Triple Valentines! Free Printables

Victory!  For those of you who have not been following of late, I have been having much difficulty with (what I thought) was my printer.  After countless hours on the phone with tech support, near tears moments when I just had to walk away for a while, and reboots, I am pleased to say that I printed something today!!!  It took a factory reset on my computer, but I think we're finally past this battle. 

All this to apologize.  I have three Valentines options that I've been wanting to share with you, but have not been able to with this whole fiasco.  While I know I've completely missed the school crowd, I'm choosing to still post these in the chance that someone might still be able to use them before Sunday, or save the ideas for next year!

While contemplating this post, I realized that I really couldn't remember the origins of Valentines Day.  That meant I had to study up for the multitude of "why" questions that always accompany holidays in this house!  I read from History Channel's page that there were as many as three Saint Valentines, but the most popular legends claim one of two events.  First, the Roman Empire chose to ban marriage for young men as they found relationship free men to be better soldiers.  Saint Valentine saw this as unjust and married young couples in secret.  The second thought was that while the young Christian Valentine was in a Roman prison, he slipped a note out to his love and signed it with, "from your Valentine." 

1) Entirely Homemade: this one you'll need to start ahead of time a couple weeks to allow the paper to dry.  But basically our goal was to buy nothing! 

Paper: We saved paper scraps, pencil shavings, and even some natural elements and filled up our blender's pitcher.  Then we filled in around it with water and blended it until it was a fairly smooth paste.  Then we spread it out as thin as we could on a window screen (that had torn last summer and since been replaced) and waited for it to dry!  I set it up on a pan to allow air to flow underneath.

Ink: Leftover frozen blackberries from last summer were thawed, smooshed (kids' favorite part!) and strained into a small jar.

Quill: We used one pheasant feather and one seagull (?) feather, the latter of which had a much larger shaft (could hold more ink). 

 I somewhat simplified Sun Hats and Wellie Boots' instructions by shearing off some of the down and vane , clipping an angle then clipping flat the tip.  Ending with a vertical slit up the shaft.

They loved making little cards with all the elements they had put together all by themselves!  I feel like that kind of independence is so liberating!

2) Sunday School Dragonfly:  "We love because He first loved us" 1st John 4:19 is inscribed on dragonfly wings to focus on how this holiday of love can even be possible.  Two quick slits allow a lollipop stick to weave through to create the body of the dragonfly.  Click on the thumbnail below to enlarge and print:

3) Woodland Critters Valentine: This is what my little ones are giving all their friends.  I decided to leave the template black and white so each could be colored individually.  I think it makes it just that much more special for the recipient!  Another option would be to print it on colored paper of your choice. 

 The same basic idea of two slits is used to weave a pencil through to make sense of the phrase, "Valentine, you're just WRITE for me!"  Click on the image below to enlarge and save:

I hope you have such a lovely Valentines day and can find much joy in celebrating the love in your life!