"You're Out of This World!" Kids Valentines

My son wanted to give something other than candy for his Valentine's Day cards.

We checked one of my favorite sites together, and sure enough, he picked this valentine, because he wanted to give a bouncy ball to all his friends.

This valentine was pretty cool to make, but I admit, I did all the work for cutting the area for the ball out. My son tried it, but we all decided that an 8-year old was too young to cut the area out, even under supervision.

We also decided to add a candy anyway, as I know from experience that Valentines are just 'paper shame' to an eight year old kiddo.

Step 1: Materials, Tools & Printable

I've attached the printable .jpg heart pattern for your use. I printed it on white cardstock to help it hold up to the cutting and tracing I needed it for. Please use it for personal use only.

We found this amazing sparkly paper at a craft store, on sale for $0.25 per 12x12 size sheet. I was able to fit five hearts on one page, so for his class of 28, I needed six sheets.

I had in my personal craft stash scissors, a silver gel pen, a white stamp pad, "Happy Valentines Day" rubber stamp, the embossing powder, the heating tool and the plastic "plate" I use to catch the embossing powder.

I had to purchase the rubber balls (3-packages of 12), the small Zots (scrapbooking glue-dots) and the Hershey kisses.

(The kisses are optional, of course!)

My estimate for the cost (we spent) is about $16 for the paper, the bouncy balls, the kisses and the glue dots I didn't have.

Step 2: Cut Out the Hearts

I cut out one of the hearts from the white printable, and traced five hearts on one 12x12 sheet of paper, using a regular ball point pen on the black back-side of the sheet.

This step took me about an hour.

Step 3: Write the Sentiment and Sign

Using the silver gel pen, I wrote the "You are out of this world!" sentiment, and my son signed his name on all thirty hearts.

We made extra hearts just in case the stamp didn't get stamped correctly (see the next step.)

This step took us about fifteen-twenty (15-20) minutes together.

Step 4: Write or Stamp "Happy Valentines Day"

If you don't have a 'Happy Valentines Day' stamp (like I show here), then I would suggest writing "Happy Valentines Day!" with the silver gel pen on the "front" side, opposite of the location of the ball.  If you choose to write this, make sure the ball opening is on the opposite side of the writing.

This step is a quick tutorial on stamp embossing.

Stamp embossing is done by using stamp embossing powder, in the color of your choice, and then heating it up with a heating tool.
I got mine at www.StampXpress.com.

The result is a raised "emboss" look to the stamp, rather than a flat surface that is normal just by stamping the paper with ink.
My son chose the glittery embossing powder color you see in the photos, and we used a white ink as the base for the stamped sentiment.
I have a photo of the wet paper towel I placed inside of a plastic container.  This is how I keep my stamps clean, especially when working on multiple projects.  Next to it, not shown in a photo is a dry paper towel, ready to dry up the wet stamp.

Just FYI: The color of ink choice makes the color of the embossing powder look different.

Over the plastic plate (in my case) I sprinkle the embossing powder over the wet-ink stamped image. If you have a high quality ink, chances are it drys fast, so placing the embossing powder on quickly is usually important.

After the embossing powder is placed, turn the paper to dump it back into the container.  Much of it will get on the plate.  Feel free to shake it off the paper.
Whatever sticks to the ink is what is going to get embossed with the heat.
In my house, when my kids help, some of it gets on the table, and then, well, it ends up everywhere - clothes, face, arms, the dog, other projects, you name it.  But - we love glitter in our house....

Keep the embossing tool about two (2) inches away from the embossing-powdered-stamped-image while heating it.
You may have to have a heavier object (like a one-inch sized magnet for example) on one of the corners of the heart, if the heat gets to be too much for your fingers to hold the paper in place.

Holding the heating tool over the same spot for a count of 5-10 ensures that the powder will get heated up thoroughly in the area it's aimed at.  Working together with my 8-year old, it took us about an hour to stamp and emboss all thirty valentines.

Step 5: Cut the Opening & Place the Ball

On a piece of cardboard to protect my table, I placed the printed heart directly over the valentine heart.

Using a cardboard cutter (or an exacto knife) cut the lines into the heart where the ball is to be pushed through.  It took me about an hour and a half over the course of two days to cut all 30 valentines.

You can cut through the front of the heart using the template, and then once I got the lines, I finished off any uncut sections by turning over the heart.

I designed the template to be the size of the balls I found at the party store, approximately 1-1/2-inch in diameter.

Push the ball through the opening.  It should be snug and not go all the way through.

An option that I considered and did on these valentines was add one of the zots (sticky, clear, scrapbooking dots) on opposite sides of two triangles before putting the ball into the valentine.

Step 6: Add a Candy Kiss...or Not

An optional step, the last addition to the valentine was sticking on a Hershey's Kiss.
It's my son's favorite type of candy (just plain milk chocolate) and he placed the kisses onto the Valentine after I put a medium size Zot-adhesive dot on it.

Please remember to post a photo if you make a valentine like this!

I hope you all have just as much fun as I did with my growing boy making these.

Thanks for reading!