X’s and O’s Garland

Parental Preparation:

Get some colorful construction paper. Try to find colors that match Valentine’s Day (reds, pink, purple, and white). Set out safety scissors, pencils, and no-mess glue sticks. Set out stickers, markers, and even glitter for decorating. Cut out a pattern of an “X” and “O” using cardboard and an exacto hobby knife.

Playtime:
Let kids trace the cardboard pattern onto the colorful paper of their choice. They can use safety scissors to cut out the patterns. Let them color and decorate all of the X’s and O’s with crayons, markers, glitter, and stickers. Then have them use a no-mess glue stick to stick the edges of the letters together, forming a long chain of X’s (kisses) and O’s (hugs). After the glue dries, you can string this over doorways and around the house to remind each other of your family’s love.

Old Fashioned Valentines

Parental Preparation:

Get some colorful construction paper. Again, try to find colors that match Valentine’s Day (reds, pink, purple, and white); any colors are fine though. Set out safety scissors, pencils, and no-mess glue sticks. Set out stickers, markers, paper doilies, hobby lace, and glitter for decorating. Cut out patterns for hearts in various sizes using cardboard and an exacto hobby knife.

Playtime:

Let kids trace the cardboard pattern onto the colorful paper of their choice. They can use safety scissors to cut out the patterns. Let them color and decorate all of the hearts with crayons, markers, glitter, and stickers. Then have them flip their hearts over and use a no-mess glue stick around the edges. They fan fix lace around the edges, like a traditional Valentine card, or add smaller hearts to make a heart cluster. Let them write their own “love notes” on these to family and friends.

Valentine’s Day Man Door Hanger

Parental Preparation:

Get some colorful pieces of felt cloth that match Valentine’s Day colors (reds, pink, purple, and white); any colors are fine though. Set out safety scissors, pencils, and no-mess glue sticks. Set out pipe cleaners, hobby “google” eyes, stickers, buttons, ribbons, colored paper, and glitter for decorating. Cut out a heart-shaped pattern that is a bit larger than your fist, and a smaller hand-shaped and boot-shaped pattern using cardboard and an exacto hobby knife.

Playtime:

Let kids trace the cardboard pattern onto the colorful felt cloth piece of their choice. They can use safety scissors to cut out the patterns. Now the fun begins! Let their creativity run wild as they get to choose what their Valentine’s Day character looks like. Make it a man or woman. They can glue on hobby “google” eyes, a paper mouth, a button nose, or whatever they like best. Once the face is done, have them set it aside to dry.

Now have them trace and cut out glove and boots for their living Valentine. Glue the hands and feet onto bent pieces of fuzzy pipe cleaner. Set these aside to dry as well.

Use a hole puncher to make a circle in the top of the Valentine face. String a ribbon through this hole and tie the ends to make a loop. It should be big enough to hang on a door knob. Now it’s time to fix the arms and legs onto your Valentine. Once you have them attached to the back, let the glue dry again.

When you’re finished you’ll have fun Valentine’s Day door hangers for every room of the house. You can even let the kids write their names on them and put it on their bedroom doorknob.

Fancy Flowers

Parental Preparation:

Get some colorful construction paper. Try to find colors that match Valentine’s Day (reds, pink, purple, and white). Set out safety scissors, pencils, a stapler, and a bottle of child-safe glue. Set out square of colorful tissue paper, glitter, and pipe cleaners for decorating. Cut out a pattern of flower shapes using cardboard and an exacto hobby knife. You can make cardboard daisies, roses, or tulips.

Playtime:

Let kids trace the cardboard pattern onto the colorful paper of their choice. They can use safety scissors to cut out the patterns. Then have them take small squares of colored tissue paper and fold them up around the end of a pencil. Have them dot it in some glue and stick it to the flower shape. This is what will create the colorful petals on their “flowers”. Continue doing this until the flower shape is covers with “petals”. After the glue dries, gently flip it over. You can staple a long piece of green pipe cleaner to the back. This will create a “stem”. They can twist pipe cleaners around the stem to make “leaves”.

If the kids take the time to make several flowers, they will have a lovely homemade bouquet to give to mom, their best friend, or their favorite teacher.

Edible Butterflies

Parental Preparation:

Get some colorful construction paper. Try to find colors that match Valentine’s Day (reds, pink, purple, and white). Set out safety scissors, pencils, hobby “google” eyes, pipe cleaners, and a no-mess glue stick. Set out a bag of fun-sized candy bars. Cut out a small pattern of butterfly wings using cardboard and an exacto hobby knife.

Playtime:

Let kids trace the cardboard butterfly pattern onto a colorful paper of their choice. Let them layer smaller wings on top of the biggest ones to make interesting and colorful patterns. They can use safety scissors to cut out the patterns. Then have them use the no–mess glue stick to fix a candy bar in between the wings. Don’t use too much or it could soak through the wrapper and damage the candy inside. Just a dot is enough. The candy car creates the butterfly’s body. They can use stick-on eyes to make the butterfly’s face, and pipe cleaner for the antennae.

Now they can make more edible butterflies for their friends, classmates, or their favorite teacher.

If your kids are looking for quick and easy printable Valentines, click here.