coloring page valentines with the fuse + free printable tags

I'm all about indulging in a few sweets for Valentine's' Day, but I also love doing something a little different for class valentines--something outside the box. This year my kindergartner and I decided to make coloring page valentines complete with crayons in a custom Fuse pouch, and free printable valentine tags. Check out how I made these interactive candy-free valentines below.

I started out by finding some fun and free printable coloring pages online. If you type "free Valentine's Day coloring page" into your internet search engine a ton will pop up. Just be sure there's no copyright and that the pages you print are really free.

My daughter helped pick the pages, and we printed one page for the girls, and another one for the boys. You could simplify by printing a gender neutral page. My daughter's in kindergarten so we went for something simple, but you can find more advanced coloring, color-by-number, and activity pages for older kids.

Once I had printed all the free coloring pages, I rolled them up vertically and added a foiled heart sticker from the Oh Goodie! collection by We R Memory Keepers. These little cuties were the perfect solution for keeping these pages rolled up nice and tight.

Next it was time to package the crayons. My daughter and I bought two packages of 48 crayons at the dollar store--score! My original plan was to use a snack size plastic zipper bag, but they were too big and bulky. So, I decided to head into my craft room and I came up with some custom size pouches made with my We R Memory Keepers Fuse tool and some FUSEables plastic sheets. I created ten 2x6 pouches from each pair of sheets. I fused the bottom edges and two lines in between each pouch, and then cut them in half horizontally just below the middle fuse line.

Then I inserted four different color crayons into the pouches. I tried to include a good mix of warm and cool colors, plus a neutral color. I created what I considered girl and boy color combos, and then threw in some heart confetti I had laying around from a Valentine's Day project last year. I can't seem to use my Fuse lately without including confetti, LOL! You could add sequins, make your own confetti with a hole punch, or just leave out the confetti altogether.

Then I fused the tops of the pouches closed before cutting out each individual pouch in between the double fuse lines.

If you don't have a Fuse tool, small clear goodie bags, treat bags, or lollipop bags would work as well. If you do have a Fuse tool, there are a couple of options for making the plastic pouches: you could use the 12x12 plastic sheets like I did; you could use some 12x12 sheet protectors; or you could use the We R Memory Keepers 4x6 Waterfall sleeves and get two pouches out of each one.

Next I printed the coloring page tags (free printable below) and had my daughter write her name on the tags. That was easier than having her sign them after I cut them out since they're fairly small (2x3 inches). I trimmed them with my paper cutter, punched some decorative corners with my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, and punched a hole in the top with my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile.

Download the free printable coloring page valentine tags HERE.

I punched a hole in the crayon pouches with my Crop-A-Dile, and then tied on the tags and pouches with some white raffia.

I love how they turned out, and I think my daughter's classmates will really enjoy getting these fun valentines. How about you? Do you have any Valentine's Day crafting plans this year?