5 Little Monsters: Sticker Printable Valentines

Sticker Printable Valentines

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Every year for the last few years I have tried to come up with a few non-food Valentines ideas. A set of printable cards that can be given to classmates with a little inexpensive gift that isn't candy. 


I started this after my middle daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Holidays that involved a lot of candy became kind of tough for her because even though she can have candy it isn't as easy as just eating what she wants, she has to figure out the carbs and then get insulin to cover it. School parties involved deciding ahead of time exactly what she wanted to eat so the school nurse could dose her. It just became a lot less fun for her. 


So one year she asked me if we could give out something to her classmates with her valentine cards that was not candy, because that is what she would prefer to have someone give her. I thought this was a great idea and the tradition of coming up with non-candy valentines that could be given out to friends was born. 


I do have a criteria for the "gift " that we include and that is that it has to be very inexpensive. Knowing that most kids have 25+ kids in their class it adds up really fast. I have always tried to aim for under $1 per item, but the cheaper the better. This particular one definitely fits the bill and it is something that my kids love, even most of the older ones. 


Stickers are super popular, kids put them on everything from water bottles and electronics to notebooks and school supplies. I know my kids love them and when I worked with the PTA in one of my kids' schools we had a school store and the kids there love buying stickers. Plus they are super cheap, like the ones that I bought for this project was a cute animal sticker pack and it cost $5 or $6 for 100 stickers. We have gotten other packs, like Marvel themed stickers or Disney stickers, but you are still paying only a few cents per sticker so it is still a pretty cheap valentine. 


My youngest son really wanted to do sticky hands for his valentines and although I do have another idea for those, I realized that they would actually work for these cards as well, so if you want to use the Stick/Stuck Valentine Cards but don't want to do stickers sticky hands, or anything else that is sticky, could be a good alternative, and they are still super inexpensive. 



How to Make Sticker Printable Valentine Cards


You will need:



Instructions:


Print as many copies of the PDF as you need, each page will have 6 cards- 2 each of 3 different cards. 

Cut the cards out, I used the paper cutter and cut just outside the colored lines leaving a small border of white. 

I used 2 different methods to attach the stickers to the cards:

For the first option, and the easiest one (but hard to take a picture of), I used foam squares to stick the sticker on the back of the card. You could also use glue dots or double sided tape, I just used foam squares because I had some and they were just the first thing I saw. I do think the foam squares worked well because the fact that it was a little lifted up I think helped make it clear the sticker was meant to be taken off. If you use this option just make sure you just attach it in one little spot so it is easy for the kids to take the sticker off the back. 




The second option I used clear cellophane bags and punched a hole through both the bag and the card and tied it together with some string. With this option you can include more than one sticker which is kind of nice, and I think it is easier to see the stickers that are included with the card. However it is a little more effort to put together. 




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