Se7en do Se7en Valentines…

Happy Valentines Day – Well, almost. ‘Tis the season! Not actually, it isn’t even February yet – but before you know it it will be 13th of February and you will need a couple of instant Valentine ideas. So Hood #3 and I have been crafting away to find se7en Valentine crafts, actually we thought of millions together and these are se7en of the best. We chose these ones for their speed factor, simple enough for little guys factor and their aesthetically pleasing factor!

Here’s an outline of what’s to come:

• Idea #1 : Valentine Masks
• Idea #2 : Valentine Bookmarks
• Idea #3 : Valentine Thumbtacks
• Idea #4 : Valentine Fans
• Idea #5 : Valentine Post-it-Note Bunting
• Idea #6 : Valentine (Peg) Love Bugs
• Idea #7 : Valentine Hand Print Hug

• Idea #1 – Valentine Masks: The easiest one by far, you haven’t lived if you haven’t made a Valentine mask – cut a huge heart out of card, pop two eyes in the middle and decorate to your hearts content – done. My kids did these in an art class years ago and they have made them every year, ever since!

  

• Idea #2 – Valentine Bookmarks: Make a heart the size of the bookmark you are after and decorate it (maybe not with glitter, especially if you are planning to use them in library books). Cut it out and turn it over, draw another heart within your heart… and carefully cut out just the V of the heart. And believe it or not you are done!
  
  
  

• Idea #3 – Valentine Thumb Tacks: I often see tutorials for miniature fridge magnets but we have a pin board. This is what you need: thumb tacks, markers, stickers to fit your thumbtack tops. Decorate your little stickers and stick them on top of your thumb tacks You are done, and I know I could think of a few people that would like little box of thematic pins!

  

• Idea #4 – Valentine Fans: Decorate some paper (not card) with crayons, especially white crayons! And paint over it with pink ink… We trimmed the top of our paper lanterns to have two curves so that when folded up they would look like hearts.

  

  Next step: Fold up your fan, accordion style and make little snips out of the sides – along the fold but make sure you don’t cut right through!

  

  Finally, wrap some tape around the bottom two inches of the fan and gently open up the top – You are done!

  

• Idea #5: Valentine Post-it-Note Bunting

  Just our usual bunting only this time instead of flowers or Christmas trees use hearts. Lay out a row of post-it-notes, and another row of tiny post-it-notes. We painted the big ones, decorated the small ones with glitter or flowers.

  

  When your decorating is dry cut the hearts out and lay them out in a row with a streamer in between them. Put a dab of glue in the middle of the big flower, place your streamer through it. Then put another blob of glue on top and place your little heart on top of all that – sandwiching the streamer between the hearts.

  

  Once it’s dry then you are done.

  

• Idea #6: Valentine (Peg) Love Bugs

  For these you need a wooden peg, a pair of hearts for wings, markers and glitter to decorate and a dash of glue. Googly eyes and a little bit of pipe cleaner can only help!

  

  
  You need to take your peg apart.

  

  Decorate and leave to dry:

  

  Lay half your peg down, glue the wings in place and the feelers. Glue some more, and place the other half of the peg on top. Pop the googly eyes on. Leave it to dry.

  

  Your done and you have a love bug to show for all your hard work.

  

• Idea #7: Valentine Hand Print Hug

  For this one you need a pair of handprints for each kid involved, a couple of streamers the length of each kids arm-span. And a heart of card.

  

  Decorate your heart, we used paint and copious amounts of glitter… and then made a row of holes just big enough to thread your streamers through (we used a knitting needles to make our holes).

  

  We wove our se7en streamers through the holes, and now your heart looks a bit like a dangly spider.

  

  Tape a relevant hand to the relevant streamer – Hood #1 was the top streamer and I taped his hands to top streamer ends… all the way down to Hood #7’s hands on the bottom streamer!.

  

  And you are done. A hearty hug! The great thing is you can pop it into an envelope and post it to a distant granny!

  

That’s it. Our next post is A Valentines Party in Se7en Steps… of course!