Danielle Hill,
Holiday crafts are a great way to connect with the children in your life, especially if you do the crafts together and plan to share them with others! Here are a few Valentine’s Day crafts to make with your loved ones this February. We have included crafts that will work with both younger and older children and teens. Enjoy!
Heart-Shaped Bird Feeders
These bird feeders are easy and fun to make with children of all ages. They make wonderful gifts for anyone who enjoys hosting feathered friends and has a space to hang them. Plus, with February being the National Audubon Society’s Great Backyard Bird Count, it’s perfect timing! The number of feeders this will create will depend on the size of cookie cutter you use.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2.5 teaspoons) – You can find gelatin right next to the boxes of Jell-O mix
- 3 tablespoons corn syrup (Both light and dark corn syrup will work here.)
- 4 cups birdseed
Extra Supplies:
- Large mixing bowl
- Heart-shaped cookie cutter
- Nonstick cooking spray or oil
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper
- Straw, chopstick or other item for poking holes in the feeders
- Jute or other natural string for hanging
- Scissors
* If you wish to make personalized tags, you will also need cardstock, a hole punch, paint for the fingerprint hearts and a marker.
Instructions:
- Mix the water, gelatin and corn syrup together in the mixing bowl. This is a great task for children who are learning about measurement, and children of many ages can help with stirring. Once combined, mix in the flour. Finally, mix in the birdseed. I found it easier to finish mixing in the birdseed with my hands and to scrape the excess off with a spoon. It’s very sticky, so adding a little oil to your helpers’ hands might be a good idea. You can also use a spoon that’s been sprayed with nonstick spray or lightly oiled.
- Place parchment paper on the cookie sheet. Spray both the inside of the cookie cutter and the front and back of a spoon with nonstick spray or a light coat of oil. Have a helper set the cookie cutter on the parchment and begin filling it with the birdseed mixture, using the spoon or lightly oiled hands. Pack the mixture well, as this will keep the seeds from falling off after the feeder has dried. Poke a hole in the feeder using a chopstick or straw. Carefully press the contents of the cookie cutter down as you gently pull the cutter up and away. This last task is great for older children or adults, as it’s important to be gentle. Repeat the process until you run out of the mixture.
- Let the feeders dry overnight.
- If you would like to make tags for the feeders, cut tag shapes from cardstock and invite helpers to make hearts with paint or inkpad fingerprints. Then, they can write their names. Once the paint has dried, punch a hole in each tag and thread it onto jute or another natural yarn. Thread the jute through the hole in each feeder and tie it off using a sturdy knot. I knotted mine several times for strength. That’s it!
Stained Glass Hearts
These hearts made of decoupage tissue paper make a stunning gift either for your own home or for loved ones, and the best part is that children of all ages (adults included!) will enjoy making them and seeing the final result. If you aren’t familiar with Mod Podge, you can find it at craft stores or Target. I chose the gloss finish, but other types would work. Be sure to lay something down to protect your table!
Supplies:
- White cardstock
- Tissue paper
- Scissors
- Foam paint brushes
- Clear sheet protectors
- Mod Podge
- Pen
Instructions:
- Have a helper cut out squares of tissue paper. 1” x 1” squares work nicely here, but other sizes would work, just be consistent.
- In the meantime, you or another helper can make a heart template. Fold your cardstock in half, draw half of a heart shape, and cut it out. There is a printable template online, or you can make your own.
- Now it’s time for the super fun part! Spread a thick layer of Mod Podge on the sheet protector. It’s important to paint a nice thick layer so that the tissue paper will be coated on the back side. Next, lay down the tissue paper squares until the sheet protector is covered. Sandwich the tissue paper with another layer of Mod Podge on the top. Start by dotting the Mod Podge on top, and then have your child use dabbing motions to cover everything and keep it in place. I found that dragging the brush repeatedly weakened the tissue paper, so be sure to use dabbing motions to apply a thick layer of Mod Podge.
- Let it dry overnight.
- Carefully bend the sheet protector and peel off the layer of tissue paper. Some people who did this craft chose not to do this and instead removed the other side of the sheet protector (the one with nothing on it) and kept the remaining side of the sheet protector attached to the tissue paper. This made the hearts a little sturdier, but they may be less transparent.
- Trace your cardstock heart shape on the decoupage tissue paper using a pen, then cut it out. I managed to cut out a larger heart and two smaller hearts from one sheet protector.
- Hang your suncatchers in the window using double-sided tape or a couple pieces of rolled-up tape.
Heart Strings
I would recommend this craft for older children and teens, as it involves the use of pins and requires a little more dexterity than our other two projects. There are so many options for what you and your children can do with the hearts you create. Add a loop of string to the top and make an ornament, or string several together to make a garland — the choice is yours!
Supplies:
- Yarn
- Two or three pieces of thick cardboard (This can be found on boxes from online orders, shipping containers, etc.)
- White glue
- Sewing pins (Choose ones you won’t mind throwing away.)
- Water
- Paintbrush
- Bowl or something to hold the glue mixture
- Scissors
- Glitter (This is optional, but after I made mine without it, I would highly recommend using it!)
- Cardstock or plain paper
- Pencil
Instructions:
- Decide what size of heart you want to make and create a heart template by folding your cardstock or paper in half, drawing half a heart and then cutting it out.
- Cut two or three pieces of cardboard to a size that will allow for enough room to fit the heart shape and still have a bit of working room around the sides. Trace your heart shape on the middle of one of these pieces and then stack the other two pieces underneath. You should have a stack of cardboard with the heart on top.
- Make sure you are working on a protected surface before you do the next step. Place the pins evenly around the heart shape, being sure that they go from the first piece of cardboard into the second.
- Measure out your yarn by wrapping the yarn around four fingers approximately 20-25 times.
- Mix two parts glue to one part water. (If using glitter, you can either add a good amount of fine glitter to the glue mixture or paint a little extra glue mixture on your heart in the end and sprinkle it on then.) Place your yarn into the container to soak up the glue mixture. Make sure the mixture coats the yarn, then take it out and gently squeeze out the excess.
- Tie one end of the yarn around the pin at the bottom point of the heart. You will have a little tail that hangs from the bottom. Begin wrapping the yarn between the pins to fill out your heart shape. You can either try to make a shape or just randomly bounce back and forth across the heart for an abstract appearance.
- When you are happy with the interior of your heart, wrap your yarn around the outer edge of your heart several times. Each time you reach the pin that is in the valley between the two hills at the top of the heart, wrap the yarn around the pin to hold it in place, as shown in the photo. To finish, wrap the yarn around the pin at the point of the heart, and pull the second tail over to the empty area of the cardboard, placing a pin in it to hold it in place.
- Use a paintbrush to apply more of the glue mixture to all parts of the heart, including the inside strings. Take special care to apply extra glue around where the inside strings connect to the edges. This step is very important, as painting all strings with the glue mixture will ensure that the heart holds its shape.
- Let your creation dry overnight. Remove the pins by gently twisting them with pliers and pulling them up and out. If you need to reattach a few inside strings to the outside, you can do so by adding a little more glue.
Tips for Card Making
Card making is undoubtedly one of the most popular crafts of the Valentine’s Day season. Here are a few items that can come in handy for helping young children who want to make hearts but may not want to draw them.
- Celery sticks: Cut off the end of a celery stick and use it as a heart stamp! Your child can dip it in paint and use it to add a fun element to their card.
- Toilet paper tubes: You can bend these into a heart shape and let your child stamp them in paint and onto a card.
- Fingers: Show your child how to use paint or inkpad fingerprints to make heart shapes. Simply make one fingerprint for one side of the heart and another for the other side. The photo of the birdfeeder tags shows a heart made from fingerprints.
Danielle Hill is a local writer and former teacher with a bachelor’s degree in organizational management and ethics and a degree in education.
Categories: Fun For Kids
