[Valentine's Day Blogger Exchange] Penguin Valentine's with M&M treats.

This year, Mason and I got to participate again in a fun blogger valentine exchange! Last year I made these super fun, easy Starburst puzzles and sent them to our friends, but this year I could not think of anything for the life of me. I wanted it to be cute yet fun and pretty easy. After all, I needed to make 18 of them! So, I racked my brain and I searched Pinterest and I still couldn't find anything. And then one day I was scrolling Instagram and I happen to follow Parents Magazine and lo and behold, they saved the day again (last year's Starburst puzzles came from them too) with these super cute penguin valentine's! Now, you notice how I only referred to them as super cute? There's a reason for that and I'll get to that later.

I used this template from the Parents website. I printed it once on a regular sheet of paper and then traced the body with the wings on black card stock and the smaller body on to white card stock.

And then I cut out 18 of each.

I glued the white part of the body to the black part of the body with the wings.

I picked out two googley eyes per penguin and glued them on. You can see some of the residual glue, but it dried clear and you couldn't even tell.

 Once all the penguins have eyes, then cut small triangles out of yellow paper to make noses.

The feet are also made out of yellow paper. Cut small hearts out for the feet and glue them to the bottom of the body.

You're done with the penguin!

Now to stuff bags with the treats. I used valentines pink, red, and white M&Ms (but you could really use any candy). I bought some cute heart bags at the store and filled them with a shot glass full of M&Ms (yes a shot glass, I know this is a kid's craft but it was the easiest way to measure evenly). The bags were a little too tall so I cut them to be the right size and then tied them with pink string.

Before I attached the treats, I wrote a little valentine's message to our friends " Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Mason"

I then placed a bag of candies in the body portion of the penguin and closed the arms like the penguin was hugging the candy and sealed it with a sticker. Since I was shipping mine, I also secured them better with some extra tape on the inside but that probably wouldn't be necessary if you were just handing them out to friends in person.

I bought some plain white envelopes to send our valentine's in and sealed them with some festive washi tape. And they were off! Hopefully all of our friends liked their valentine's!

A little PSA though... these valentine's are NOT cheap to ship. So, if making them for friends, I highly suggest handing them out personally. Or, if that is not an option, use less than a shot glass full of M&Ms :)

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Tawnya, Scarlett, & Bodhi at All of Life's Little Adventures

Jen & Hattie at And Hattie Makes Three

Ashley, Waverly, & Avalon at Being Brickner

Jess & Abbie at Being Mrs. Beer

Elizabeth & Mason at Chasin' Mason

Liz & Jude at Ellie and Addie

Crystal & Mason at Hall Around Texas

Desiree, Marcus, & Julia at Macke Monologues

Natalie & Blair at Nat Your Average Girl

Sara, Mac, & Mim at Running From the Law

Jess, Cameron, & Louise at Scott Family of Maine

Jessica, Cameron, & Emerson at Secrets of a Stay at Home Mom

Sarah, Brantley, & Holden at Seeing All Sides

Karli, Kaye, & Sawyer at September Farm

Chrissy & Elin at Simple Joys Blog

Courtney & Aria at Sweet Turtle Soup

Meghan & Noah at The Adventure Starts Here

Stephanie & Connor at Wife Mommy Me

Whitney, Kinsey, & Brielana at Work It Mommy

The photo above is all the different kinds of valentine's that we received from our friends.  We LOVED getting happy mail in the mail box (instead of just bills) over the course of the past few weeks and are so excited that we could celebrate Valentine's Day with our friends near and far.

If you're interested in making any of the valentine's shown above, click the links and it will take you to all the fun valentine's that we received and teach you how you and your child can make them for your child's friends and/or classmates.