I might have all boys around here, but lucky for me, they dig Pinterest. :) Oftentimes they look over my shoulder for ideas for boredom busters, or costumes... or Valentines. Cooper happened to see these Valentines arrows...
and got super excited! He immediately decided he wanted to give arrows to his classmates instead of Nerds :) I actually lit up over them too- super cute. I wanted to be able to make them our own! (We actually tried using the tinsel at the base and it got really frustrating.)
And so, this cute cute washi tape version was born! Cooper can actually help put these together, beyond just signing his name, and he loves that part. They are pretty self explanatory, but I'll share some more details just in case. :)
I happened to have a big package of skewers already (look for them near the grilling stuff or larger kitchen utensils if you need), as well as the washi tape, but I got the candy parts at Dollar Tree...
I wanna say it's the only place you can find these 5-stick, thin packs of gum anymore, but I'm really not certain. I looked at Walmart first with no luck. We had all Big Red picked out, but then I realized that the boys really don't like cinnamon gum! Like, even a little bit really. So at the last minute, I grabbed the pink Extra too- when we make these in bulk for Cooper's class, we'll use this flavor exclusively I think. Coop and Ry both kept taking it and had like ten pieces in their mouths while I was making these few... silly dudes! I chose these heart shaped chocolates for the tips instead of the sugared jelly ones in the original, because they're wrapped and I definitely feel better about that in a classroom setting.
First add the gum to the skewer. I made a hole in one end with the skewer tip first, then turned it and ran the skewer all the way through the gum, through the hole I made first, and slid to the middle. The skewer ends up sitting between the pieces of gum inside. The first hole first helped to keep the ends of the gum package in tact instead of it looking half opened.
Next, I did the washi tape fletchings for the arrow like above. Folded together opposite ways up and down, then used scissors to clip them narrower in toward the middle. I started with just four pieces of tape, but liked the look of five better in the end.
Lastly, for the tip, I just slowly screwed the pointed skewer tip into the crook of the heart chocolate. I did have one crack apart and just learned from there to really go slow getting the skewer inside. I also held the wrapper against my thumb at the back, to keep it together a little better too. The purple caramel ones were the easiest, for what that's worth.
I experimented with a kiss as the arrow tip too... and it worked no problem, I just didn't think it looked as cute. :)
All done! Came together really quick and easy... really. Aren't they just stinkin' cute?!
Nice to have an excuse to use some pink washi tape around here ;)
I had thought I'd make a really small, thin printable label that we could add to the back side of the gum, just saying Happy Valentines Day and who the arrow was from. But, then thought, "why make it harder than it needs to be?" (totally out of character for me- ha!) and just put a piece of washi tape- it's papery and great for writing on itself! Really, the Valentines greeting isn't necessary, right? So he just wrote his name- perfect :)
I think I could've taken pictures of these all day- they are just so... charming :) Cooper is super excited about them and guarding these few from his brothers! He said he couldn't help but tell his teacher about them already too... no doubt she was thinking we're nuts! We just like Valentines season, that's all ;)
Thanks for being here- hope this is an idea you can use and enjoy too!
