It's almost Valentine's Day! My husband and I basically ignore the holiday with each other (other than one tradition), but my family likes to exchange cards. (James and I have a tradition that the day after Valentine's Day, we go out and buy the biggest box of chocolates we can find, for half price, and share them for dessert the rest of the month.) With the rest of my family, we realized when our daughter turned two that we had hit the jackpot; no more handing our money to Hallmark, because we have a little card-crafter right here in the house.
So, every Valentine's Day, we set our daughter up at the kitchen table with blank cardstock, a pile of heart stickers, some pink and red markers, and let her go to town. Cards for everyone! Yay! This year, Beth learned that if you write on pink paper with a pink marker, it doesn't show up. I got to explain contrasting colors to her, and she subsequently chose a purple marker.
Last year we tried glitter glue, but it was slightly disastrous (note: three is still too young for glitter glue). This year, she could probably handle the glitter glue, but it has gone MIA somewhere in the “craft room” (seriously, don't try to go in there… It might swallow you and we wouldn't even know where to start looking). Besides, stickers are the best. She loves putting them on, they are fairly tidy, and we somehow have a never-ending supply of them. (Where do all those stickers come from?)
We also spent some quality time together this weekend, getting cards and candy ready to take to Beth's class at preschool. She was so excited to help put the cards and candy together.
Next year, when Beth is a little older, I have a fantastic Valentine's craft to do with her. I have students in my library make light up Valentine's cards. They love it, and actually learn some science while they're at it. I can't wait to try it with Beth and I'm sure my family will be impressed with the results.
Here is how we do it. They are fairly easy to make and all the supplies can be found on Amazon, in Hobby Lobby, or even at the dollar store. All you need are the following supplies:
- Cardstock
- Markers, stickers, decorations, etc.
- Copper tape (¼”)
- Scotch tape
- Mini LED bulb (surface mount)
- Coin cell battery (3v Lithium)
To create the card, there are just a few steps.
- First, fold your paper to the size card you want and draw or decorate the front. When you are done, on the inside, draw a simple parallel circuit with the LED bulb in the location you want to light up. You will need to have two pics of copper tape running from the battery to the LED; one too each “leg” of the LED.
- Place the two pieces of copper tape on the lines you drew between the LED and the battery.
- Tape a piece of copper tape face down to the battery, then tape the battery to the copper tape that is attached to the card (you are making a sandwich of the battery between copper tape). The piece of copper tape that is face down on the battery needs to reach to the other piece of copper tape on your card. This is the on/off "switch".
- Bend the legs of the LED out flat and tape the LED so that each leg is touching one of the copper tape pieces. Test the LED. If it didn't work, turn it 180 degrees, so that the legs are facing the opposite way. LEDs have one negative and one positive leg and they have to be on the correct side. To make the LED work the best, take a small piece of copper tape and tape it face down over the leg of the LED to hold the contract in place.
- Cut a small hole in the front of your card where the LED can poke through, and write “Press Here” above your "switch". If your "switch" needs some extra space to stop it from being on all the time, I found that creating two springs from two strips of cardstock crisscrossed over each other (photo below) can help lift the card so it is not pressing on the copper tape and activating the card. Glue or tape a spring on either side of the "switch".Once you have done that, you can glue the card together.
- Give someone your awesome card and watch them smile.
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