Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? Even if you don’t usually do so, there is no reason you can’t start. Making decorations is a fun way to spend time together as a family and it’s also a good outlet for imagination and creativity.
You can make suggestions or use projects and ideas that you find here and in other venues, and you can also ask your kids for ideas. Little ones tend to have some pretty ingenious ideas. They may need a little help translating what they see in their mind into something tangible, so having everyone work together is a good way to help them actualize their ideas.
Three-Dimensional Hearts
This one is simple to do but cool at the same time. You can use any kind of paper from construction paper to Valentine’s Day wrapping paper and everything in between for this project. Cut out small, medium, and large hearts. Fold them in half. Place the medium sized on inside the large one and the small heart inside the medium one. Open them up and staple them together right down the center. Fold them again, creasing them well, and then open the large one flat and the inner ones just slightly. You can make several and string them like streamers or hang them individually using ribbon. Also, try gluing some magnetic stripping to the back and hang them on the fridge or use double-faced foam tape and stick them to windows and mirrors.
Tips for Making Heart Shapes:
If you’re not great at drawing hearts, don’t worry. There are a couple of tricks you can use. First, try folding paper in half and simply drawing one curved side facing away from the crease. Cut it out, open it up, and you have a heart. Another trick that anyone can use to make a heart pattern is combining a square and a circle to form a heart. Cut out a square and place it so it’s angled where it looks like a diamond. Cut out circle about the same size, cut it in half, and attack a half circle to each side at the top of the diamond (trim a bit if necessary). Use this pattern for tracing.
*You might also adapt these ideas for Valentine’s Day:
Pen Pal or Friendship Postcards or Note Cards