The Art of Valentines

I can remember sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by my mother's scrap fabrics dripping out of bags onto other chairs and the floor. There was lace and ribbon in so many forms and I was so excited about making valentines for my classmates. I painstakingly cut and glued various combinations of these goodies for a week. Each one was designed with great love and excitement at how their faces would look when they looked upon my masterpiece. I worked and worked and worked.

I can remember distinctly some of the fabrics because they came from familiar items my mother sewed. Party dresses, Australian and Hawaiian fabrics, kitchen curtains, satin, yellow terry cloth - all were such an amazing array of colors and textures, it was so fun to pick a starting place!

On Valentine's Day I was so happy to deliver my heartfelt, handmade cards hoping the recipient would see how special they were to me because I individualized each one. That was the last year I made homemade valentines.

I was crushed. Everyone had store bought valentines with clever sayings and popular culture icons. It may not have been so bad if they had just ignored mine and focused on the "cool ones" but being in 2nd or 3rd grade, the teasing ensued. I was devastated. I never made valentines again in school.

Fast forward to my oldest son's first year in Montessori school. Valentines Day was coming and being a hands-on education program, children were requested not to bring store bought but that they should all bring handmade valentines and one for each child. I was delighted! No chance that there were to be a mix of each, all would be handmade. It took at least a week but each child in his class was the recipient of a special valentine designed especially for them. It was so much fun to look at all the creative ideas children thought of on the ones he brought home.

I happily continued this event each year with two children though I must admit that sometimes I felt more like I was running a Valentine's Day sweatshop operation:)

In Nov. '07 the children moved into mainstream schools and I worried as Valentine's Day drew near whether I should move from homemade cards to store bought ones so they didn't have to deal with the drama I endured. Finally, I just asked them what they'd like to do. They wanted to make them. We did. The children took their boxes home with them and opened them at home so they could appreciate their classmates selections and I was happy to see there were other handmade cards!

This year Valentine's Day started to roll around and the boys got all geared up to make cards again, it hasn't occurred to them yet to buy them. Again, they painstakingly cut, pasted, hole-punched and glued special valentines for each person. They penned each person's name carefully, wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" and signed them for 20 people.

I have to admit that this year, I bought candy they could staple onto each card. I think now that maybe that was an insurance policy on my part. If you give someone candy, maybe it's harder to make fun of them. Thankfully, we aren't there yet and everything was just fine...one more year down.