homemade Scratch Art bookmark valentines: easy, cool, kid-happy

It’s that time of year when hearts and love and pink and hugs and candy and kisses are in the air.

So the kids and I have been busy making Valentines for their classmates—one of our favorite holiday traditions.

This year, with the help of Melissa & Doug’s Scratch Art Bookmarks, our homemade Valentines stepped up a few notches on the cool meter.   Actually, they’re so cool and Maddy, Owen, and Cora are so excited to share them with their buddies, that these homemade Scratch Art Bookmark Valentines may actually be off of the cool meter.

They were quick and easy to make which is a plus when you’re working with a 9, 7, and 5 year old, but they’re still totally and completely cute.

Anyone can make them.  And all kids will love ‘em.

And there’s no glue involved. (Hey, that’s a plus for some families. . .)

Here’s the skinny. . .

Homemade Scratch Art Bookmark Valentines:

Scratch Art meets bookmarks meets Valentine’s Day. So fun.

Our supplies are ready to go–hole punch, Valentine cards, and scissors!

Scratch Art Bookmarks are simply bookmarks that appear plain-Jane black and boring. But with the help of a teeny, little scratch stick, you can ‘scratch’ designs–letters, words, shapes, scenes, you name it–and the images appear in a fun ‘hidden’ rainbow pattern.

It’s the same Scratch Art material that we used for Maddy’s Golden Birthday goodie bags back in December, but we used key chains, fashion dolls, and bracelets.

For our Bookmark Valentines, we used the Scratch Art Bookmark Party Pack which includes 12 bookmarks, 12 scratching sticks, and 12 ribbons for the bookmark.

What took the longest was creating the actual card part; though I knew we were going to rock it out with the Scratch Art® Bookmarks, I wasn’t sure how we were going to incorporate the bookmark and the card part.  But I played around with sizes, with folds, with where to put the stick and where the kids could sign the cards, and I think we nailed it.

I created the Bookmark Valentines 2013 sheet, and then I printed it out on brightly-colored cardstock, about 65lb.  There are four cards on each sheet, and the document has three pages of cards for a total of 12 cards each.

The Bookmark Valentines can be printed after throwing your email in the box below:

I have no idea how many total I printed, but definitely enough to cover Maddy, Owen, and Cora’s classes.

After the cards were cut, the kids folded them in half.  It was easiest for them to figure out where to sign them once the cards were folded.

Maddy, Owen, and Cora each added a Valentine’s-type stamp—hearts, ‘LOVE’, flowers, and the like—and then they signed their names.

Next we added a fancy ribbon to the Scratch Art bookmark. The set comes with shiny red ribbons, but we mixed it up a bit and added some festive ribbons we had here at home—gold, white, pink, silver, and dotted.

While the kids were busy stamping and signing the cards and stringing their bookmarks, I was flexing my muscles with the hole-punch.

I created the Valentine cards with two tiny ‘X’s’ on the front of each card. These were for me so I knew where to punch the holes.  Once holes were punched, the kids threaded the stick through, and the we were finished!

Miraculously, once the scratch stick was through the holes, the card stayed shut and the bookmark was safe.  So. Totally. Cute!  And so. Totally. Functional. No tape, no glue. Schweet!

So over several days, we cut, stamped, signed, threaded, punched, and sorted Valentines.  And while we worked, we chatted, laughed, and worked together to ‘tweak’ our process so that everyone was comfortable with what they were doing.

And we were all pretty positive that these Scratch Art Bookmark Valentines would be a huge hit for their classmates and teachers!  Such a fun way of celebrating our our kids’ love of reading with a Valentine treat that didn’t involve sweets!

So there you have it, another year of homemade Valentines made simply–but with a whole lot of love.

Happy Valentine-making, friends!

Want a few more fun Valentine’s Day ideas? Check out: 

• How to throw a rockstar Valentine’s Day class party
• Valentine’s Day Class party 2.0
• Musical Hearts
• Secret Message Valentines
• Bookmark Valentines
• Scratch-Off Ticket Valentines
• Valentine’s Day Lunchbox Notes
• HEART Bingo