I recently participated in a Valentine Card Exchange with other mommy bloggers. I’m just going to say THANK YOU to them right now, because as a mommy I know how incredibly hard it is to pull off something like this! Thinking of an idea, actually making the crafts or shopping for small gifts, addressing all those envelopes, and trekking to the post office in some cases… things that take a million times longer now that we have kids. And you took the time to do it for my little boys. Here’s my recap of our recent mailbox adventures!
Before the Valentines arrived…
My boys were asked to prepare 40 Valentines to take to their daycare friends for a party last week, and for this exchange, we made 13 extra sets to send to other kids all around the country – California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, and more!
I brought back a few old favorites this year without spending any money. First stop, Big Box Home Store for paint samples. I tried to find colors with love-y themes or my kids’ names.
E broke up a grab bag of old crayons. He loved his job, and I’ll probably spend the next year UNbreaking him of that habit. We mixed up the colors and melted them in the oven (with the light on so we could watch). These made pretty bars of recycled crayons.
The hardest part was peeling the wrappers off the crayons (I used a toothpick, my husband used a knife. E used his fingers). I punched heart-shaped holes in the cards and bound them together with ribbon. I wrote notes to a few of the mommies. For the blogger exchange, I tied them with baker’s twine and wrapped them in tissue paper to mail.
Once sent, it was time for cards to flood in from all over the country! And they did! It was fun to see all the creative ideas and far away zip codes. It really made the blogs I read come to life. Here are some of our mailbox goodies!
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From Ashley@wordsaboutwaverly.blogspot.com:
From Chrissy@simplejoysblog.com, one of the exchange hostesses:
From Colleen@colleenandkeith.com – a beautiful pennant cutout Valentine with painted hearts!:
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From Courtney@sweet-turtle-soup.blogspot.com
And yes. I have a gazillion BoxTops I need to turn in to my school. Yikes.
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From Emma, another hostess for this exchange and a real-life friend of mine – love bugs in mason jars!:
From Erinn@strawberryswingandthings.com – Minion tattoos in hand-painted envelopes!:
Running MOMentum 
Thank you so much for being apart of the exchange! Elin loved the card and crayon!!
Thanks! Ours were so similar! We loved the coloring books and fun heart-shaped crayons! Thank you for including me in the exchange!
Ez loved the crayon! After he licked it and decided it wasn’t edible, he wanted to carry it around all day. Thanks so much 🙂
Ha! I was a little worried some might try to eat the crayon! I wonder if their classmates tried to eat them as well! Thanks so much for sending Valentines to my boys!
Absolutely adorable!!!
Thanks!
So nice to meet a new blogger! I’m so glad we all got to be a part of this fun exchange. Love your little ones and the awesome Valentines. Great idea to use paint cards!
Thanks! And a bonus – they were FREE! Although it took a couple trips to Lowe’s to come away with enough to make 53 Valentines… the workers kept asking me if I needed help when they saw my stacks of paint cards.
I thought your paint chip cards were super creative! Loved the crayon. Aria thought it was either a crayon or a snack ha. I bet you could make a killing selling paperless crayons for melting =) Thanks for sending us a Valentine!
Aw thanks! We got yours today – so fun! I added a picture to my blog with your card. Paperless crayons… golden. 🙂
We loved the valentine you sent! The crayon has been lots of fun! xoxo
Oh good, I’m glad! Thanks so much for your gorgeous, classy card!!
We loved your paint chip Valentine cards:) So creative and fun!
Yay! Thanks again for including me. 🙂
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