Valentine's Day Paranoia

Last year I helped Cole make his Valentine box for school.  I thought it was awesome, (it was a car with a working trunk) but he told me he thought it looked like a girl's box because it had so many hearts on it, some of which were pink.  Worse yet, he came home from school and told me his friends agreed with him.  I felt really sorry for the poor kid.  I get paranoid about the boys suffering because they are being raised by  grandparents whose ideas are often a generation removed from "cool".  I don't want them to be dorks on account of me.

This year I decided it was better to relinquish control of creating the Valentine box than risk disappointment.  I kept my mouth shut and let Cole design the box. He let me do the tough stuff, but he was right there to make sure I didn't ruin it for him again.

We started by wrapping the box in freezer paper.  It does a good job of hiding the printing and labels that show through thin paper.  Then we wrapped it in self-made orange wrapping paper.  I had to tape several 8x10 sheets of paper together to satisfy his specifications.

Then we went searching for the perfect football graphic on Print Shop, cut two of them out and Mod Podge'd them to a heavy piece of cardboard.  I suggested we put "I love football" on the box.  "Nope.  Hearts and the "L" word are for girls", he said.  "Valentine's Day is about who you love, not about a bunch of hearts and junk that girls like."

So, we went with the expression of what he loves.  We printed off some Bangels logos and I cut out his name with my handy dandy Silhouette cutter and slapped them on with more Mod Podge.  He suggested tiger stripes would be nice, and so they were added.

 

I swear he's the only kid in a 500 mile radius who is a Cincinnati Bengals fan.  He loves them.  He loves them more than driving his four-wheeler and all his video games combined.  I never would have dreamed Valentine's Day had anything to do with the Cincinnati Bengals, but now I do because, as I was told, it's all about who you love and I think he is right.

Cole was very pleased.  But, someone else was not.

You see, I can't possibly cook AND create all in the same evening, so I told Glen he was in charge of feeding the boys.  He told me he was going to be mad a me for a whole week.  I told him I don't cook for people who are mad at me.  He got over it and I went back to trying to be cool.

As luck would have it, Missy over at the Little Green Bean who is young, cool, very clever and nice enough to share her awesome projects,  (You MUST click on the red letters and go visit her site!) made the cutest darn Valentines and I just HAD to steal her idea for Cole.  She has complete instructions on her blog and does a much better job explaining things than I do, but here is our rendition of her cool Valentines:

We were able to personalize each of them on the computer and Cole was elated that he didn't have to "waste his time" writing them all out. I was able to print four per sheet and my printer (HP Photosmart D7160) prints edge to edge.    All I had to do was cut them apart with the paper cutter and punch out holes for the suckers. 

I feel so much better now.  Cole is happy, Glen decided it wasn't wise to pout about having to take care of one little meal and my paranoia about raising a dork by default is at ease for now.