DIY Classroom Valentine's

 

 

I try to take care of classroom Valentine's before February even rolls around. It just makes my life easier. My oldest child's birthday happens to be the day before, and things can get really hectic, really fast. I seem to have a habit of forgetting some of the day to day stuff when we get to that week too. So, for everyone's sanity, we plan ahead.

 

Right now, my son's current obsession favorite toy are these tiny little guys called Crazy Cubes. Naturally, when I asked him what type of Valentine he would like to hand out this year, he told me "A Crazy Cube one! That would be so awesome!"

 

Of course it would, except they don't make them.

 

When I told him that, he looked at me and said "well, couldn't we just make them ourselves?"

 

Of course we can!

 

The Valentine's were actually really easy to do, and you don't need special software to do it. I just scanned a drawing on to my computer and did the rest of the editing and type layout in Picasa and then placed them in Word to fit 6 to an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.

 

Yes, fellow designers and image folks, I know that's not the best way to do it - but this way works just fine and anyone can do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First things first, you will want to decide on your theme. My Valentine included hand drawings, but if that's not an option for you, no worries, use a photo of your child (check out Pinterest for some really great creative ideas). If you are drawing, scan your finished image on to your computer. I re-sized my scanned image to 5x7.

 

Bring your image into Picasa and start editing. I like to edit in their Creative Kit option, if gives you more freedom. That's where I found the hand drawn hearts, and placed the cool font. This is also where I touched up any stray pencil marks.

 

Once you have your image finished, save it. Open word, change the page layout to landscape and insert your finished image. Adjust the size to your liking, copy and then paste as many as you can fit on a page.

 

 

 

 

Print them out, cut them up and you're done!

 

Happy Monday!

-Lisa :)

 

 

** This post is linked to Homemade Monday's link party, hosted by "Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity AND New Nostalgia Anti-Procrastination Tuesday**