More Valentine Crafts

Button Hearts - The original idea for button hearts comes from a craft book many years ago and was done for Christmas... so I adapted it for a Valentine's Day craft. They are basically shapes that you fit over your buttons on your shirt. They are a great way to dress up a child's outfit for a party. You'll need felt (you could also use construction paper if you want), wiggle eyes, and glue for this project. Cut heart shapes out of felt. Cut slits about the same size as your button hole in the center of your heart. Glue on the wiggle eyes above the slits. Slip your heart over your button.

Valentine Postcard - You'll need a doily or lace, heavy cardstock, paint, and a makeup sponge for this project. Take your heavy cardstock (any color you choose, but I usually use white) and lay it down on top of newspaper. Lay your lace or doily on top of it. Dip your sponge into the paint(red or pink) and then stamp over top of the doily. Carefully lift the doily up off the postcard to reveal a pretty design. Let it dry. When I did this with my kids, I let them do this part, then I drew a couple of hearts over the top of the pattern in black marker. I used a rubber stamp that said "Happy Valentine's Day!" and stamped that in one corner. We addressed the other side and sent it out to all our friends and family. It was a big hit with the grown-ups!

Cardboard Tissue Tube Valentine Butterfly - It just wouldn't be crafting if we didn't make something out of a recycled toilet paper cardboard tube. You'll need a cardboard tube, construction paper (any color you choose), gluestick, wiggle eyes (optional), and pipe cleaners (optional). You can use this template for this project if you want.

Wrap a cardboard tube with a 4 x 2 inch sheet of paper and glue in place. Cut out two hearts that are about 4 inches across and two of a different color that are about 3 inches across. Glue the small hearts into the center of the larger hearts. Glue the two large hearts into place as the butterfly wings. If you don't use the face provided with the template, cut out two small antenas (or use pipe cleaners) and glue in place. Glue on the wiggle eyes and make your butterfly's face.

Safe Valentine Pin

You'll need a wooden clothespin, some pink and red construction paper, a glue gun, and glitter, markers, etc. Cut a large heart out of construction paper (about 4-5 inches across). Decorate your heart however you want with glitter, your child's name, stickers, smaller hearts, etc. Let dry. Use your glue gun and glue the heart onto the clothespin... glue it to a flat side in the middle so that it covers most of the clothespin. Don't glue the heart to the whole clothespin so that there is room to get your fingers behind the heart to pinch the clothespin open. Now your child has a safe Valentine's Day pin that won't poke them.

Heart Puzzle Picture Frame - Supplies: Old jigsaw puzzle pieces or blank puzzle pieces, red or pink paint, ribbon, and glue.

Directions: Glue about 15-20 puzzle pieces (depending on size) together to form a heart with a large hole in the middle and let dry. The paint them red, pink, or a combination, and let dry. (You can paint the pieces before you glue them, but small children do better with a bigger target.) Cut a picture of your child to fit the frame and glue it to the back of the frame. (Keep in mind when you are fitting the picture that the heart will lay on it's side unless you plan to hang it up or stand it up on a plateholder or something.) Cut a six inch piece of ribbon, tie it to make a bow, and glue it onto your frame near the top. You can further embellish your frame any way you want with glitter glue, and sequins etc. If you want to hang your picture, you can glue a loop of ribbon onto the back.

Valentine's Day Collage - There are several different ways you can approach this project. One way is to tear pictures out of magazines that have something to do with Valentine's Day and then glue them onto a piece of paper. The way I like to do it is to lay out a bunch of construction paper hearts, valentine stickers, lace pieces, ribbons, etc. and then let the kids create their own giant valentine. It's a lot of fun. You can use this template to help you!