Valentine's Day Craft Ideas
for Children

Valentine's Day Craft Article From February 2010 Issue of Parent and Grandparent Planner

Valentine’s Day Sweet-Art

By Angela Antonelli

Roses are red, violets are blue,
Here are some Valentine’s Day projects
That are easy to do

Valentine Fairy

Is it just me, or is a giant flying baby wearing Pampers and wielding a weapon a tad disturbing? I don’t think that it’s just me. Therefore, we will be taking a little artistic license and making a Valentine Fairy instead of the traditional cupid figure.

Materials:

• 2 pipe cleaners (1 full size, 1 cut in half)
• Wooden bead
• Papers of your choice (wrapping paper, doilies, foil, construction paper, card scraps, tissue paper, etc.)
• Small amount of ribbon or yarn
• Fine-point permanent markers
• Embellishments of your choice
• Hole punch or awl
• Scissors
• Tacky glue

Instructions:

1. Use markers to draw a face on the bead.
2. Fold the long pipe cleaner in half.
3. Thread the folded end of the pipe cleaner through the wooden bead, so that a small portion of it sticks out of the top of the bead.
4. Twist the shorter pipe cleaner around the longer one, forming cross shape. (The shorter pipe cleaner becomes the arms of the fairy.)
5. Choose the paper or fabric of your choice for the skirt, and cut it into a circle. Poke a hole in the center of the circle, and thread the legs of the fairy through the hole to make the skirt. Repeat with several layers of paper/fabric for a fuller skirt.
6. Twist the legs together near the top of the skirt, so that the skirt does not slip off.
7. Place a small amount of glue on the chest area of the fairy, and wrap ribbon or yarn around to form a bodice. Secure with glue.
8. Cut a heart shape out of the paper of your choice, and glue it to the back of the fairy to form her wings.
9. To add hair, thread ribbon or yarn through the pipe cleaner loop on the top of the head. Arrange the ribbon/yarn until you are happy with the appearance. You may use glue to secure the placement of the hair if you choose.

Here are a few ideas to further fancify your fairy:

• Make a pipe cleaner heart crown
• Add beads for shoes/hands
• Attach a small fabric rose wand
• Make a design with glitter glue on the wings

Heart-to-Heart-to-Heart-to-Heart

This is a great project for siblings or a group of children. Each child can add his or her creation to this pretty mobile, and it makes a great gift or decoration.

Materials:

• Pipe cleaners of various colors and lengths
• Beads
• Ribbon

Instructions:

1. String beads onto pipe cleaners in any desired pattern.
2. Connect the pipe cleaners together as you would a paper chain.
3. Form the pipe cleaners into heart shapes.
4. Tie a ribbon on the topmost heart, or on each of the end hearts.
5. Hang vertically or horizontally.

A Heart of Gold (or Red, or Pink, or Purple)

Requiring a just a few inexpensive supplies, this project has wonderful results. The majority of the project can be done by very young children with minimal assistance.

Materials:

• Plain white paper (not glossy)
• Tissue paper in various colors (must say “bleeding” on the label. “Non-bleeding” tissue will not work for this project)
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Cup of water

Instructions:

1. Cut tissue paper into several hearts of various sizes.
2. Paint water onto the plain white paper, until the entire surface is slightly wet.
3. Place tissue hearts onto paper. Overlapped, ripped, or crinkled tissue pieces are fine, as they will add interest to the design.
4. Once the layout is complete, use the paintbrush to lightly coat the entire project with water.
5. Let the project sit until the tissue paper is dry, or begins to lift off of the paper.
6. Peel the tissue hearts off of the paper, and discard.
7. Use this project to make cards or wrapping paper.

Variation:

Cut other designs out of tissue paper, such as X’s and O’s, flowers, etc. Instead of using white paper, apply the tissue to a white frame or gift box (try a small area first to make sure that the item “accepts” the tissue stain).