If you’re like me, you had grand plans to send out Valentine’s Day cards BEFORE Valentine’s Day. Which means if you’re like me and you have kids, you probably don’t yet have valentines for them to take to school. Sure, you could go to the store and fight the mob of crazed parents and try to find some decent valentines in the piles of picked-over boxes, or you could be a little more creative and spend the same amount of money (or less!).

All you need is your kid (or animal), a camera, and some creativity.

For our cards, I put Annabel in her chair, and grabbed my word bubble chalkboard. I had Mike sit behind her, and I took two poses:

valdayblank2

valdayblank1

If you don’t have a chalkboard word bubble laying around (I got mine from Photojojo), just use some paper.

Then, using photoshop, I added expressions to her word bubble.

vald3

vald1

vald5

vald2

vald4

vald6

Now, if you have markers, you can write the expression right on your paper. I had, uh, misplaced my chalk, so that’s why I used photoshop. If you don’t have photoshop, I suggest using either the HP Creative Studio, or Picnik.

Once you have the poses and phrases the way you like them, you can either print photos at home, or take the photo files to your local drugstore that has printing capabilities. I would print these on either wallet-sizes or 4×6 so there is room for your child to write a note on the back.

And you’re done! Your cards are personalized and unique, and you don’t have to fight the other last-minute mamas at Target for store-bought valentines. Win!

If you want to share your creative valentines, leave a link in the comments, or join the flickr group and add your photos.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Spohrs!