DIY V-Day Fortunes



Valentines Day is such a sweet holiday and my girls get so excited about passing out their valentines at their class parties. Since I'm not a huge fan of those store-bought, generic Valentines with the licensed characters, I always try to come up with a cute idea that we can make at home together with not a lot of time or money involved.

Last year I shared with you my Valentine Favor Box template, which was a huge success among my kids' friends and teachers, but this year I wanted to do something a bit different since they are not allowed to bring in chocolates due to peanut allergies. So, after a little trial and error, I came up with a new fun little project to do with them. This is certainly not a new idea... I've seen these "fortune cookies" done before several times, sometimes out of fabric, like in Kate's blog and sometimes out of felt, like in Martha's blog. In order to share a template online, I made mine out of card stock using some very sweet and girly designs from all my fabric collections, and they turned out oh so cute!!

The first thing you need to do is download my high-res template. Click on the image below, which will take you straight to Flickr. Download the largest file size (original file), which will be 8.5" x 11" at 300 d.p.i.


Print the file to your color printer at 100% on thick paper. I used 90lb. Index Card Stock from Office Max. NOTE: Your printer may tell you that the file is too big for your paper. That is OK! Do NOT "reduce" or "fit to page". There is a sizable white edge around the image, so your circles will not get cut off, I promise. I also printed the back side of my pages with a hot pink solid, so the insides of my fortunes would be colorful.



For the fortunes, I just typed a cute message and "signed" it from each of the girls so they would be personalized. The fortune papers are approximately 3" wide x 1/2" high. I was able to print both of my girls' entire class, including teachers, in 1 letter sized sheet! If you need a template to go by, you can use this one, then just change the names before you print!



After you have all your circles printed, proceed to cut them out around the edge. Your circles should be 4" wide.



Then, insert a fortune in the center of your circle and fold the circle in half, with the printed design on the outside.



Be careful not to crease that fold, just softly hold the edges of the circle together with your fingers.



Next, hold the edges of your circle using your thumb and middle finger, as shown below, so that you can push the center with your index finger.



Push the folded center on the circle in while bringing the two outer edges together until you form that fortune cookie shape.



Lastly, dab a dot of hot glue to hold those sides together. Otherwise, the paper will come undone right away and your fortune will fall out. Kate used twisty ties and Martha used floral wire, to help the fortune cookies hold their shape, but I didn't have either of those items on hand, so I found the hot glue works pretty well.



And VOILA! This is what they will look like when finished.



I have the first batch done now and I only spent a few minutes. Now, I'll wait for the girls to come home from school so they can help me assemble the rest. Sophie can cut, Sydney can fold and I'll be in charge of the glue gun. I predict we'll have them all done within a half an hour! :)



Enjoy!