GRADE SCHOOL VALENTINE SWAP

Remember back in grade school when you and your classmates used to put heart and soul into making beautiful mail boxes, which you put your names on and set it up on your desk or the window sill, or along the blackboard of your classroom? Then you made valentines for all the kids in your class, and on Valentine's day you delighted in putting one in each of your classmate's mail boxes, all the while sneaking peeks at your own box to make sure it was getting filled up too? Then you retrieved your box and eagerly spread your beautiful valentines out on your desk and read what each of your classmates wrote to you? Some gave you the warm feeling of friendship, and others a shiver, as you opened the one from that kid who always teased you, or the ~boy~ you wished would notice you were alive. Wasn't that fun?

Hitty loves fun! Hitty wants to play the Valentine Post Game!

Can you help her make a mail box? You can make one for all your Hittys to share, or one for each of them. That is your choice, because you will be keeping this so Hitty can receive her valentine deliveries.

When I was in school, my favorite mail box was made from a cereal box with the top cut to open about an inch down, like British and hanging postal boxes are. I also remember ones made from manila folders stapled up the sides, and gaily decorated. You can make yours however you like, but decorate it prettily in a Valentine theme for your Hittys.

The second part is that you and your Hittys will make Hitty sized valentines to share with anyone on this list who signs up to participate. After you sign up, you will receive everyone's addresses and will mail individually to each person. This is NOT a centralized swap, as we have done in the past. You will receive multiple addresses and send one valentine to each address. We will not know until sign-ups close, how many participants we will have, but each let's plan on sending out about 10. That way you will send out 10 and can expect 10 in return, if every swapper follows through.

Got that so far?

Your valentine MUST be hand made, in Hitty's size, which means each one will be about the size of a postage stamp. You can decorate with a tiny painting or drawing, or you can do little collages with bits of doily and cut outs. My favorites as a child had candies or buttons glued to them. What about tiny conversation hearts made from sculpey? You may use printies, but ONLY as part of your card. The idea is that the cards are to be hand made, and heartfelt.

These days scrapbooking is so popular that you can find thousands of doodads that inspire you and enhance your tiny cards. There are decorative hole punches that make silhouettes just the right size, decorative brads, sealing wax, jewels, silk flower petals... the variety is truly endless. Be original - be funny, sappy, sweet, or demure. Be Hitty. Be mine.

It is particularly nice, but not required, to make envelopes to go with them, and to write tiny notes on them. There are many methods for making envelopes, or you can buy them ready made in craft stores. It is entirely up to you if you'd like to add a human size valentine for Hitty's person. You will, of course, be mailing in a full sized envelope.

The trick to writing on a tiny card is to use a size .005 micron pen and a magnifying glass with good lighting. It's easy with these tools.

To give you an idea of what a Hitty sized card looks like, here is a a current ebay auction for just such cards, made by Tasha Tudor and her children: Click here for auction

I'd like to see this be an Extra Effort swap, so to add a little incentive, I will award the person who puts the most zing into their valentines a prize. That prize will be a set of hand made Delft tiles with a valentine motif. In Hitty's scale, of course! Judging will be done by various members of my family, based on the ones that come to our house (I think they will be difficult to see in online photos). Do plan on posting your Hitty post box with valentines in the photo file on hittygirls.

Valentine's day is when? February 14th!. All valentines need to be in the mail by February 7th at the very latest. This is a busy time for the post office, so sooner than that is recommended. You don't want to be late and miss the judging, because yours are bound to be the grandest of all! So, let's have an online party where we all photograph the valentines we got to share with the group.
So, on Valentine's Day, grab your dixie cup of kool-aid and your heart cookies, open all of your valentines and then share them with the
group.

Pauline N.