional valentines using the dies I already have. You know, those dies that you have in your stash that don’t get enough love. (Please tell me I am not the only “collector.”)

Do you have the Revolution nameplate dies? There are two: the oval and the rectangle.
Well, guess what? They are a perfect fit for threading onto a sucker stick! I was pretty happy about that discovery, especially when I can pick up a gigantic bag of Tootsie Pops at Costco and be done with the treats for my kids’ classes!

Let me show you.

Here is a close-up of the oval nameplate with the sucker inserted:

See how the sucker stick pokes through the pre-made holes? So easy! I love easy.

Here are some ideas I came up with to incorporate the sucker stick idea for the kids:

Dies used:
nameplate REV-0004
nameplate REV-0005
dinosaur (triceratops) RS-0635
heart mini RS-0400
fish RS-0372

I tried to go fairly gender neutral.

Here is another one. My ten year old son loved this one:

Dies used:
nameplate REV-0004
heart mini RS-0400
pirate skull KS-0780

And one for my oldest son who is in junior high and thinks he’s too cool for school.

Dies used:
REV-0005
male/female icons KS-0539
heart mini RS-0400

Speaking of my oldest son, he has a girlfriend this year! Did I mention that he is in junior high? He is THIRTEEN! Shouldn’t girls still have cooties at thirteen? Sigh… I feel too young for this.

I made him a “special” valentine for her. Cause I am giving like that…

Here it is:

In case you can’t see the tag, it reads:

We make a great “pear”, even though we can’t “date.”

Just a friendly reminder to them, and yes, it is tied to a bag of DATES. Yummy, yummy dates. I am thinking that will go over well. Very romantic. (snicker)

The “pear” idea could also be used for Grand”pear”ents if you exchange valentines with extended family.

Dies used:
tag REV-0015
pears REV-0208-S
heart mini RS-0400

If you are looking for a valentine idea for your significant other, you can whip one of these up:

We’re a perfect “Match.”

Of course you can also add something along the lines of “you strike me as being hot” or something else about hearts burning…but since this is a family-friendly site, I’m not going there.

My favorite thing about the nesting label dies is when they’re folded in half—they fit perfectly as a treat bag topper! I have used this idea for almost every holiday.

Dies used:
nesting label CC-SHAPE-3-028
match RS-0693

I have some friends this year who are still hanging onto New Year’s Resolutions and are on fitness kicks. I am eating their chocolate myself, and giving them this:

This door hanger die fits perfectly on a bottled water. I love it!

Dies used:
scale REV-0302
door knob hanger CC-shape-082-2
rollerskate skinnimini complete alphabet 4X8-ROLLERSK-SC

Do you want to see the valentine my 11 year-old son loved? He is in 6th grade. The irony here is that I have to remind him every day to wear deodorant. His valentine is so very “him.”

Dies used:
air freshener CC-SHAPE-073-2
heart (curl) RS-0047

My girls fell in love with this one:

A simple flower, and leaf set.

The flower already has a hole in the center for the sucker to stick through.

I computer generated a simple “Happy Valentine’s Day” and adhered that to one of the leaves. The other leaf is where the girls will sign their names. So simple.

Here is a close-up of the leaves:

Dies used:
flower REV-0172
leaves REV-0170

The kids were excited about making their own valentines. I was excited about the savings, and excited to use up part of my scrapbooking stash. Win/win.

Thanks for taking a look. Hopefully this will inspire you to look at your dies a little differently, and start creating your own valentines!

15 comments:

Charlie said...

What a LOT of cute ideas - Thanks for sharing - bet your kids had fun too. Love the valentine for the "young couple". =0)

CreatedbyKay said...

Lots of cute Valentine ideas! TFS!

Ali said...

Great ideas! My fav is the last one, the flower with the Tootsie Pop in the middle!! Love iT!!

Sandy Pep said...

So many great ideas, I am unable to pick a favorite. The kids will have to check these out and hopefully we will have a day of fun creating our own. TFS

Deepa M. said...

I'm a collector too ... little ashamed to say how many dies I have {sheepish grin!!}. Those are such adorable ideas, thanks for sharing!!

Sue said...

I'm a proud addict too. Have a great stash of dies in great need of some extra lovin'. I love your ideas and plan on taking your lead!

Txangel528 said...

Those are really cute That is what my kids asked to do for there Valentines!

Shell said...

You are awesome, Shaunte... great ideas!

Anonymous said...

GORGEOUS! The kids and I can't wait to get our started~ thanks for all the GREAT ideas!
SunyDayz

Shar said...

These are all stinkin cute ideas!!!!! LOVE

lcigan said...

I'd love to see the flower with a bee on it--"Bee" my valentine! These are all too cute!

Ute from Hamburg said...

Now I wish we'd celebrate Valentine in Germany - maybe I just surprise my two children - they will love it ! What wonderful ideas - and NO, I'm not a collector. I just happen to own all of the shapes you showed ....

Crafti Ger said...

I got all the tools to make these cute Valentine's but I never got to read any instructions and don't know squat on scrapping!!! I need one-on-one help due to a homebound disability. But they are all cute and crafty!!

Anonymous said...

Love the tootsie pop flowers! Those would be cute as bouquet of flowers.

valentine's gifts philippines said...

If are you making this as a gift its absolutely adorable so cute i love this. Will certainly visit your site more often now.

vee

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