How to Create Valentine's Day Cards with Leftover Party Favors | 2023

DIY Valentine's Day Cards

While cleaning my craft closet, I found bins of leftover party favors. Not complete sets, mind you. Nope, five of these, 10 of those, six of these. All different themes, colors, sizes, and types. 

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, so I thought, could I turn leftover party favors into cute and clever – and sustainable - Valentine’s Day Cards? The answer? Yes! Yes, I can. 

After sorting through all my bins, I settled on five party favor sets. I designed quick Valentine’s Cards on my home computer and printed them out using leftover cardstock. Then I used excess twine, glue dots, and tape to affix the favors to the cards. Voila! Darling and sustainable Valentine’s Day Cards.

Not crafty, but like what you see? All the valentines listed here are available at my Mercari Shop @GreenwashCo. Stop by and check it out.

1. “You are a super friend”

Super easy and heroically cute! I had two different party favors left over from two different parties. Ten String/Voodoo Dolls, but only five of the Lego Hero Bookmarks. 

I chose “You are a super friend...” for the theme, which worked well for both. Instead of 10 Valentine’s Day cards, I now have 15.  See how that works?

To attach the dolls, I punched a little hole in the card, threaded the string through, and taped it to the back. 

The bookmarks were magnetic. I just wrapped them around the cards. I may secure them with a bit of tape, just to be safe.

2. “You are ‘fan-tashe-tic’”

Look what I found in my craft stash. . .Colorful Stick-On Mustaches. Always a kid’s favorite. 

I had 14, which was a pretty good number. I tried the mustaches to make them look neater and then attached them with glue dots.

3. “You ‘Ar-My’ Friend”

The troops will love these Green Army Men Erasers. I was so happy when I found 20 of these little guys. 

I used leftover kraft cardstock for the cards. I’ll use twine to attach to the card for a rugged look. 

4. “You Got the Write Stuff” 

No way, 14 Valentine Pencils? Perfect timing! I love homophones, so I played off of that. 

I could have used ribbon, but I hole-punched and slipped the cards onto the pencils. Easy Peasy is my motto.

5. “I Flip for You”

Ok, so I didn't create a valentine for this bag of teeny, tiny Flip-Flop Erasers. But they have so much potential. 

They would make an adorable Valentine’s Day Card. They could also be ingenious for the Christmas Elf. I'm not sure what I will do with them yet, but I had to include them because they were so cute!

5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Old Crafts:

1. Don’t be afraid to mix & match. Eclectic can be cute. If you need a specific number of valentines, mix a few different ones to meet the amount needed, like the mustaches and pencils.
2. Think outside the box to create Valentine’s card themes that could apply to multiple favors. Remember the string dolls and bookmarks?
3. Keep it simple. I didn’t have enough ribbon for the pencils, so I just hole-punched. Why make it more complicated?
4. Go with all-gender themes. Simply adding the dog-tag heart to the card softened the masculine tone of the army men card.
5. If you are stumped, Etsy has a great selection of budget-friendly printable valentine’s cards. Give them a look for inspiration and ideas.   

This is just a sampling of ideas. I'd love to see some of yours in the comments below. Happy Crafting!