This is Logan’s first year going to preschool, and his class is exchanging Valentines. When I asked Logan to think of something small he would like to give his friends, he exclaimed, “bouncy balls!” Sounds great to me! Less sugar in their bellies, and I just saw a card idea in a Family Fun magazine. Double win!
But when I looked at the idea again I realized I didn’t want to cut 17 perfect circles with an exacto knife. And I didn’t want to go buy a new paper punch! We’re going for cheap! (while still fun)
Then I remembered my wonderful husband had talked my family into helping him buy me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas!
So I designed the card and got to cutting.
(This is gibberish unless you own a cameo: I was going to have a link to use my file – but I can’t figure it out right now. Hearts were 3.385″ square, and holes were .97″ in diameter. If you group the shape and duplicate it, you won’t have a problem matching the holes together. If your paper has a “wrong” side, then mirror image half of them. We’re using 1″ diameter balls)
We used construction paper, which is too flimsy to hold the ball like the magazine suggests. So we used two hearts with holes just slightly smaller than the balls (like. 03″ smaller) and sandwiched the ball between, then glued the edges of the heart. Super study! Even when Logan chucked a few (“I wanted to see them bounce!”) they didn’t self-destroy.
I wish I could find a pen that you could read easily, but we’re keeping this cheap, and you can read it if you want. Besides, lets be real, the 4-year-olds aren’t going to read them, they’ll rip them apart and throw their little planet to see how high it bounces!
We had a difficult time finding balls! But as a last-ditch effort (before feeding quarters to a gumball machine) we tried the valentine section at Wal-Mart…Score! 12 for $2! So really, it was about $4, would have been slightly cheaper to get the store-bought ones, but Logan had fun gluing them and putting the stars all over (glitter puffy paint). I’m calling this a win.
We bought yummy chocolates for his teacher and he made her a special card because he thought she wouldn’t need any more toys 
Smart boy!
