It’s easy to go to your local store and buy a box of Valentine’s Day cards for your kid’s class, but maybe you can make a couple of special Valentine cards for a teacher, older kids, or even your favorite planner geek. These are easy and inexpensive greetings that you can make with supplies you may have at home.
I found some Hello Kitty puffy stickers, along with superhero and Despicable Me minion stickers—because they’re just the type of GeekMom supplies I have lying around my house. You’ll also want to scrounge up the following items:
- Paper clips (any size, test to see what is appropriate)
- Sharp scissors (smaller works better for details)
- Index cards or heavy cardstock
- Glue gun (optional)
The larger paper clips work better for most applications.
Take your puffy stickers of choice and sandwich a paper clip between the sticker and your index card. Apply a good amount of pressure all over the sticker. Be careful how you position the paper clip; you’ll want to make sure that you can slide the paper clip onto the edge of a piece of paper (or whatever you’re clipping together).
After the stickers are adhered to the index card for backing, cut around the sticker shape. (Yes, this can be a little tedious. I had a better time with the square-shaped lenticular superhero stickers.)
For stickers that are not puffy (typical stickers), you can still make paper clip embellishments by adhering the sticker to cardstock first, cutting the shape, and then using a glue gun to apply the paper clip. I would not recommend sandwiching the clip between the sticker and cardstock because the sticker will likely rip.
If you’re lucky, you may find an exact double of a puffy sticker, so you can just sandwich the clip in between the two stickers.
Lastly, take another (plain) index card (or cardstock) and hand-write a greeting to go with your embellished paper clip. I used washi tape to hold the clip in place.
**UPDATE** A friend commented about handwriting. What if you don’t like yours? I say it’s all about the homemade feel… use what you have: a print-out, rubber stamps, labels, stickers, etc.
I know some teachers who will totally enjoy this little treat… and as for the rest of my stickers, I may need to buy some more large paper clips so I can use them in my own planner or as bookmarks! Enjoy!
