Lunch box love notes - with guest Mad in Crafts

Picture this:  It’s the first day of school, you pack up your child’s lunch, pile the brand-new supplies into his backpack, drive him to school, walk him to his classroom and… PLANT A BIG, JUICY SMOOCH ON YOUR LITTLE SCHNUGGILYPOO’S CHEEK. 

MWAH!

And now he hates you for life.

Don’t fret.  There is a way to let your baby know how much you love him and believe in him… without ruining his street cred. 

And, no matter how much he protests, he does still want to hear that you love him.

By dropping stealthy notes in a backpack or lunch box, you can brighten up your little one’s day, but he can still keep it all on the down low if he chooses.

For the backgrounds of your notes, I highly suggest using some of the Pattern Pieces that Aimee from Sprik Space designed.

Both series of patterns come in an array of colors and are available to download FOR FREE!  Read the introductory post on her series HERE for more information.

Aimee is so generous with all her printables, so be sure to give her some comment love (and consider following her blog) in gratitude.

Series One can be found HERE.

Series Two can be found HERE.

You can download the entire series or just the backgrounds you intend to use at first.

Example #1 - SQUARE LOVE NOTE:

I made this motivational love note using picnik.com.  You might be familiar with Picnik as free photo editing software, but you can use it for creating simple graphics too!

First, upload the pattern pieces of your choice the same way you would upload a photo.  

Under the Create tab, click on Stickers.  To create a border effect like this note has, select the square sticker from under Geometric, change the sticker color to white, and drag the corners to make it larger.

Click on Text to be taken to the text box tool.  Picnik has a wide variety of free fonts that you can use to add your message.

If you want to add a little more personality, the Back to School stickers are part of Picnik’s free software.  Just save the image to your hard drive and print off as many as you would like!

Example #2 - CIRCULAR LUNCHBOX NOTE:

Don’t forget to send some love in your child’s lunchbox!

Creating a circular note is just as easy as a square note!  Under the Create tab, click on Frames.  Choose Rounded Edges and move the slider as far to the right as you can.  Instant circle!  Make sure to click the Transparent corners button if you are going to print the image on anything other than white paper.

Add a circle sticker, in the same way I added a square sticker for the first note.

Add a fun fork and knife silhouette to your note, changing the color to give it a more modern twist.

Add any text you would like!

Throw a note in your child’s backpack on quiz day to let them know you believe in them!

Print off a stash of blank bubble borders for hand-written love notes!

The PDF files for these four notes can be found here, but I hope you have fun trying to make a few of your own!

One of the best ways to raise a happy child is to love him and to make sure that he knows you love him!  Take every opportunity to show him how important he is to you, even if it means the occasional smooch in front of his friends.  You will never regret it, and, really, he won’t either. 

Thank you so much, Megan, for letting me share this tutorial with your readers as part of this fabulous Back to School series!