2 Upcycled Valentines

I've been going through our craft items and boxes of items to upcycle for a few weeks now looking for ideas for B's valentines cards for his classmates. I knew I wanted him to be involved in making them so I asked him to draw on a piece of recycled paper so I could incorporate it into the design. I then cut the drawing into little hearts and made sure that each valentine got at least once.

The base of the cards is  leftover card stock from B's baptism. It had 'Thank You' printed on it so I just cut around that to make the little cards. I cut hearts from old Christmas, Birthday and Valentines cards that I had saved. I also used old envelopes...it is actually the perfect time of year to re-use red envelopes from any Christmas cards you received! 

I eliminated as much waste as possible from this project so I used every cut out heart twice. Once for the inside and once for the outside. Whatever I didn't use I put back into our craft bucket for re-use at another time. I'm not making envelopes but if I was going to I would make them myself from scraps of leftover paper or envelopes. 

Tips for Upcycling your own Valentines

* Look at what you have first and build your design around that

* Envelopes work well for cutting hearts. You can even use one's from bills or junk mail

* Don't worry about making them identical, I love that no two are alike!

* Keep scraps from other projects in a central spot so you can easily access them

Other Upcycled Ideas

* Cut a heart in cardstock, rip old pieces of tissue paper and glue across the back of the heart hole. 

* Form a toilet paper roll into a heart. Use to make painted hearts on a piece of paper.

* Collect little rocks with your kids and then paint hearts onto them.

* Turn toilet paper rolls into cute heart covered owls

* Use leftover organic Hallowe'en candy to make an editable card

Did you and your kids make your own valentines this year? What did you make? If you didn't make your own what stops you from doing so?