5 Easy Valentine’s Day Crafts

Crafts. Does that word excite you or strike fear in your heart? I am somewhere in the middle-to-fear side of crafting. If that’s you, Valentine’s Day crafts are easy! They give the kids something to do and make great gifts for the special people in your life without having to buy a bunch of candy.

Like I said, I am not a crafter. My “craft cupboard” consists of a stash of 5×7 flat cards with envelopes. They are perfect anytime you need a kid to make a card. They’re also a common frame size. We have construction paper, markers, a glue gun, and some other odds and ends.

5 Easy Valentine’s Day Crafts

My sons are 7 and 9 and we’ve made Valentine’s Day crafts throughout the years. Here is a list of easy crafts for all ages (and a bonus mom craft at the end).

Babies – Use their footprints

Babies can be excellent Valentine’s Day crafters. 

Buy:

• Washable, water-based, non-toxic tempura paint.
• A Valentine’s Day card with one blank panel on the inside (or use the flat, blank 5x7s)

Instructions:

1. Create a heart on the card by drawing one with a marker or cut a heart out of construction paper and glue it to the card.
2. Paint your baby’s feet.
3. Make footprints inside the heart at a v-shape with the heels nearly touching.
4. Write in the card; mail it. Done and done

Toddlers to Preschoolers – Capture the Action

When my son was a toddler, I put a big vinyl tablecloth on the floor and let him paint his little heart out. I captured the cutest picture of his little concentration face while he was painting.

Then, I printed the photo, Mod Podged it to a canvas, added a little felt heart to the corner and sent it along with the painted card to grandparents that year.

The grandparents still put out that little canvas picture of him painting every Valentine’s Day. It was the picture of him painting the card that made the gift. Now, Mod Podgeing a photo to a canvas is excessive. An easier way to have the same effect is to print a picture and put it in a frame.

Buy:

• Paint: Finger paint for younger kids. You could use paint with a brush for older kids
• 5×7, thick paper (or any size depending on if you have to mail a card or hand-deliver it)
• Frame: Something fun like this one or this one would make a great gift.

Instructions

1. Set up the painting area. For toddlers, put a vinyl tablecloth on the floor and have them wear an old onesie or just a diaper. Older kids can sit at the table with a tablecloth and oversized painter’s shirt or one of these cute painter’s smocks.
2. Let your kid paint away! You can draw a heart on the card and see if they can paint within it to make it a little more Valentine’s Day themed.
3. Take pictures
4. Print a picture the size of the frame
5. Give the picture and the painted card to the recipient.

Note: If you do want to go the Mod Podge route, buy a small canvas. Next, cut your picture to the size of the canvas. Mod Podge it with several layers. I like to use square, thick canvases like this one. I also like to paint them black first and then add the photo. You can add little hearts to it to make it more Valentine’s Day themed.

Preschoolers and Above

XOXO – Valentine’s Day Art Kits from Target

Target has a bunch of wooden Valentine’s Day-themed art kits. I let my boys go to town on the XOXO kit this year. It worked great because they each had a letter. They especially loved it because I use it to decorate the house. Their artwork is on display and I get $5 Valentine’s Day decorations – it’s a win, win.

My kids hated the paint that came with the wooden letters. They didn’t think it was bold enough and it was too thin. So, I pulled out some other paints we had and let them use those. In hindsight, I should have limited their color palette to Valentine’s Day colors because they naturally went for green, yellow, and red – ha! But, they had fun and it was worth the five dollars.

Bookmarks

My first and fourth-graders are into reading so we made bookmarks. I got a couple Valentine’s Day designs – one made by me and one by my first grader. My older son dove into drawing animals instead. If you can corral their themes, you could end up with some really cute bookmarks to pop in a card and send to loved ones.

Buy:

• Thick paper (I used painter’s paper – the thicker, the better)
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils
• Ribbon

Instructions:

1. Cut the paper in strips
2. Let them color it
3. Put a hole in the top and string ribbon through it

A Mom Craft

I got outside my comfort zone on this one but moms need crafts too! I wanted to make a wreath. My plan was to wander around Hobby Lobby until I came up with something I thought would work. For about $15, this was my creation.

Buy:

• Natural vine heart
• Ribbon of your choice – I used a thick, XOXO pattern
• Greenery and flowers – for this, I went to the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. They have smaller florals and greens to make boutonnieres. The smaller size of these stems were perfect for this craft. I used two greenery stems and two floral stems to make this.
• Glue gun
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Figure out how you’re going to hang the wreath
2. Lay out the flowers and greenery loosely how you want them.
3. Now that you have a general plan, start cutting up the greenery and gluing it on to the wreath.
4. Next, cut the flowers up and glue them to the greenery.
5. Finally, mess with it. You’ll do all of this and then want to tuck one more leaf here or a longer-stemmed flower there. When you’re good with it, hang it by the ribbon and enjoy your creation.

In all honesty, you could just buy the heart and some fun Valentine’s Day ribbon – it would look really cute plain, too! Mine is small enough I can use it to hang within a wreath I have up year-round.

Crafting can be daunting. But, once the boys and I get into it, we end up having a good time. And they’re always taking the creativity to the next level (see XOXO ninja headband, right)!

What are your favorite Valentine’s Day crafts?