Anouk originally picked her own valentines this year -- some paint-with-water ones we found at Walgreens. But sadly, when we got home and tried one out, we discovered those store-bought valentines were kind of a bust. The paint didn't paint, the colors ran, the paper ripped as soon as it got wet. But A. was committed to the paint-with-water concept so it seemed we would have to come up with a DIY solution.

We tried a few versions, but our final and most successful valentine was made using watercolor pencils and card stock. I designed the card (according to A.'s careful guidance, there is nothing more micromanaging than a 3 year old) and then we printed them off and she colored them in with the watercolor pencils. (The more color we used and the harder we pressed, the more vibrant the end result turned out). We tested a few by adding water, and they went from patchwork to brightly tye-dyed, just as A. wanted.

I designed these size-wise to fit little envelopes we already had, for small thank you cards. We did include small brushes taped to the envelope with washi tape so our friends have everything they need to paint their valentines at home.



If you'd like to make your own, paint-with-water valentines, I've uploaded our template here.