Tale of the Valentine's Day Victorian Puzzle Purse

Valentine's Day means different things to different people, but this year, for me, Valentine's Day was about spending 24 hours preparing for a party I wasn't invited to.

 I volunteered to make 11 heart-shaped sugar cookies for my son's preschool class, and of course there were the Valentine's Day cards to procure handcraft.

Now, you may be assuming that in order to produce 11 viable cookies for a preschool decorating party, one would need to bake a single batch of cookies. But I am here to tell you that, in fact, the actual number needed is five batches. I did not know so many things could go wrong with cookies. For example, they can burn. You can accidentally make the wrong recipe. You can let a two-year-old cut out the heart shapes. The list goes on.

Meanwhile, I was also hand producing 13 Valentine's Day cards because I can't just go to the store and buy them for my kid's preschool class like a normal person.

First I had to fold 13 perfect (ish) little Victorian puzzle purses.

Next I applied my newly acquired calligraphy skills to apply a swirly flourish-y "Happy Valentine's Day" to the inside of all the cards and flourish-embellished names of each child in the class. This was especially important since, you know, none of them can read. 

For the layers of revealed decoration as you unfold the puzzle purse, I had big plans. I was going to fill each layer of the Victorian Puzzle purses with intricate, beautiful dainty patterns. Fortunately, my four-year-old intervened. His design went in a totally different direction, but was pretty awesome and waaaay faster--not to mention actually involved him in the making of his own Valentines for his class. Well played, Mr. Preschooler, well-played. 

I was still painting cards an hour before we needed to leave to get to school, my four-year-old taking more of a Creative Director role in the end. But it was worth it because four- and five-year-olds definitely prefer a Victorian puzzle purse to a picture of a cartoon with candy taped to it, right?