Do It Yourself Valentine's

This marks the first year the boys will be handing out Valentine's to their classmates. They are loving school and come home with the sweetest stories about who played with who on the playground.  I think it's adorable that they're making new friends so I wanted to do something a little special for them this Valentine's holiday.

  

There are countless ways to create your own labels, cards, images using a wide range of tools.  Today I'm sharing my approach.  I use Ribbet to edit all the pictures and images for my blog.  I wish I knew how to use PhotoShop - but I don't (must add "Learn PhotoShop" to bucket list).  Nevertheless, Ribbet is free, it's easy and it works for me.  

First, create a blank template.  Using Ribbet, open up any picture that you've uploaded. Then select the "Stickers" tab at the top of the screen.  On the left hand side there is a "Basic Geometric" tab.  Chose the rectangle shape.  A little black rectangle will appear on your picture.  Change the color to white and stretch the shape out to cover the entire picture.  Now you have a blank slate to start creating.

To create the text, select the "Text" tab at the top of the screen.  There are dozens of great fonts to choose from on the left.  You can also edit the text color, size, etc using the little "Text Properties" box that pops up when you add text to your image.



Just play around with it - be creative and mix fonts, sizes, colors.  When you're finished and happy with how it looks - crop and save your image.  Go to the "Basic Edits" tab at the top.  Select "Crop" to crop the image.  Then select "Save" and name your image.

To create a border around your image repeat the first couple of steps (selected any picture, create and stretch a white rectangle over the picture to create a blank template).  In the same tab, select the rectangle shape again.  This rectangle will become the "border" - I chose to make it the same color red that I used in the text image.  Then overlay the colored rectangle with another white rectangle.  Stretch the white rectangle to the desired size to create a border.



To add the image inside the border, click on the "Photo Basket" tab at the bottom of your screen and select the saved image you created.  Move the image inside the border.



Then save your new image.

Now that your image is created you are ready to Print it.  I created another blank template and added the image twice for these Valentine's labels to create 2 tent labels per heavy card stock piece of paper.

I'm ready to start assembling - supplied with my labels, Peeps, baker's twine, pencil, scissors, hole punch and treat bags.

Using the treat bag tent card trace around the Valentine label.  Then cut it out and fold it in half to create a tent card.  Next,  place the Peeps marshmallow heart (YUM!) inside a treat bag and used the hole punch and baker's twine to attach the tent card to the bag.

I love this idea so much that I created a similar concept for Ben's Valentine's with pop rocks!

I hope the kids like them (and that their parent's aren't offended that I'm pumping them with sugar!)  But hey, everyone needs a little sugar on V-Day, right???

I'm sharing this post with these fun parties this week:
Get Your DIY On at House by Hoff * Give Me the Goods at So Much Better with Age * Hit Me With Your Best Shot at Just a Girl and Blog * The Inspiration Exchange at Clean & Scentsible * Work It Wednesday at The Turquoise Home * The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush * Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now * Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest * Link Party Palooza at I Heart Naptime