Potato Stamp Valentine Cards

Potato stamps came to the rescue once again for this crafting-incompetent Mama.  Big Brother and I have been busy the last couple of days cranking out homemade Valentine's day cards for his preschool class.

At the beginning of the week as I was gathering my supplies, I was feeling quite on top of the Valentine situation until I suddenly realized they were opening cards on Friday the 11th because he does not have preschool on Monday the 14th.  Yikes!  We had to accelerate our production schedule suddenly.  

First, I precut white card stock into thirds.  Then I used a tiny heart cookie cutter to make a heart-shaped potato stamp. 

We used washable Crayola paint to stamp red hearts on all of the white card stock strips.  

As much as Big Brother loves to craft, mass-production is not his forte, so I had to help a bit.

After they were dry, we folded them not quite in half:  we left a blank lip at the bottom on which to write the name of the Valentine recipient.

On red card stock, to go into each card, I printed out the words:   

A friend loves at all times . . . 

Proverbs 17:17  

Thanks for being my friend!

Big Brother

We used some decorative scrap-booking scissors to cut the red squares out.  Big Brother got a kick out of the fancy scissors!  We glued one in each of the cards.  (The Sharpie is there to cover Big Brother's name.  My apologies for the fuzzy picture.)

The final step is a red heart sticker to seal the card.  The end result is very pleasing!   

Last year we purchased cards and after I'd addressed AND signed them for him, I was feeling like preschoolers exchanging Valentines was really a ridiculous sham.  

This year, despite my having helped a bit more than I had originally intended (because of the volume of cards we needed to produce), Big Brother participated in every step of the process and as he gives these out he will feel ownership of them--much more so than last year.  

Valentine's day is a great reminder to share God's love with which we've been so richly blessed.  Thank you Lord for your love and mercy!

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) . . .