Adorable DIY Valentine’s Day Crafts

With an abundance of holiday craft kits complete with foam hearts, sticky tabs, and chenille stems available on the market, more often than not these designs are created by professional crafters. And while kits tend to be quick, easy, and convenient, they can also rob your child of the process of creating art; their creativity is stifled, their imagination, dampened.

When you offer your child open-ended materials for DIY Valentine’s Day crafts, they can engage with the supplies in an organic way, rather than adhering to predetermined expectations. This approach — known as process art — allows children to explore, experiment, and problem-solve.

“Kids are getting asked questions all of the time and being told what to do,” New Jersey-based creative arts therapist Pooja Bakri told US News & World Report. “Process art allows them to turn the tables and have control over their artwork, and their emotions.”

If you would like to go the process-art route, it’s helpful to keep art supplies accesible and in a central location and allow your child a space to create whenever inspiration strikes. There’s nothing worse than having a brilliant idea for an art project and then having to hunt for glue sticks and googly eyes.

Allow your child the freedom to create with a dedicated craft box or space in your home, set rules ahead of time and if something is a deal-breaker — I’m looking at you, glitter — make sure your child knows and simply refuse to purchase items that cause you anxiety. Some open-ended process art supplies for your art station can include:

• Tempura paints
• Watercolors
• Glue sticks
• Tape
• Cardstock
• Old magazines
• Paper towel tubes
• Pipe cleaners
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Brads
• Googly eyes

One of the most important aspects of crafting with young kids is being mindful of age-appropriate attention spans. When considering Valentine’s Day crafts for toddlers, take into account how much active craft time you have to work with.

Transitioning from one activity to another can be challenging at this age, so couple craft time with an activity like this outdoor scavenger hunt to collect twigs for this twig heart frame. Set clear expectations from the start and explain that you’re going on a nature walk so you can come in, and create a fun Valentine’s Day craft while having a snack before naptime. This sets clear expectations, which you may need to repeat periodically throughout the activity.

When you need to give classroom Valentine’s, you want something cute, quick, and inexpensive. These washi tape Valentine’s Day pencil flags are the perfect non-candy option for the classroom.

Educational STEAM projects using household items? Absolutely! Candy shop owner, mom, and artist Andrea Nelson has taken Instagram by storm with her fun kid- and parent-friendly crafts and painting activities. Her recent coffee filter paper flowers post has received over 16,000 likes. “This is the perfect little craft for your kids to make to give away for Valentine’s Day,” Nelson suggested in an Instagram post. “You just watercolor, that’s it!”

In her paper flowers video tutorial, Nelson demonstrates the craft as she talks you through the process so you can show your kids how to proceed. “Poke the pipe cleaner through the back of the stacked-up coffee filters, then you just kind of wad up one end to hold it in place,” Nelson explained. “You just fluff up the coffee filters so they look like a flower and bunch up the side with the leaves so you can wrap the pipe cleaner around to secure it. You can do one or a whole bouquet!”

If you’re running short on time, need a quick Valentine’s Day activity and you have access to a printer, these coloring pages, activities, and printable Valentine’s Day crafts will save the day!

• The Organized Mom blog suggests printing and coloring these animal-themed coloring pages to use as inexpensive Valentine’s Day banner decor. Just resize, color, and paste onto blank greeting cards or use them for jotting down scavenger hunt clues.
• Older kids will enjoy assembling this DIY pop-up Valentine’s Day card using a template from Skip to My Lou.
• “Mad Libs”-type word games are a great tool for learning parts of speech and these Valentine’s Day-themed ad libs from Happiness Is Homemade will have your kids learning and giggling all afternoon.

Edible Valentine’s Day crafts will always be a hit, no matter your child’s age. Here are a few yummy treats you can make with your kids to enjoy together or to give to friends and family:

• Chocolate-covered pretzel rods dipped are easy, fun, and festive and make great gifts for your Valentines. They’re easily customizable so you could even make a batch with white chocolate dyed green to save for St. Patrick’s Day gift-giving.
• Bake up a few batches of brownies from a box, cut them into heart shapes with a cookie cutter, and decorate to make conversation heart brownies for your Valentine’s Day dessert table.
• Simple cupcakes with frosting get a major glow-up when you layer them in small mason jars and add a pretty ribbon. Because slicing off the rounded cupcake allow for a better fit, you and your kids can snack on the extras while decorating and assembling these darling mason jar cupcakes.

You probably have everything you need on hand for your kids to make these adorable and easy heart-shaped corner bookmarks for classmates. They’ll just need a few markers, a hole punch, glue stick, pencil, paper, and googly eyes to create these unique bookmarks.

If your kids can tie a knot, they can make a Valentine’s Day fleece blanket. This easy no-sew knotted fleece blanket DIY was quite popular across the internet 10 years ago, but since it’s so simple and quick to complete, your kids will want to make blankets for the whole family. Just grab some Valentine’s Day or heart-themed fleece at your local craft store and you’re in business!

If you give a friend a no-sew blanket for Valentine’s Day, they’re going to want a pillow to go with it. If you’ve got a few wrinkly potatoes that are well past their prime, this standard potato-stamp craft is the perfect solution.

Carve hearts and other love-day sentiments on some potatoes and let your littles stamp pillowcases, sheets, or kraft paper to make custom wrapping paper for a store-bought item.