7 Valentine's Day Crafts
By Kathryn Trudeau
Whether you’re decorating Easter eggs or Christmas cards, holiday crafts are a great way to spend time with your kids. Not to mention that craft time gives you plenty of time to enjoy art and keep your kids busy for a few hours. Creating Valentine's Day cards is a tried-and-true activity for this holiday, but that’s not your only option.
Below, we’re sharing seven of our favorite Valentine’s Day-inspired crafts.
1. Yarn Heart Needlework for Kids
This craft isn’t just cute; it’s a great activity to help build hand-eye coordination and bolster those fine motor skills.
What you need:
- Paper plates (either pink plate plates or you can paint white plates pink)
- A hole punch
- Yarn (suggested: white or ombre pink yarn)
- Optional: Plastic darning needle
What to do:
- Cut out a heart shape from the center of your paper plate.
- Use the hole punch to create a heart-shape in the middle of the paper plate. Just punch around the hole you already cut.
- Thread the plastic darning needle with yarn and have your child weave the yarn through the holes.
- Alternate threaded the holes that are across from each other. Keep going until all of the holes are filled.
- Secure the loose ends of the yarn with tape on the back of the plate.
2. Confetti Balloon Art
Wondering what to do with all of the hole punches you just made from the last craft? Use them for this one!
What you need:
- White construction paper
- Hole punch
- Colorful pieces of construction paper (or the holes you already punched from the last craft)
- Glue
- Yarn
What to do:
- Use the glue to draw balloons (or hearts or anything else you desire)
- Sprinkle the hole-punched pieces of paper on top of the glue.
- When dry, shake off any loose pieces.
- Use a marker to draw the strings for the balloon.
3. Love Bugs
These little love bugs are super easy to make and fun to decorate.
What you need:
- Googly eyes
- Craft sticks
- Construction paper
- Glitter glue pens
What to do:
- Paint your craft stick. This is the bug’s body.
- Add googly eyes and pipe cleaners for antennas.
- To make the wings, cut a heart out of the construction paper.
- To attach wings, turn the heart upside down and glue to the back of the craft stick.
4. PomPom Love Monsters
If you’ve ever made a pompom for a knit or crochet hat, you can make a love monster.
What you need:
- A piece of cardstock cut into a heart shape
- Yarn (pink, red, or white)
- Googly eyes
- A piece of cardboard (scrap)
What to do:
- Wrap your yarn around the cardboard piece 200 times.
- Take a 6-inch piece of yarn and slide it under the cardboard. Tie it around the center of the yarn so that it secures the 200 strands.
- Cut the loop of 200 strands that you just made. Your 6-inch piece of yarn should be holding it all together now. Trim if needed. This pompom is your monster’s hair.
- Turn a paper cup upside down. Wrap the cup with yarn 30-50 times. Use hot glue to secure the yarn.
- Place your “hair” pompom on top of your paper cup.
- Glue googly eyes and pipe cleaner antenna.
- Cut out a heart from construction paper. This will be your monster’s feet. Glue the cup on top of the heart.
5. Heart-Shaped Sun Catchers
Brighten up your windows with these adorable sun catchers — no stain glass skills needed!
What you need:
- Foam craft sheets (purple, pink, or red)
- Tissue paper squares, 1-inch wide (white, pink, purple, red)
- Tissue paper squares
- Wax paper
- Liquid starch or regular white school glue
- Paintbrush or foam craft brush
- Scissors
What to do:
- Pour liquid starch into a small plastic container. (Disposable lunch meat containers work well for this.) You can also use Elmer’s glue if you don’t have liquid starch. You might want to use a foam craft brush if you opt to use the glue, though.
- Lay a piece of wax paper on your work surface.
- Place a square of tissue paper onto the wax paper. Dip a paintbrush in the liquid starch (or the Elmer’s glue) and “paint” over each piece of tissue paper.
- Continue adding squares of tissue paper to your work surface. Paint each square with the glue or liquid starch.
- Allow the tissue paper to dry.
- Once the tissue paper is dried, carefully separate the tissue paper from the wax paper. All the little tissue paper squares should be attached together.
- To make your sun catcher frame, cut a heart shape from your craft foam sheet. Then cut out the center to create a frame.
- Glue the heart frame on your dried tissue paper.
- Allow the craft foam frames to dry.
- Trim off the tissue paper hanging.
- Hang from your window.
6. Finger-Painted Love Trees
Finger painting is adored by kids of all ages, and it’s always a crowd-pleasers with the littlest ones.
What you need:
- Finger paint (pink and red and purple)
- White construction paper
- Brown permanent marker
What to do:
- Draw a tree trunk on the paper with the brown permanent marker.
- Finger paint the leaves on.
- That’s it!
7. Heart-Shaped Clay Pendants
My mother-in-law keeps a 4-foot-tall potted tree in her living room, and each season she decorates the tree. From Christmas decorations to Easter eggs, she keeps the tree rather festive. These heart-shaped clay pendants would make the perfect addition to a holiday tree like hers. You don’t need a holiday tree to use these pendants, though. You can hang them anywhere you please to make your home ready for Valentine’s Day.
What you need:
- 2 cups of cornstarch
- 118 ml bottle of craft glue
- Acrylic paint
- String or ribbon
What to do:
- Mix the cornstarch and the glue in a bowl. (You might want to use a craft bowl or something you don’t mind getting messy.)
- Be prepared to knead this mixture for quite a few minutes. It should eventually combine and resemble fondant icing.
- Roll the clay out on a piece of parchment paper.
- Use a heart-shape cookie cutter to create your pendants.
- Use a straw to punch a hole in each heart. (You’ll hang your pendants hung this way.)
- Let the clay hearts dry overnight.
- Paint and decorate the pendants.
- Allow them to dry.
- Slide a piece of ribbon through the hearts and hang them up as cute decorations!
What About You?
What crafts will you and your little one do this Valentine’s Day?