Feb 12, 2011

Giant lolly pop valentines

So, first of all, for all the Americans reading, we British call "lolly pops" what you guys call "suckers", and for all the Brits reading, in the US St Valentine's day is waaaayheyheyyyy more commercialised than back home. All the kids trade valentines treats at school, which really is kinda cute and I have to admit that I do like that it is just about love in general and not exclusively love of the romantic variety. For anyone reading in a place other than the US or UK, how does your valentines day work? and what do you call lolly pops? By the way, we also call "popsicles", "ice lollies", which for some reason makes my American friends laugh and laugh like they have been huffing gas?!



Anyway, with all that cultural intrigue behind us, I just wanted to share with you the valentines cards that we sorted out this year and last year for the kids to give to their friends. A couple of years back I saw a post on 24-7-365 showing the way they had very cleverly made some personal valentines cards of their girls holding out lolly pops. You can see them here. (warning: cute overload) I really wanted to do something like this in 2010, but this exact idea wasn't quite going to work for us for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I wanted the girls to be able to give cards from the both of them, rather than make separate cards, and secondly I wanted to make the venture a bit cheaper to pull off, because we'd be printing them at home. The solution came in the form of a piece of white PVC plumbing pipe that we had lurking out the garage (these lengths of white plastic plumbing pipes along with their different connectors make very cool, very cheap building materials for kids to explore with, especially if you give them some bedsheets to throw over the constructions to make dens, but that's another post for another day). I just snapped a photo of the two girls holding the pipe together and then removed the background using Photoshop. If I hadn't had the ability to knock out the background with software then I would have just printed out the image at full size, cut it out with scissors and scanned it back into the computer with a white sheet of paper as the background then resized the image to fit on the postcard. The reason I removed the background on these images was to save on printer ink when printing so many copies on our home printer.


I also printed the cards on 4inch by 6inch plain index cards from Office Max, rather than using photo paper, which saved a bit too. As with the original idea, we just cut the holes and slotted in a lolly pop and it looked like the girls were holding a giant sucker, which they thought was total aceness of course.


This is the version from last year...



and this is the version from this year...


I also did one with just my older daughter for her to give to her classmates on Monday, leaving space for her to write in each classmate's name...


The text on these was from the handwriting font that my older daughter made when she was four. You can see how we did that here. I should really make an updated version!

I love how you can see the radical differences in my kid's personalities from these pictures. From the clothes they chose to wear, to the poses they struck. My older daughter is such a gorgeous little tomboy and my younger daughter is clearly dead set on being Cyndi Lauper when she grows up ;) We already knew that though. You just have to look at what they chose for Halloween costumes last year!


Just in case you have time today or tomorrow to make some valentinezy type stuff, here are a few links to older valentine's posts from Filth Wizardry that might be helpful...


Big love to you! and not just on Hallmark day either ;)

32 comments:

Rachel Bostwick said...

These are absolutely adorable. What a fabulous idea. We don't say suckers, though. We say lollipops. I guess it's regional.

andrea gardiner freeman said...

SEriously you have one of the most fun families.... faBulous.

We are a lollipop family too, and have afternoon tea, not always with biscuits though. ;o)

Your girls are too cool.

I have a friend who went to the dollar store recently and purchased "barbie" like dolls and with her daughter, made them into zombie dolls. They were fabulous.

Seems like right up your alley, but then again, I don't really know you now do I..... ;o)

~love your blog

~andrea

Mummyzilla said...

Valentines day is a bit of a non event in New Zealand (well for our family anyway) and its certainly not very commercialised.

We say lollipops, but we call ice lollies, ice blocks. (And you might consider a NZer saying 'eggs' to be really hilarious).

Jenny Squawk said...

Incredible! I already did our valentine's because my kid's class celebrated last Thursday, but these are spectacular. I usually like to include pictures with all the cards my girls send out because what little kid doesn't love pictures? I may be using this technique through out the year. Thank you!

kattyg said...

Oh my! I adore this card with these maxi lollypop!!!

Care said...

Incredible. Something about yours is just so much better than all the others I've seen... Probably your girls' adorable poses!

Fantastic, again! As always!

Sarah said...

I love this variant! (still have the other ones bookmarked for future use.)

We say lollipops too, both in the SE where I'm from and the NE where I live now. Suckers are west coast, maybe?

We normally say popsicles but my daughter picked up "ice lollies" from watching Peppa Pig and we go along with it.

This Girl loves to Talk said...

oh those cards are amazing!!

Valentines in australia is very similar to england I think.

I have never seen children give or receive anything.

After reading so many cute american valentines things about 3 years ago I decided to bake heart cookies for my girls to take to school... well did the parents look at me like I was crazy and WHY WOULD I DO SUCH A THING??

We will do a non comercialised dinner. The girls want lasagne with heart cookie cut out bread and I'm gonna try meringue hearts for desert :)

jojoebi-designs said...

The cards look great!
In Japan on Feb 14th the girls give boys they like chocolate, there are silly chocolates available that are quite cheap that you give to male friends and then for your 'love' you make them something special or buy expensive chocs. THEN, March 14th the boys are supposed to return the gifts but with marshmallows! Now, I do love a good marshmallow or two but I would much rather have a box of fancy chocs - who wouldn't? and although I have hinted at this every year that I have know DH (13 years in all) I still get a bag of marshamallows! aghhh

I am a Brit living abroad too so often come across the odd differences in language, an Aussie frind said she was bring a bag of lolly's to the park with her and when she got there it was a bag of sweeties, non of them on a stick!

Laura said...

My Northern California family also calls them lollipops. That photo of the two girls is just hilarious. I've got to remember this project for next year. This year my two year old is making cards for all her friends, but we're not passing out any candy.

Darnia said...

Here in New Zealand Valentine's Day isn't big at all...and if you do participate it's cards/gifts between adults...not kids.
We call ice lollies popsicles or iceblocks and call lollipops lollipops. A sucker here is someone who is gullible!

Debbie said...

First of all, I love those cards! How creative! Anyway, I'm an American living in the UK, and it's been extremely difficult to find Valentine's Day stuff here--most of what I have seen is for adults. So I do miss that about the US. As for lollipops, I grew up (in the Midwest US) saying lollipops too, but I also knew people who called them suckers. After 6 years, I've gotten used to ice lollies. : )

Rebekah said...

I just stopped by to look for something to do with my kids on Valentine's Day, so thanks for gathering all your (ever fabulous) ideas in one place.
Here in Japan, generally on Valentine's Day women give chocolate to men, and then one month later on "White Day", men reciprocate. It's not a big day of romance - that's reserved for Christmas Eve!

Jessica said...

HEre in Australia we also use Lollipop for those lovely hard boiled lollies on sticks:)
We dont really celebrate here, but thats just our family.We did some crafts this year and Nana brough Valentines cakes and things.I think we might make more effort next year but with our wedding anniversary the week before it gets a bit much!
Love the card idea:)

Nikoli said...

Simply brilliant.

Julie Liddle, ART IN HAND said...

East Coast US (Philadeplphia, Washington, DC)...Lollipops all the way. Great valentine concept. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it myself!!!

Leigh @ Toasted said...

Most of the other commenters have explained all about Australia. The only thing I can add is that we say Icy Poles for... hang on, I can't remember what you called them...anyway, the ice creams on sticks. Valentines Day round my house has a pretty high cringe factor. I've been quite surprised by all the American fervour.

Awesome cards!

A-M said...

Oh my, those are wonderful! We'll definitely be making those next year.

Liraluh said...

We say Lolly or Lutscher.

In Germany only Lovers and Couples give Gifts ore Flowers each other.
Thats to bade, your cards are so great!

Unknown said...

Everyone in Ohio (where I grew up) said "Suckers". I hated that, and have aways said "lollipops". Ohio also uses "pop" for soda. Hated that too... :) happy Valentine's Day!

Amy said...

I'm from Texas and I say "lollipop." And I love the holiday. My kids aren't even school age yet but we make and give Valentines to our friends and family every year.

Love your cards.

constance said...

Another American who says lollipop. (Notice we spell it differently though right? Ha.) I know people who say sucker though...I agree that it's regional (I'm in L.A. but my parents are Southeners. So...yeah.)

tinsenpup said...

That's so cute and clever. I was struck by how much your beautiful girls changed and grew in just a year.

Juise said...

These are super! I think we'll have to try some next year.

Anonymous said...

These are so insanely funny. And I love your girls' personalities.

c & b said...

What a cool idea for a VD card! Love them. All I did was just have M paint a giant heart and decorate it and then I photographed it and made multiples in Photoshop. We did make heart magnets for each card.
Christina

CupcakeLiz said...

OMGSH!! I want your youngest's skirt from this year's valentines for my daughter!!! Is it just tulle with other bright colors sewn on? Do you think some feather boas would work for the edging? I would LOVE to make it for her birthday in a few weeks...

cupcakeliz09(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

In Texas we celebrate it similarly to the way they do in the U.S.

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

Oh my goodness these are so fun!! We made lollipop photo valentine's this year too but I love the way you played the giant lolly aspect and used the PVC pipe -- might have to try some of these out for next year's cards. I always love to see the clever ideas you come up with!! Genius as always!! (LOVE!)

: )

MBK said...

I just stumbled across your blog and then ended up spending the past hour scrolling through the posts. Fantastic ideas! I love it!

anna said...

What a cool idea! I love it!!

Miriam the Mommy said...

We did this for shaloch manos Purim cards (on the Jewish holiday of Purim you give friends and neighbors edible goodies). Pictures are here: http://druyan.blogspot.com/2011/05/purim-cards.html. Thanks as always for inspiration!