cognizable: The PURR-fect Valentine

My 8-year-old daughter loves CATS! Not the broadway musical, (although I’m sure if she knew about it, she would love that too), but the cute, little, cuddly, fuzzy cat images seen on notebooks, calendars, and stickers. Each year we try to come up with a festive, handmade Valentine card to pass out to her classmates. I’ve been tempted (and when pressed for time, caved) to crank out the pre-made, store-bought ones, but making Valentine’s by-hand gives us an opportunity to spend some time together with a rewarding, creative result. This year’s idea is inspired by my daughter’s cat-infatuation and is an easy, trifold assembly of circle and heart shapes made with craft punches and circle cutters. Craft punches provide an excellent chance for kids to build professional-looking projects, while improving fine motor skills and hand strength. I like Martha Stewart’s collection of craft punches the best and used her scalloped, 1” circle punch for the cat’s cheeks.

Supplies

8 1/2" x 11" light pink card stock

white, dark pink and black card stock

3 1/2 " circle cutter

1" scalloped circle punch

1 3/4 " heart punch

1/2 " heart punch

heart shaped hole punch

glue stick

metal ruler

X-acto knife

self healing cutting mat

scalloped scissors

Assembly

1. Using your metal ruler, X-acto knife and self healing cutting mat, trim 1" from the short side of the 8 1/2 " x 11" pink paper so the size becomes 8 1/2" x 10".

2. Fold card stock into itself, creating three, nearly equal sized panels (think business letter fold). Each 8 1/2" x 10" piece of card stock will yield two Valentines.

3. Place 3 1/2" circle cutter at the top of the folded pink card stock,

holding securely, firmly cut a circle through three layers of card stock.

Be sure the circle cutter extends beyond the folds to avoid cutting through them.

4. Punch a 1 3/4" heart from the light pink and white card stock, glue back to back and cut in half. The half hearts will become the ears of the cat to be glued at the top of the inside of the trifold’s center circle.

5. Cut a 3 1/2" circle from the white card stock and glue to the back of the center pink circle on the trifold. Cut a 3 1/2" dark pink circle, trim with scalloped scissors and glue to the inside of the center circle, covering the bottom tabs of the ears.

6. Using the 1" scalloped circle punch make 4 white circles and 2 light pink circles — these will be used for the cat’s cheeks.

7. Punch 6 dark pink 1/2" hearts for the tongues and noses,

then 6 black, hole punch hearts for the eyes.