Cute Valentine for Teachers

Written by: Julia Richardson

Valentine’s day is just around the corner! I wanted to come up with a cute gift for my son’s teacher that hasn’t been too over done yet. I wanted to make it something to help remember him by and hopefully it touches their hearts too. I was so excited about what we came up with that I just had to share it! Consider it my valentine’s gift to you. 

Items needed:

-Paint

-Paint brush

-Blank paper (I used newsprint paper but any kind will do)

-Cup of water

-Old rag/ paper towels

-Markers

-Modge podge

-Scrapbook paper or card stock

Instructions:

Get yourself and your work area ready by making sure the work surface is protected from potential paint spills before inviting your little one to come help create this cute card. I had our paper ready and the paint on a paper plate to make it easier to switch between colors. You can use any color you’d like, we choose the skin color for the brain and red for the heart for obvious reasons, but blue is just big E’s favorite color right now.

I had big E make fists and I painted the outside of his hands with the skin/ pale pink color. To create the brain shape he held his hands in a “C” shape to make the top “lobes” of the brain. He pressed them down and held them for a moment before peeling them off the paper. I reapplied the paint and with his hands in fists I helped him fill in the lobes, we did this twice. (The second one with his hand slightly open on the opposite sides to complete that “lobe” look.)

While Big E washed his hands I got the cup of water and old rag ready for the next part. Using the red paint I painted a heart in the center of his palm, quickly cleaned the brush, then surrounded the heart with blue paint to get the rest of his hand print. This part had to go pretty quick to prevent the paint from drying. However Big E’s thumb didn’t show up very well so I ended up just repainting it and helping him to stick in the right spot. So if you’re not fast enough, no worries, it’s fixable.

After letting our masterpieces dry I gave them a decorative edge and a couple of details to help make the shapes more recognizable. Afterwards I cut the pictures out to place on the scrapbook paper that had been cut in half and then folded in half to make a card shape. Using the modge podge I pasted the brain on the front and his cute little hand on the inside. The best thing about modge podge is that it dries clear so you can paint it around the edge of the paper to make sure the edges stay down.

We finished by writing our sweet message. Big E still has a hard time separating words when writing sentences so I let him by with just writing his name and adding a couple of stickers. Don’t forget the name and date on the back!

We both had a lot of fun making the brain, we’re pretty sure his teacher is gonna love it, and Big E is excited to give away his heart this year.

What are you doing special for your children’s teachers?