Sneak Peek: Hazeline’s Fishy Valentines

You want to know something horrible?  Last year, I didn’t send Hazeline to school with any Valentines.  Not a single one.  Not even cards for her teachers.  And by February of last year, Hazeline was nearly a year old, in the older toddler room, and they most certainly had a Valentine’s Day celebration…she just didn’t bring any Valentines for her friends.  Considering I’ve always sent Greenleigh to school with Valentine’s Day cards and treats for her party, I felt pretty bad when I realized what I did (you know, on Valentine’s morning) and while I could argue that I was battling a bad case of food poisoning the day before Valentine’s Day last year, in all reality, there’s no excuse for it.  I had to make up for it to make up for it this year.

So last month when I saw a fish bowl valentine idea that included Swedish fish candy I thought, “Oh, that looks easy, I’ll do that.  It’s just a fish bowl outline, blue water, and some letters, right?  How hard could it be?”  For a few minutes I fooled myself into believing that I could actually do something like make a printable or design my own Valentines.  Remember, I don’t do that kind of stuff.  After about 3 minutes, and realizing I totally fall short in this type of creative category, I ran back to Claudia, a friend of mine in the office who is into all kinds of graphic design.  Simply put, she’s a genius when it comes to this stuff.  I flew into her office with a print out in hand and was all, “Can you do this?  You can do this, right?  We can make this happen?”.  Luckily, she puts up with me.

In the days following, emails were exchanged, a design was born, and mock up was made.  And you know they’re a winner when even your husband mentions how cute they are.

Of course, when I went to purchase my Swedish fish candy, my drug store didn’t have any.  Instead, they had a generic red gummy fish candy that cost probably half the price – I’m telling you, this shopping at the last minute thing is really working for me this Valentine’s Day.  The cellophane bags are from Party City, and while they came with their own silver twist ties, I decided to use ribbon (left over from another project) instead.

Such an easy and affordable (and cute!) Valentine’s Day idea…all courtesy of my friend Claudia.  Based on my post from yesterday, I think it’s pretty clear that I need help from my others to be able to pull off a Hallmark holiday like Valentine’s Day.  It’s cool, I’m okay with that.

If you want, you can even print your own FishyValentines by clicking here.  Just print them, write your child’s name after the heart, cut them out, and pick up some cellophane bags and red gummy fish.  Voila – Fabulous Fishy Valentines!