Love, Lily (Classmate Card Tutorial)

Last year Lily went the traditional route and picked store-bought Tinkerbell Valentines and filled them out. Then I attached lollipops with a whole lot of scotch tape. They looked super messy BUT they were made with time and thought. But that was the year I saw this awesome school Valentine's via Design Mom via 24-7-365.

It was too late to try some of our own so I waited patiently for next year to come around. And last night we finished up our homemade versions! I had to take her photo last minute before school yesterday morning so we didn't do anything fun with her hair or clothes like I would have preferred to do but I think they came out okay.
I included a tutorial below. Lily was confused/curious about the 3-D effect in the photo which I thought was cute. All together this project cost me $30. Mostly because I took the picture to Staples to print out AND I had to make 40 cards all together. If you printed them at home the only cost would be your lollipops....and the cost of photo paper and ink.

I'm so excited to hear what the kids thought of them.
Update! Lily took her Valentines to school. And they were the belle of the ball:) One girl said it was a very "good" idea. Hehe. A couple kids asked Lily how she did it. Her response...."I DON'T KNOW! I was my mom's idea!" 

Although Lily said that Mr. Lego made them throw away the lollipops once they reached the gum in the center. I didn't even think of that. So if you plan on doing this remember DON'T use Blow Pops! Tootsie Roll pops would work well instead. Next Monday we take them to Girl Scouts. Can't wait! Fortunately the girls can chew gum there.

1. First print out two photos per page on thick photo paper. 

I made my cards in Photoshop. SEE, I told you photoshop is a must-have for  DIY crafters:)

When you take the photo of your child have them hold out their hand in front of them, not to the side. Try to get a sense of depth (ie. blur their hand or be sure their hand is as at least half the size of their face).

 2. On a separate piece of plain paper print out the recipients name and a message. Leave some space to the right for the holes.

 3. Spray the back of the photo paper with craft spray glue.

 4. Place printed names on back of photos. Be sure not to glue them on upside down;)

 5. Make a slit just above the index finger using either an exacto knife or rotary cutter. An exacto knife will probably get you a cleaner result.

 6. Make another slit just below the pinky finger. If you use an exacto knife you can make a slit around the pinky instead of a straight line to look more realistic.

7. Cut out photos with a paper cutter.

 8. Slide lollipop in. Some tips: Don't buy a lollipop that has a square shape since it will cover the word "Day". If you want to use a square shaped pop move the words to another place in the valentine. Also, I used blow pops and they are kind of heavy. It still worked for our cards. But you might want to use a smaller lollipop if you can find one. I just don't like Dumdums. They're too small. I couldn't find anything in between.

Lastly, add a piece of scotch tape to the back to hold lollipop in place. Done.
ADDENDUM:
Reader Brianne mentioned printing your photos at Walgreens for only $5 which is a lot cheaper. This was my response:

Brianne,
Yes! That's totally true! I should have mentioned that in my post. I decided to have them printed on a sheet because I wanted to glue the paper on the back with the printed names and I wanted to make the card thicker. I guess you could cut 4x6 pieces of paper and glue them on the photos but I was worried that I wouldn't get it perfect and the paper would show. In hindsight, it's a high price to pay for something not that important! PLUS, my lollipops were heavy so I had to get the paper thicker. If I had to do it on the cheap I'd print them out at Walmart and buy a smaller lollipop maybe dumdums? Or something a little larger and write the message on the back rather than printing them.

OOoooOOoooOOooo, just had a thought. You could print them at Walgreens or Walmart....whatever, glue the paper on the back then cut four sides of the photo so that the edges were clean. No one said they had to be exactly 4x6. Another tip would be to add a white border around your photo so that when they printed you had a guide to where to cut AND you wouldn't be cutting any of the actual picture.

I wonder how much it would cost to get postcards printed at a print shop. Probably a lot. Then again, when I worked as a graphic designer, often small jobs were less expensive than you'd think. Postcards would be perfect because you could customize the front and back.

If you call around to a couple print shops they are often very competitive and will meet the price of another printer.

I don't recommend going to corporate print shops like Staples and Kinkos. I've found that often their staff is not as well educated in printing. And my work has come out with ends cut off and size misrepresented. AND (at least at the store I go to) the staff seems very irritated when you want them to fix something they've printed incorrectly. For instance....I had them print out some patterns I had made once. They grossly cut off pieces of the pattern and it wasn't until I got home did I realize what they had done. I had to drive the entire way back and ask them to fix it which they seemed oddly irritated by. Unprofessional.

I've found the smaller printers are more eager to get your business. If you are doing a large job they will often drive out to your address to deliver proofs. They know you by name and obviously so much better customer service for exactly the same price.

Anyway, I got off track but that's my cents about printers:)