Lego Valentines

 
Excited to share the Valentines we made this year ... out of Lego bricks! These Lego Valentines were really fun to think up and put together. I've got a bunch of photos to share with you : )

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If you haven't been to a Lego store (what?!?), on the back wall they have a glorious set of containers where you can grab specific Lego bricks and fill a container for $15. This is great when you need to make multiples of things. I've used this Pick-a-Brick section for birthday party favors, and now the kids' classroom valentines.

But there is a trick.



The Pick-a-Brick containers are round. Lego are square. Efficient packing of the containers to maximize your Lego bricks is thus the challenge.

You could just grab the Lego bricks and casually fill your container. Or, you could be a Crazy Lady and stand in a corner of the Lego store for an hour and 20 minutes connecting bricks and packing that container so tightly that the air-to-brick ratio is less than 1% (NOT scientifically proven).

  
In that case, this is what your container would look like.



And these would be the amount of Lego bricks you come home with for your valentines. Between the large and small container, I was able to get 846 1x2 bricks, and 100 red gems. $24 in total.



The secret is to first connect all the bricks in columns, minimizing the air space. Then start adding the columns to your container around the outer edges, working your way inwards. Any super small pieces, like the gems, can be added afterwards to fill in any gaps. Usually, you can get away with not having the lid fit perfectly. They will tape it shut at the register so it doesn't spill all over.

For the valentines, I had a general idea of the heart shape before I went to the Lego store. But you really have to be creative on your feet because you never know what bricks are going to be available (I did call ahead to make sure they had red 1x2 bricks). After seeing the white 1x2 bricks with the prongs coming out of the side, and snapping the red transparent gem upside down into the prongs, it hit me that it could be a love potion! I was so excited!!

To make the Lego hearts, you will need:
(15) 1x2 red bricks
(1) 1x2 white brick with vertical clip
(1) red diamond jewel

Then you assemble the bricks like this.

Well, "you" don't assemble them, your kids do! That's the beauty of these : )

 It took about a half hour for both kids to assemble the 50 valentines.

Then I made a printable on 110 lb cardstock to hold the Lego heart. I changed the colors of the letters in "Love Potion" for girls vs. boys, according to my kids' direction. I get a certain amount of free color prints at my library, which is awesome, but unfortunately the color printer was off slightly. They still turned out OK, just different than I designed.  

 To attach the Lego hearts to the Valentine card, I used a tiny bit of adhesive from a tape runner. I wanted the kids to be able to remove the Lego heart easily.

The kids just loved how these turned out and couldn't wait to pass them around!




 Since I'm still in love with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, I decided to make envelopes for the Valentines. I sized the Valentines so that I could use envelopes made from 6"x6" sheets of paper (getting 4 envelopes from a 12x12 sheet of paper). The kids wrote names on flags that are wrapped around the envelope.

(is it entirely lame that my shoulder hurt the day after making 50 envelopes?!? At 6 punches per envelope, that's 300 punches, after all.)

Obviously, since the Lego bricks are dimensional, the envelopes weren't flat. That's OK. I just put a bit of adhesive under the top flap, without adhering the sides closed.

And there you have it ... somewhat inexpensive valentines that are different, timely (with The Lego Movie that was just released) and could potentially escape being tossed in the garbage two weeks later : )

Thanks so much for looking!

-Kelly