Valentine's Day Projects (Repost)

Looking for a couple easy projects for St. Valentine's Day? Well, here ya go! These previous posts have been popular and deserve a second go. Some are good for making and giving en masse, and some are for your special sweetie. Either way, enjoy making something for someone you care about!

• Positively Cute "I Love You" (see directions below)
• Pom Pom Critters (retro lovin'!)
• Wild About You Folded Paper Puppets

Positively Cute "I Love You"

This is a nice project to teach positive and negative space and symmetry and makes a cute last-minute Valentine for the wall or as a bookmark. It is super-inexpensive and pretty darn easy. Make one of these for your Valentine today!

Positive/Negative "I Love U" Valentine

Supplies Needed For The Wall Art:

• Piece of black construction paper (9" x 12") in black
• Pieces of red and pink construction paper (the red sections are 3" tall and the pink sections are 2 1/4" tall)
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Scissors

Supplies Needed For The Bookmark: 

• Piece of white posterboard (2" x 5") in white
• Pieces of red and pink construction paper (1" square)
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Clear packing tape (2" wide)
• Hole punch
• 8" of ribbon

Directions:

1. Decide on the order of your colored paper pieces.

2. For the first section, the heart, draw a half a heart shape onto the first piece of colored paper. Cut it out. Glue the outside of the heart shape onto the backing of your piece (either the posterboard if you are making a bookmark or the black construction paper if you are making a larger piece). Line up the cut edge the square with the center of your backing paper.

3. Glue the corresponding half heart shape along the center line, "flipped out" from the square it came from. Hmmm....sounds confusing, but look at the picture for a guide.

4. Continue down the column, cutting out half an uppercase "I" another half heart and half an uppercase "U." Finish with another heart, if desired.

5. If you are making the wall art, you are done! If you are making a bookmark, put a strip of clear of packing tape over your design to protect it. Punch a hole in the top edge of the bookmark and add a ribbon, if desired.

Sealed with a kiss! ENJOY!

Last Minute Valentine: "I Love U"

This is a nice project to teach positive and negative space and symmetry and makes a cute last-minute Valentine for the wall or as a bookmark. It is super-inexpensive and pretty darn easy. Make one of these for your Valentine today!

Positive/Negative "I Love U" Valentine

Supplies Needed For The Wall Art:

• Piece of black construction paper (9" x 12") in black
• Pieces of red and pink construction paper (the red sections are 3" tall and the pink sections are 2 1/4" tall)
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Scissors

Supplies Needed For The Bookmark: 

• Piece of white posterboard (2" x 5") in white
• Pieces of red and pink construction paper (1" square)
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Clear packing tape (2" wide)
• Hole punch
• 8" of ribbon

Directions:

1. Decide on the order of your colored paper pieces.

2. For the first section, the heart, draw a half a heart shape onto the first piece of colored paper. Cut it out. Glue the outside of the heart shape onto the backing of your piece (either the posterboard if you are making a bookmark or the black construction paper if you are making a larger piece). Line up the cut edge the square with the center of your backing paper.

3. Glue the corresponding half heart shape along the center line, "flipped out" from the square it came from. Hmmm....sounds confusing, but look at the picture for a guide.

4. Continue down the column, cutting out half an uppercase "I" another half heart and half an uppercase "U." Finish with another heart, if desired.

5. If you are making the wall art, you are done! If you are making a bookmark, put a strip of clear of packing tape over your design to protect it. Punch a hole in the top edge of the bookmark and add a ribbon, if desired.

Sealed with a kiss! ENJOY!

Wild Valentine Puppets

Yet another craft idea for your Valentine's Day card-giving needs OR for a classroom project: "Wild About You" Puppets! 

Research shows that 9 out of 10 people people prefer to be bitten
 with pom pom teeth vs. real dinosaur teeth.

I recently was killing time between my sons' basketball games and needed to keep my 4-year-old occupied. I dug into my totebag, folded a scrap piece of paper and "ta-da!" instant puppet. It sure kept him busy, but then I had two teams of boys crowded around me wanting them! Here's a version fancied up a bit for giving:

Easy Paper Puppets

Supplies Needed:

• Colored piece of paper (your choice) for the puppet head
• Scrap pieces of paper, optional
• Embellishments such as googly eyes, pom poms, etc.
• Tacky glue and glue stick

Directions:

1. Fold the piece of paper you are using for the puppet in thirds lengthwise. Secure the top flap with glue stick. You now have a sort of flat tube. This will make it easier for little hands to know where to put their fingers in the finished puppet.

2. Fold the tube in half and then fold each of the ends back to make an "M" shape. This is the puppet's head.

A detail of the "M" shape that you are creating.

3. Use tacky glue to attach embellishments such as googly eyes and pom pom teeth. If you would like to make features out of paper, the glue stick should work fine to attach them. 

4. Write your message such as: "I'm WILD About You!" or "You're DINO-mite!" on a strip of pink or red paper and glue it in the mouth like a tongue.

5. You can write the "To:" and "From:" info on the underside of the puppet, if desired.

This shows one of the puppets with its mouth opened wide
so you can see how the entire piece is decorated.

ENJOY your WILD puppet!

Easy Valentine's Cards: Stamping with Wine Corks

I love homemade cards! This year, I used a wine cork and acrylic paints to churn out a few simple cards for my hubby and kids. This is a fun way to learn about basic printmaking and the options are endless!

I TOAD-ally Love You!
(OK, so it's actually a frog...)

Easy Wine Cork Valentine's Cards

Supplies Needed:

• A wine cork
• Acrylic paints (assorted colors, a pea size amount)
• Paper plate for palette
• Cardstock or a blank card
• A fine point marker (I used a Sharpie)
• Embellishments such as googly eyes or antenna are optional (the antenna I used are flower stamens from the cake decorating aisle of the craft store)

Directions:

1. Practice different designs on scrap paper before you move on to the cardstock. I found it helped to have a few sayings before doing the stamping. Here are a few to get you started:

• HIPPO Valentine's Day!
• I'm WILD For You!
• You're DINO-mite!
• HOGS and Kisses!
• You're My Sweet-Pea!
• You're My ALL-STAR! 
• I think you're TOAD-ally Awesome!

2. Dip the cork into a bit of paint (you don't need much) and then stamp it onto the cardstock. 

3. When dry, use a fine point marker to add details and wording to your card. The sky's the limit! Have fun!

Detail of the card for my daughter--my Sweet Pea!

Here are the Valentines for the kids. I thought of things they liked
and then made a card to reflect that interest. These would also make nice bookmarks.

St. Valentine's Day Craft: Pom Pom Critters

One of my sons loves stuffed animals and any funky little critters with googly eyes! One year we made a ton of these to give away to his classmates. They are fast and easy to make (and easy to love)!

The Usual Suspects...

Pom Pom Critters

Supplies Needed:

• Small piece of felt for base (feet). I use a stiff piece of felt for the base.
• Large pom pom (for body), ours were about 2" in diameter
• 2 googly eyes (or one if you are making a cyclops!)
• Cardstock for mouth (an index card works great)
• Markers
• Scissors
• Embellishments such as hearts, antennas (mine are flower stamens sold in the cake decorating aisle at the craft store), bows made from bits of ribbon, etc.
• Tacky glue
• Tape
• Construction paper for the card, optional

Directions:

1. Cut out a heart shape large enough so that it sticks out from under your pom pom like little feet.

2. Use tacky glue to glue the pom pom to the heart-shaped base.

3. Add eyes and embellishments. Have fun and be silly! My son knew what he wanted to do and I just let him go!

4. Use tape to secure your critter to a rectangle of construction paper. Write a silly message such as "I'm Wild For You" or "I've got my EYE on you Valentine!" (if you are doing the cyclops) and the To/From Information. ENJOY!

Mini Craft (Popsicle) Stick Snowman

Snowman's Valentine

by Leland B. Jacobs

I have a jolly snowman,

The best I've ever had.

I'm giving him a valentine

that ought to make him glad.

For though he's very handsome

and sound in every part,

I noticed only yesterday

he hasn't any heart.

So quickly with my scissors

and paper red and fine

I made a fancy little heart;

my snowman's valentine!

(Poem reprinted from Miss Brown's webpage)

Left: Back of piece
Middle: Front of snowman, partway through project.
Right: Completed snowman project

This is a nice little craft that uses supplies you may already have on hand. I sent this craft in for my son's 2nd grade class to do at their Holiday Party, but it is a cute craft to do on a snowy day or decorate your snowman with a heart, attach the above poem, and give it out for St. Valentine's Day!

Popsicle Stick Snowman

Supplies Needed:

• Four craft/popsicle sticks
• Glue (I like using a glue gun, but tacky glue is probably better for little ones)
• White tempera or acrylic paint
• Markers (we used black and orange)
• Felt scraps, assorted colors. You'll need a 3.5" x 4.5" rectangle for a hat and a 9" x 1" rectangle for a scarf
• One to two 6" pieces of yarn
• Sticky-backed felt shapes or paper to make a heart, optional

Directions:

1. Line up three of the popsicle sticks next to each other with their long sides touching. Cut the remaining popsicle stick into 1" sections. Glue two of the small sections onto the back of the larger popsicle sticks for support, using tacky glue or hot glue. This is your snowman's body. Let dry.

2. Flip the popsicles sticks over and paint the front of the snowman white. Let dry.

3. Fold one of the long edges of the 3.5" x 4.5" rectangle to make a hat brim. Using the photo as a guide, attach the hat to the snowman (you'll need to glue it to the front of the snowman and the back). Then, use a piece of yarn to gather the hat and give it some shape. Knot the yarn and trim excess. If you are making the snowman an ornament, make a loop with the second piece of yarn and attach it to the back of the piece.

4. Using the markers, draw features on your snowman such as eyes, carrot nose, mouth and buttons.

5. Cut 1/2" long slits for fringe at either end of the piece of felt you will be using for a scarf. Tie the scarf around the snowman and secure with a dot of glue. 

6. Add a paper heart if you are sticking with the poem above.

You're done! Enjoy your little snowman!

St. Valentine's Day--Little Scribblers

So, St. Valentine's Day always gets my creative juices going since I need to come up with something for my kids to give away at school and I usually volunteer to send in a craft for the kids to do during their parties.

So, my criteria for both are: cheap, easy & fun (usually something that lasts and doesn't get thrown away the minute it arrives in the house).

One of my sons is giving away pencils with cute little bee toppers I picked up a few months ago at a discount store. We taped mini granola bars to them to make them "more." I think they are cute, but they weren't the first choice of the kids. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough supplies to make the "Little Scribblers" that the other son is taking to school to hand out. "Little Scribblers" are bits of old, broken crayons melted down in a muffin tin to create swirly, beautiful chunks of colored wax that children can scribble with.

I first made the "Little Scribblers" many years ago when my first son was about 2 years old. He was in the habit of peeling the paper off of his crayons and breaking them. Frustrating for mom! I felt as though he was wasting them, but then I found a recipe for "Scribble Cookies,"* as one author called them. I was able to repurpose the broken bits and made a batch of colorful crayon chunks for him to use.

I was reinspired by Family Fun Magazine, when I saw that they published a recipe just like it, and suggested making the cookies in heart shapes to give away for St. Valentine's Day. Ah-ha! I could do that! The kids were very excited and I started peeling, chopping and melting our old crayons.

But alas, the Scribblers take a good amount of old crayons so I only was able to make enough for one class (with a few to use at home).

"But wait," you say, this is a craft for a little kid--like a preschooler. "My children would never use this!!" I disagree. This craft is awesome on many levels.

First, it recycles something that everyone with children has a bucket of already in their homes.

Second, you can do this with your children. Anytime you can sneak some family time or one-on-one time into your life is a bonus. You can talk with your kids while they peel the crayons and my littlest boy (who is three), used a safety knife and his little hands to break the pieces of crayons up.

Third, it facilitates a discussion of colors. Warm colors, cool colors, colors that mix well and those that don't mix so well! As your children are plopping the crayon pices into the muffin tins, they are learnng about color theory. You could whip out a color wheel to show them if they are older.

Fourth, they are fun to use for little and big kids! While my 3yo just scribbles along all over the paper, my older kids use them to make multi-colored mohawks on the people they've drawn or make awesome sunsets on pictures (the scribblers are great to fill in large areas of drawings). They are also good to use when making rubbings. Children can study textures by placing different elements such as bubble wrap, leaves, coins, etc. under a white piece of paper and rubbing over the area with their Little Scribblers.

Wonderful! Something that looks beautiful (wait 'til you see how the Scribblers look when you pop them out of the pans with all of their swirly colors!), reuses something I was gonna throw out anyway, and inspires creativity!

Enjoy!
Mrs. P

Here's the link to the recipe on the Family Fun site:
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crayon-hearts-671639/?CMP=NLC-NL_FFUN_Crafts_021011_crayon-hearts

If the link above doesn't work, go to www.familyfun.com and search for "crayon hearts"

*I've looked around for the source of the Scribble Cookie recipe in my stacks of books, but I'm unable to find it at this time. I'll keep looking and credit the author when I find the info.