As promised, I am back today to share our Valetine’s cards for this year! Henry attends a parents’ morning out program twice a week. The kids range in age from babies to full on toddlers, so I wanted to make something that was sans candy and safe for all ages in his class. A quick browse through my Cricut cartridges and I came up with these pretty sweet and simple sentiments:

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I started cutting the lady bug elements in different shades of pink and red cardstock. For inquiring minds, I used the A Walk In My Garden cartridge, and the bugs are cut at the 3″ setting.

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Next, Henry got in on the action! We used a kids-safe glue stick to adhere the top layer of dots to the bugs.

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I was going to add googly eyes, but 1) they looked a little strange, and 2) I didn’t think they were good for little ones who still put things in their mouths! A heart-shaped hole punch did just the trick!

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Next, I was going to mount the bugs to little “cards” that I designed on the computer. Instead of just printing them on plain white cardstock, I found some red and white gingam scrapbook paper in my stash. Since the paper had white backing, I could run it through my printer for the words while getting a cute design on the backs! So that it would fit in my printer, I trimmed my 12×12 cardstock down to 8.5×11″. I designed the cute little word design in MDS.

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Originally, I was just going to free-hand cut my circles out around the words, but then realized I had a new magnetic platform for my Big Shot that would make this cutting job so much easier! If you use a Big Shot and don’t have the magnetic platform, it’s TOTALLY worth the cost. I am able to center my framelet around my image perfectly and it doesn’t budge!

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I only had 16 circles to cut, so it wasn’t too bad feeding them through one at a time. If you have a lot to do, this will be the most time-consuming part! I just love that red pattern on the backside!

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The last step was to adhere the bugs to the cards, letting the antennas fit through the gap in the wording.

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Pretty simple and pretty sweet if I do say so myself 🙂

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Unfortunately, school was canceled due to snow and ice, so his little Lovebug friends won’t get their Valentines until next week. Oh well – it’s the thought that counts, right?

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I have a bunch of fun little projects I’m working on this weekend. We’ll see which is finished first to show you next week! See you then,

 Megan

See You Soon!
Megan