Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Remember back to the Valentines days of our youth? All those little Scooby Doo and Barbie Valentines cards with their perforated edges and strangely sweet envelope glue? Yeah, they were cute, I’ll admit it. But somehow now that my kids are school aged, I find myself shying away from the cards that my classmates and I stuffed into shoebox “mailboxes” each year. Maybe it’s the fact that most of them are covered with kind of scary looking cartoon characters or maybe it’s the fact that I know all that paper will just end up in the landfill. Or maybe it’s just the crafter in me that hates the idea of sending my son off with something store bought (he’s going to hate me when he’s a teenager -What? No I will not buy you that shirt! I’m sure we can MAKE it for less honey!)

The problem is that now that he is seven and almost a half, the cutsie valentines that we’ve made in years past ARE NOT COOL MOM. No more puffball hearts or hand drawn red and white cards. No more talk of love or be mine. Sigh. So how on earth do you do a non lovey-dovey, boy approved, kid make-able valentine? Well, I’ll tell you, it took some serious thinking.

Actually, I’ll be honest; my son inspired the idea when we were eating lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant last weekend.

“Fortune Cookies! I love Fortune Cookies!” He said “Hey mom, can we make fortune cookies this week?”

Humm, well, yes, I think we can.

These are really simple and very kid friendly and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a fortune cookie?

Here’s what you need:

Felt - 1 sheet will make three large fortune cookies

Tacky Glue

Small treats (Hershey Kisses work great!)

Paper and pen

Fabric and paper scissors

Trace a five-inch diameter circle onto your felt. You can either cut a template from cardstock or find a bowl or lid that’s around five inches. You can also go bigger or smaller but I found that a five inch circle was the best size for holding a few treats and being handleable for little fingers.

Cut, or if your child is old enough, allow them to cut the circle out carefully. Try to keep the edges as smooth as possible.

Cut a strip of paper 1 inch long by 1/4 inch wide and write a message on it, leaving one third of the strip blank. Run a bead of tacky glue around the circle and lay the strip of paper just above the halfway point on one side. If you want to insert treats, put two kisses end to end (or other small candies) in the middle.

Fold the circle over and press to close, keep pressing the edges down until the glue has a good hold on it. Allow the glue to dry completely.

Using your thumb, push the center of the flat edge (between the two candies) toward the seam.

Dab a dot of glue where the two halves of the “cookie” meet and hold it closed for a minute to allow the glue to set.

And you’re done! How cute is that? My son is gung-ho to make these for all of his friends this year, which is good because I really don’t think I could have given in to the Power Rangers Valentines, no matter how anti-lovey dovey his seven-year-old self is!