Give a Little Bit of Your Love to Me!

Valentine’s Day is coming …

One of the sweetest days of the year is a little over a week away, and as the Cupids soar, we mere mortals need to think about creating our Valentines. This year, your kids may be celebrating with their classmates and adored friends from near or afar, so I’ve gathered some clever crafts all in one place for a bit of heartfelt inspiration.

(image linked)

LOVE BUGS

Create a custom creature for your bestie. Using a toilet paper roll as a body:

1. Embellish with Washi tape or stickers,
2. attach some heart-shaped wings,
3. adorn with pipe cleaner legs and antennae, and
4. add some googly eyes (the only kind there is for this holiday)!

You also could create a squishy version by simply swapping the toilet paper roll with a handmade pompom and decorating — don’t forget the googly eyes. Now, there are many ways to make a pompom using a piece of cardboard or a cardboard donut or … your hand!

Don’t forget to add a cute tag to your Love Bug! Some sample messages are:

• Be mine, Love Bug!
• You could never bug me, my Valentine!
• You’re so fly, Love Bug!
• Buggy for you, Valentine!

WILD AT HEART

Love can be wild! So create a menagerie of animal Valentine cards for your loved ones. Learning how to draw and cut a well-shaped heart is a childhood milestone. My five-year-old nephew draws his hearts by making a V first and then doing a “bump, bump” on top. And then here are some tricks of the trade to cut the perfect ❤:

Step-by-step instructions for littles!

Cut out a whole bunch of hearts of different sizes and in many different colors. Now you’re ready to create some cute animals:

1. Use a large heart as a face by turning it upside down.
2. Place a small heart as a nose.
3. Consider adding a tiny heart upside down as a tongue.
4. Maybe use two smaller hearts as ears on either side of the face’s top point.
5. Now all you need are again, are some googly eyes!

Etsy; Crafty Morning; Glued to My Crafts

Do take a look at these other hearty examples of creatures great and small. Do you feel the puppy love?

Glued to My Crafts; Preschool Inspirations; Etsy; Housing a Forest;

Then flip over the card to write your Valentine a message. If you have an extra second, check out all the animal jokes and riddles you could include to give your love an extra giggle. Don’t forget to write the answers upside down:

• 160+ Otterly Terrific Kid-Friendly Animals Jokes and Puns Everyone Will Love
• You Quack Me Up!! Animal Jokes
• Animal Jokes for Kids

WRAPPED AROUND MY FINGER

Now this curly-Q art takes patient and focus, just like the sport of a similar name. There is something oddly satisfying about curling a piece of paper and watching it stay tightly wound. And there’s a formal name to this art form: paper quilling.

Love Your Littles; Marvelously Messy; Red Ted Art; Hannah’s Art Club

1. Cut paper into thin strips — most easily done by having an adult use a paper cutter for thin, even strips.
2. Loop the strip tightly around a pencil or marker, and hold for a second before releasing. You can leave tightly wound or tease open a bit.
3. Dip one side of the edges into glue and place into a bouquet or a heart shape.

And if you can’t hand deliver or mail your art, consider sharing digitally. You could share via a video call, a text photo, or a video explaining what you did. There are also some fun apps that allow you to send a digital postcard or card to a love one like Smilebox, MyPostcard, or Touchnote.

Whatever your craft of choice this year, pour some love into the activity!