TUTORIAL: Valentine's Advent Calendar

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Yup, Yup. I did it. I made another Advent Calendar...Valentine's Style! I don't know about you but I've seen a few of these floating around the internet over the last couple of years and always thought they were a cute idea.  Many of them are done as bunting but we just don't have a whole lot of wall space for that so I finally sat down and figured out a way to put it together that worked best for our home.

This is another "Heart Art" project that is easy to put together and has such a high cute factor that I can't believe I waited so long to get one done! 

Each envelope has a cute little heart inside where I wrote a little somethin' somethin'.  Each one varies from an "experience" to do to a sweet love note to my kids.

Valentine's Advent Calendar

Large piece of foam board 

Small paper envelopes (mine were 3.25"x3.25" squares)

Mini clothespins

Twine or yarn

Glue Dots or Hot Glue or Double Stick Tape

Fiskars paper heart punch

Scrapbook paper

Number stamps and ink pad

Heart Shapes PDF printable (here)

The first thing I did when making my board was to measure out how to evenly space the yarn for each of the 14 envelopes to hang.  I decided I liked them about 6 inches apart. Cut a small slit on both the right and left sides of board for each piece of yarn (making sure they are the same distances from the top of the board!) so the yarn has a place to "hook in to" otherwise the yarn will slowly start to slide down the board with the weight of the envelopes and clothespins. 

Then cut a long enough piece of yarn or twine so that you can lay it across the foam board and hook it into each side slit and still be able to tie it together at the back of the board.

 {the back of the board}

Yay! The board is done!
Now onto the envelopes.  I bought these cute square Kraft paper envelopes and Number stamps at Michael's. They also sell small rectangular envelopes and a plain white style too but the square Kraft paper ones stole my heart! :-)

Punch 14 hearts using your heart punch and scrapbook paper.  I used Glue Dots to attach one to the front side of each envelope, like so.

Then stamp numbers 1-14 in the middle of each heart for each day in February leading up to Valentine's Day.

Using your mini clothespins, hook each envelope to your twine/yarn and you have yourself a sweet little Valentine's Advent Calendar!

You can just use small slips of paper to write your love notes or experiences but of course I had to go one step further.  I made a Heart Shape Printable (found here) and cut 14 out to write on and tuck inside each envelope.

If you are needing ideas of what to write here are the 14 ideas I came up with in no particular order:

1.   Let's make cupcakes!
2.   Daddy date with Penny
3.   Mommy date with Noah
4.   Daddy date with Ellie
5.   You are my sunshine!
6.   We love you all so much! To the moon and back again :-)
7.   Kids choice for dinner tonight!
8.   Here's a kiss for you, my sweeties! (they each get a little bag of Hershey's kisses)
9.   Ice Cream Sundaes for dessert (with pink and red sprinkles)
10. Let's make fingerprint heart art
11. Roses are red, Violets are blue, you are all so loved, you make us cuckoo!
12. This heart is good for one movie of your choice tonight
13. 'Donut' make you happy to know you are loved? (I'll make or buy donuts for breakfast that day)
14. It's Valentine's Day (Heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast!)

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,