Anyhow.. this year I wanted to do something trendy and unique.. something I had seen floating around a lot (which is hard to find.. trendy usually means lots of knock offs) but I think I am on to something.
CHALK and CHALKBOARD SCHOOL VALENTINES! (Commence delighted squealing!)
And to make it even more twee... I actually used the lyrics to a pop song as the little poem.
Once again, the only parameters were that they had to be CHEAP (these cost less than 30 cents each) and they had to be gender-neutral.. since I needed to make 35 of them for both boys and girls.
So how did I make them so cheap?Well.. I made my own chalkboards. I used these little wooden cuttouts which were only 29 cents each (and the pack of chalk was only $1)
Supplies:
Miniature wooden blanks (I got mine at Michaels, but you can buy bags of 100 on Amazon for under $20 in all sorts of shapes) That makes them 20 cents each.
Chalkboard paint
Chalk (I broke each piece in half so I only needed one box)
Cardstock or Paper
Mounting Foam or Double Stick Tape
Glue Sticks
Baker's Twine or Yarn
Large eye sewing needle
Paper cutter (this is the trimmer I use) or scissors
Printer
Step 1:
The kids and I painted all the little boards with two coats of chalk paint. The store didn't have enough of any single shape, so I ended up with ovals, rectangles and little scalloped edge rectangles.
Step 2:
I designed and printed out these two versions of the card on white paper. (You could also use cardstock.) I am making these printables available for PERSONAL USE ONLY (do not distribute, sell or modify the file). Just enter your email address below.
Step 3:
I used my paper cutter to cut them apart. (Yes, I could have made these print and cut files for my silhouette but I was too lazy #KeepingItReal)
I also cut out a second color (in this case red) to use at the backing and to reinforce the card.
Step 4:
I attached the little wooden chalkboards to the card using foam mounting tape. This way they will pull off relatively easily if the kids want to use them.
I made sure to attach the chalkboard off to one side so I had room to add a piece of chalk. 
Step 5:
To attach the chalk (which was really only half a piece of chalk) I used a large needle to poke a hole down and back up through the card to run the bakers twine (if I had used two layers of cardstock this would be really hard to do, so in this case, using the thinner paper had an advantage.)
I then tied the chalk right to the card and trimmed the end of the string. 
Step 6:The final touch was adding a little drawing to the chalkboard. I tried it both with actual chalk and with chalk markers.. Both were cute, it just depends on the look you are going for.
If you wanted to, you could add a personal message, or the recipient's name or even "from: your name" on the chalkboard. (My daughter just signed the back of the cards.)
It took us a little more than 2 hours to make 35 Valentines. (Not including waiting for the paint to dry.) 
It was totally worth it.. I think we nailed it.. BOOM Shaka-laka!
Not a Chalkboard fan?
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