my little valentine

I'm not so into heart shaped boxes of chocolates or a dozen red roses, but I'm very much into these little guys.

Valentines day is here, and my little ones need something to drop off with their friends... preferably something cute and little and filled with candy. I was remembering some little Christmas matchboxes we did when I was at the Kids magazine, so we revamped them for Valentine's day. 

You can find little packs of matchboxes at the grocery store, I found mine near the cigarettes. They usually come in packs of 10 and shouldn't run you more than $1.50 or so. (Dump the matches out and save them for your next blackout.) Cut a piece of paper 2" high (or the height of your matchbox) and about 4" long (enough to wrap all the way around). I used a bit of tape to secure it on the back.

You can do these anyway you like. I love the portraits C drew of his friends at school (his idea).. They may all look the same at first glance, but he can tell you who each one is. I cut the paper down to the right size first, then wrapped it around the box after he was finished. For other matchboxes I used a little heart punch and glued a little bit of paper underneath. And some got a simple little band. 

Fill with candy (regular m and ms and candy corn will fit nicely), tuck in a little note, wrap with string if desired, and add a name tag or first initial. Then off to school!

Comments

[Carol]

Hi Brooke - I was so excited to realize I had come upon your blog earlier today. I followed a link from another blog and then saw you were actually the one who had come up with the cute valentines and lots of other lovely things. Thanks for the inspiration! - Carol Ford

[Rebecca Pierce]

I thought I should tell you that I loved the matchbox idea and used it for part of a v-day party I did for my kids and their friends. I am posting a link to your idea on my little family blog with the pics of my little creations. I am a good friend of Sommer's and she always raves about your creativity and I finally made it to your blog and wound up going to the store and staying up way too late making little matchboxes the night before the party. Thanks for the idea!

[Maria]

Caution: matches have this poisonous element in them; lining the box with some paper or folding some paper around the sweets would be better.
But the boxes look beautiful.

[Aimee]

Fell in love with this idea...and made many this afternoon...they were SO EASY and SO CUTE!!!

[Christina]

Ok this was the best idea ever. The match boxes were only 10 cents a piece and I had all of the other supplies @ home. My kids had so much fun with this project. Thank you so much. I actually linked this idea from my blog so even more people could share the wealth.

vivafullhouse.blogspot.com

[Taylor]

Thanks for the box of candy! hehe

[Christina]

Oh one more thing where did you get that read and white trim?

Thank you so much.

Christina

[summer]

love it, love it, love it! I am SO doing this next year!

[Melanie]

Thank you thank you for this idea! I was bummed out looking at the store character valentines. We made these last night and had a blast!

[Mefi]

storing this! lovely!

[Andi - udandi]

oh I love these and I have blank slider boxes that would work well!

[Erin]

I just made these with my daughter they turned out adorable! I ended up writing a little note inside each one. So cute. Thanks for the idea.

[Becky]

love the little "jellyfish" people!

[danielle]

hi brooke,

i'm SO glad i found ur blog.. i love children's books, kids' gifts, NY city and nifty crafts... inchmark just sums it all up with one URL! it was always my dream to work for martha stewart kids n i was bummed to discover that the magazine was discontinued.. now i'm stoked to have another outlet for ms kids..

danielle (big dorky fan)

[Pam]

I totally love these! And I will be linking next month and agian closer to Christmas.. You did a beautiful job with this. I was thinking about doing something along these lines but these are so much better than anything I could come up with. Bravo!

[Trish]

These were SO cute, I just had to share the making of them with the church 'craft night' that I host every month - everyone loved them - and I wanted you to know that your lovely idea spread to at least 15 other gals who made....oodles of them....

[Rachel]

These matchbooks are delightful. And I see how you can decorate them for any holiday, theme, etc. What a sweet idea for Valentines Day.

[Julia]

What a wonderful idea! I have never seen pink candy corn - I have now seen the perfect candy.

[callie]

I saw an image of yours(valentine boxes) on Decor 8's Flickr photostream and instantly fell in love! Luckily, someone linked it back to your blog. I've been searching your archives for over an hour now.....heaven! thank you so much for all these awesome ideas!

Are you on Flickr?

[Sarah]

I made my own little boxes and put cheerios inside (since they were for kids one and under). I loved this craft!