Last year, Ralph gave MadLibs for Valentine’s Day. And this year he wanted to do the same. So we decided to spice things up with a new presentation. We did this project last night, which means the photos are a little dim, but I think they’re still very use-able. (Click them to see them bigger.)
To make these, we trimmed out a stack of MadLib sheets with an exacto knife. (We buy our MadLibs at the local drug store. They come in 2-packs of 6×9 sheets.) Then we trimmed spare pieces of origami paper and craft paper to make 3″ x 6″ strips. Any text weight paper would work for this.
We rolled up a MadLib sheet, then rolled that roll in a strip of decorative paper.
We used craft floss to wrap the roll (10 times around is about right) and tied a shoe lace knot.
We printed out a sheet of messages that said “I’m mad about you,” “I can’t lib without you” and “You have mad skillz.” (Here’s the pdf of the 3 MabLib messages in case you’d like to use them as well.) Then we trimmed them out, hole-punched them, and attached them to an open end of the shoe lace knot.
Ralph was very pleased. And I loved how all the patterns and colors looked piled on the table.
{ 17 trackbacks }
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I am totally stealing this idea when my boys get a little older!
Oh I can’t thank you enough for this idea! My third grade son’s teacher is being very strict about the no-candy rule for V-day, and we’ve been desperately trying to think of a great giveaway in place of sweets. This is perfect!!
Wow! Super-cute…and what a good idea for boys for Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, the holiday gets to be too girly with all of those pink and purple hearts everywhere. Thanks for the idea! I’m tucking this away for when I eventually have my own little boy.
such a great non-candy idea! i love it. for the littler ones, you could use coloring pages. so fun.
It is high time we convene with our rotary trimmers and mats my dear! :-) Lovely, lovely, lovely! xo Christine
Thanks for reminding me how much I liked this idea last year! Now it’s even better with the great origami paper and the oh, so cool notes! This will get tucked in my file until my little guy is in school! You did a fine job, Ralph (and Design Mom!).
What a wonderful boy idea! And, I love the comment that suggested coloring pages for little kids!
I am (adjective) about this (adjective) (noun).
THANKS!
what a great idea!
These are so cool, Gabrielle.
so cute, love the ‘ mad skillz’ one
Love it.
My 10 year-old son and I just finished making these for his class.
Miss Gabby and Ralph the best valantine ever!!!!!
(Yes, I let him write the comment)
Thanks Gabrielle
Lisa & Tully
Awesome.. I love that Mad Libs never go out of style..
NOW that is a really cute, original idea for Valentine’s Day. I love it! It’s so ‘not gross’ as my son would say .. cause anything having to do with Valentine’s day is a bit.. ‘ew gross’ to him at 8 years old. He only likes the ‘eats’ that come along with the celebration. Really smart idea mom!
I LOVE this idea! It’s too late for us for this year but I’m bookmarking it for next.
This is genius, I love it! I’ll be linking to this.
waaaa. i didn’t think about taking a book apart. too late now. ours are all done. maybe next year. great idea.
dude. you are out of control with the mad skillz part. that is such goodness for a boyish valentine. genius.
I just love this idea! My 16 year old will think it is sooo cool!
Really cute and a great presentation. I bet his Valentine’s are the best in the class!
How funny! This year at the office I made a mixed CD and on the cover of each I included tons of famous “Love is..” quotes. But to make them a bit more personalized I asked each co-worker for a noun and an adjective, without their knowledge that it would complete the sentence, “Love is…” Had some great ones! Love is peaches, a dog, a phone, electric, pain, the beach, spectacular, hideous, fast, crazy and Travis. Next year I’ll use your idea that way I’m not the one that gets to have all the MadLib fun!
Mad Libs are what made me fall in love with adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions! Truly this is some of the best valentines day brilliance I’ve heard. I hope you don’t mind, I mentioned you on a new blog I started—Giverslog.com/wrapthegift. Thanks for so much reliable inspiration!
These are absolutely great! We did nothing special around here this year – mostly because I am writing my masters thesis (due tomorrow!), but I am storing this idea away for next year. My 9-year old LOVES mad libs!
Very late in seeing this (found via Crafty Crow). Sooo cool! I’m totally doing this with my kids next Valentines Day.
Hi Design Mom — I'd love to include this craft in a roundup for iVillage.com. Can you email me if I can have your permission? Thanks!
jannaoberdorf [at] gmail [com]
Are you kidding me? That 's about the most awesome Valentine idea I've ever seen! Especially for boys!!! AWESOME!
This post has been featured at Trendy Treehouse!
Here is the link to your feature
http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-fun-valentine-features.html
What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Tara
Trendy Treehouse!!!
My daughter and I made these!! She was so excited. Her 4th grade class loves madlibs. We wrapped ours around a new pencil. Thanks for the MAD idea!! Janet & Catherine
Keep meaning to tell you that my 4th grader loved this idea. He invented some of his own tags, including my favorite, "Aim for the libs and you can't miss!"
These valentines ideas are the best! We just got back from Barnes and Noble and my son picked up a star wars mad lib. This is perfect for my 5th and 2nd grade boys and i love the animals one for my preschool age son. Love your blog, it’s awesome! Thanks for the great ideas.
love this. though will admit my kids’ versions will not quite have that design mom polished quality!
We just made these for my oldest daughters class for Valentine’s…she was so excited!!!
Thank you so much for sharing this idea. So much simpler than other Valentines we have put together in the past. Plus, this one is a bit educational. My second grader finished putting his together and then we did a Mad Lib together for the first time–he thought it was hilarious. THank you again for the great idea.
PS Finding Mad Libs was HARD. I finally found a huge pack at Bed Bath and Beyond!
After visiting 3 separate drug stores (uhg) I found a bazillion at Barnes and Noble. But, the only problem I had–the books were put together with the words needed for one sheet on the back of the sheet above it–make sense. So it made it a bit more difficult. I ended up photocopying the sheets 2 at a time on my printer and then pasting the list of words needed on the back of the mad libs it went with. Hope that made sense–any tricks to finding ones printed back to back?
Thank you so much for this! I can hardly wait!! :)
Thank you so much for sharing – this is great! We shared your idea on our dental blog along with other sugar free Valentine ideas.
http://www.dhasmiles.blogspot.com/2013/02/sweet-valentine_7.html