Surprise Valentines

Today we’re making Surprise Valentines!  I hope your kids have just as much fun as mine did while making these!

Here’s what you’ll need to make Surprise Valentines:

• Cereal boxes or some other kind of thin cardboard
• Paper in Valentines colors
• Glue
• Scissors
• Candy
• Tape

Step 1)  Cut your cardboard and some paper into pieces approximately 3 x 3 inches.  You’ll need 2 pieces of cardboard and 2 pieces of paper per Valentine.

Step 2)  Glue the paper to the colored side of the cardboard to cover it up.  Set them aside for later.

Step 3)  Take an 8.5 x 11 in piece of paper and cut it evenly into 4 strips the long way.  (Yes, I realize there’s only 3 strips above.  My daughter was using the 4th strip.)

Step 4)  Accordion fold each strip into 8 sections.

Step 5)  Cut a half-heart out of the folded accordion making sure you leave an uncut edge on the unfolded edge.

Step 6)  Unfold the hearts and glue half of a heart end onto one of your cardboard pieces.  You can glue it to either the paper or the cardboard side depending on how you want the front of the Valentine to look.  Glue the other half-heart end to another cardboard piece making sure you glue to the same side of the cardboard as you did your first end.

Step 7)  Write words on your hearts such as “friend” and “smile” or “valentine” (whatever you want!)

Step 8)  Fold the hearts back up between the two cardboard pieces.

Step 9)  Decorate the front of your Valentines however you want.  Say stuff like, “You Make Me…” (inside Smile) or “You’re My Best…” (inside Friend) or “You’re The Best…” (inside Valentine).  Whatever sayings you want!

Step 10)  Tape a piece of candy to the front of the Valentine making sure there’s a small amount of tape that wraps around to the back piece of cardboard.

When the Valentine recipient takes the candy off of the front of the card, the surprise will be that the hearts will unfold!