MadLib Valentines – Candy Free & Ideal for Both Girls & Boys

These MadLib Valentines are ideal for 3rd, 4th or 5th graders. They make a great little gift for both girls and boys, plus they’re candy-free, and not too lovely-dovey. And they look cool!

MadLib Valentines

To make these MadLib Valentines, we trimmed out a stack of MadLib sheets with an exacto knife. (We buy our MadLibs 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.” Then we trimmed them out, hole-punched them, and attached them to an open end of the shoe lace knot.

Our kids were very pleased with how the MadLib Valentines turned out. And I loved how all the patterns and colors looked piled on the table.

P.S. — More homemade classmate valentine ideas.

82 thoughts on “MadLib Valentines – Candy Free & Ideal for Both Girls & Boys”

  1. 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!!

  2. 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.

  3. 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!).

  4. 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

  5. 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!

  6. 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!

  7. 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!

  8. 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!

  9. 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]

  10. 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

  11. 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!"

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  14. 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.

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  19. 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!

  20. 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?

    1. I have the same problem. I scanned through the comments and I’m surprised nobody else has asked. We’re using the junior ones so all the suggested words are on the back of the page before it. I didn’t know this until I had already bought them after reading this post. I’m pretty sure the non-junior ones are set up this way too. Do I just roll them up with the wrong suggested words?

      1. We just bought book of mad libs in love and realized the same thing. It bothers me to put a single page in with an unmatched word page on the back but I’m not sure it matters to the kids. It seems like a lot of with to piece them together and I’m not sure it’s worth the work. I was considering a note to have the kids find their match and work together with a classmate. Any ideas?

        1. My son really wants to make these, but we’re having the same problem. There are some mad libs pages online and I might just choose one and print them out. It won’t have the word page, but I don’t think you really need it.

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