When you really care enough to send the very best, nothing says it better than a homemade Valentine’s Day card, especially when it comes from a child. Parents, grandparents (most of all!), friends, and family will delight in these do-it-yourself card ideas – and you don’t have to be super crafty to help your kids create superb one-of-a-kind Valentine’s Day cards!
Starting from Scratch
Everyone’s paying attention to recycling these days, and many people save one-sided junk mail and other printed material to use the blank side as scratch paper. You can turn that paper into colorful do-it-yourself Valentine’s Day cards for kids with the simple addition of crayons, glue, construction paper… and imagination. Have your child write Valentine’s Day messages on the scratch paper's blank side, then glue the message onto construction paper, which can be decorated with colorful designs around the edges or a frame-like drawing around the message. With older children, try cutting the scratch paper into smaller pieces and use one piece for each specially hand-designed letter in the Valentine’s Day card message.
Cutting Corners
Your child can put together a frame-worthy Valentine’s Day card with items you’ve already got at home, plus a few arts-and-crafts embellishments. Take a cardboard cereal box (or any cardboard box will do) and cut out the front and back rectangular sections. Cut each section in half, and you’ve got the basics for 4 Valentine’s Day cards. Have your child cover the cardboard with tin foil all the way around, or use fabric scraps if you have them. Write Valentine’s Day greetings with a red marker, and decorate the edges with glued-on glitter or handmade confetti from cut up construction paper. If you want to personalize each do-it-your Valentine’s Day card, find clip art or other computer images or photos to suit each card recipient, and print them out for your child to glue onto the cards.
Sweet Hearts
Create a heart-shaped template out of heavy cardboard so your child can trace the design for each card being made. For smaller hearts, use a pre-shaped cookie cutter for perfect hearts every time. Dip the edges of the cookie cutter into the paint to decorate larger cards or plain paper. Short, personal Valentine’s Day greetings can be written on small hearts which are then glued onto larger hearts. For a finishing touch, buy a box of those popular small heart-shaped Valentine’s Day candies and glue them onto the card – if you find the right combination, they can even use a few to “write” a message of their own.
It’s Puzzling
Give your child a piece of pre-cut heart-shaped red construction paper on which to write a Valentine’s Day message. If your child is too young to write, a colorful drawing will be fine. Another alternative could be to trace your small child’s hand onto a page and let him or her color around it, or if you’re feeling adventurous, dip the child’s entire hand into paint and do a palm impression. However the paper is decorated, when it’s done, cut the paper up into several pieces and put them in an envelope addressed to the Valentine’s Day recipient, who can then put the pieces together to read the message. (If you want the puzzle to be sturdier, glue the construction paper onto cardboard before cutting it up into pieces.)