Valentine ideas: Re-enact an historical Valentine assembly line with modern and/or eco-friendly Valentine supplies

Make a prototype of a handmade Valentine that has enough assembly jobs for the number of people you want in your Valentine Assembly line (folding, cutting, gluing, trimming, stamping, coloring, applying stickers, etc.). (See Valentine image ideas at the end.)

If there are many people in the group, you can manufacture more than one prototype, or simply have multiple assembly lines for the same Valentine. For Valentine card variety without changing the main Valentine supplies and production line of the Valentines, use a variety of card stock colors or thick papers for the main Valentine piece, such as interchanging antique paper, bright red paper, and marbled paper.

Gather your Valentine supplies and set up the Valentine assembly line project with plenty of space and seating for each segment of the manufacturing process.

Gather your workers and tell the story of Esther Howland. Show each step of the Valentine-making process, then assign jobs. Begin the process in slow motion, working out any kinks, then pick up the pace. Have an attractive place to stack the growing number of Valentines in visible view of the workers.

Participants love the group energy and satisfaction from being a valued part of creating quantities of a beautiful product. Many people (though there are exceptions) don’t want a lifetime of assembly line work. For them that’s overdoing it. But participating in a short term historical re-enactment Valentine's Day project allows the group fun of it to emerge.

Add an additional purpose to the Valentine making project. Send them to soldiers (you can find addresses of soldiers who don’t get a lot of mail online), to a homeless shelter, nursing home, or just out to extended family.

Making Valentine's is classic among school Valentine's Day ideas. If you're working with a classroom, each child can take one home to Mom, Dad or another caretaker. Or, sell them as fundraisers bake-sale style February 1st all the way until February 14th afternoon. Handmade Valentines are back in style again. If your Valentine supplies aren’t donated, you may need to look into wholesale art and craft supplies for a fundraiser.

You may want to brainstorm Valentine ideas for themes that match the group. A group of quilters may want a quilting theme. A group of students studying the ocean may want Valentines themed around sea creatures. Other ideas for Valentine themes include spiritual themes if being sold or given out to your church, local flora and fauna, feature a local artist’s drawing (kids color it in and put on trim) or poet (see about messages below), hand-made paper with imbedded local wildflower seeds, cartoon drawings, fairies and butterflies. Be sure to avoid copyright infringement on anyone’s art or writing, especially if selling them.

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Leave them blank inside for hand-written messages. They can have inside decorations, though. If selling them, sell them with a sheet of original Valentine wording ideas.

Valentine ideas for Valentine supplies include:
- hand-made paper
- stickers
- real pressed flowers
- wood-cuts
- custom made rubber stamp
- paper punches
- paper lace
- fabric store ribbon
- calligraphy
- stencils
- adornments from scrapbooking supply stores which can include metallic, sparkling and glass-like stick-ons
- tissue paper collages or "stained glass"
- rubbings
- fabric store buttons
- felt
- sequins
- and hand-coloring a pre-printed drawing.

You may want to rubber stamp the back of each Valentine with the name of your Valentine Company. If you’ve featured eco-friendly paper or a local artist, mention that as well.

Here are a few Valentine ideas for bringing the project into the 21st century:

• Look for eco-friendly paper.
• Allow just a touch of computer into the project by printing out custom designed stickers to decorate the envelopes or to stick onto the Valentines. Hand-colored stickers, though, are another great Valentine assembly line project.
• Allow a tiny bit of personal design to the assembly line work (never allowed in real manufacturing). For example, give a choice of different stickers or lace colors for each one to be chosen at the time of application, as long as it doesn’t slow down the production.

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