Holidays are a great time to break out your art supplies and make crafts with kids. Whether you want to help them create decorations, something that they could give their friends or valentine, or something that they can enjoy for themselves, there are lots of fun craft ideas. Here are our top 5 kids craft ideas for Valentine’s Day:
Beaded Jewelry
Jewelry can be a wonderful gift idea or something that kids can enjoy wearing on Valentine’s Day. You can help them make earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and more. To make beaded jewelry, the tools you need are beads, beading wire, findings, and jewelry pliers. Although there are several different techniques you can use, we recommend starting with just stringing beads on the wire in a pattern. For the perfect Valentine’s Day accessory, look for beads that are pink, red, and white or heart-shaped.
Finger-Knitted Flowers
Finger knitting is a great way to introduce your children to knitting. It’s easy to teach children, too. All you need to get started with finger knitting is yarn. Have your children pick out their favorite color. Then, follow these steps:
- Weave a piece of yarn through your fingers, starting with your pointer finger. It should go over your pointer finger, behind your middle finger, etc. Circle the yarn around your pinky finger and weave it back around toward your thumb. Repeat this 2 times, so you have 2 strings on each side of each finger.
- Pull the bottom string on each finger over the top of your finger. It should go all the way behind your finger.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2. You should have 1 string looped around each finger still. This should stay the bottom string, so place the new weaved string above the remaining one.
Continue to do these steps until your finger-knitted string is about a foot long. Some children may way to continue to work on it, making their very own little scarves or snakes. If they choose to make a Valentine flower, just fold the pieces into six petals and knot them into place with extra yarn. You could cut out a piece of foam or construction paper to glue in the middle of the petals.
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Heart String Art
Heartstring art takes more prep work than the other crafts. Of course, you could have your children help you with the preparations, but you need to supervise the process to ensure everyone’s safety. To get started, get a piece of wood. It can be any size, but it needs to be large enough to fit a heart on it. Sand down the wood, and stain or paint it the color of your choosing.
Once the paint is dry, trace a heart on the wood. You can use a pencil or cut out a heart on a piece of paper and place it on the wood. Outline the heart shape with nails, using a hammer to get them in the wood. Aim for at least 28 nails around the heart.
With the preparation work done, give your children string. Use the string to make a spider web-like design around and through the nails. When finished, tie the end of the string around one of the nails, keeping the string taut to hold the design.
Origami Bookmarks
Originating in Japan, origami is the art of folding paper into various shapes. Kids are amazed by the cool things they can make out of paper. However, to make it work, they need to follow you step-by-step, watching your every move and copying it with their own paper. These origami heart bookmarks can be a fun gift to make for friends and family members. When completed, use a red marker to write common words and phrases from conversation hearts to make your creation resemble your own conversation heart candy. Some of the common phrases include:
- Be Mine
- Call Me
- Miss You
- Love Bug
- XOXO
- You Rock
- Love You
- True Love
Candy Butterflies
No Valentine’s Day is complete without candy. So, why not incorporate candy into your kids’ crafts? To make the candy butterfly, you’ll need a snack-sized bag, small candies, a clothespin, art supplies, googly eyes, and 2 pipe cleaners. With your supplies in hand, follow these steps:
- Fill the bag about 2/3 full of candy.
- Color or paint the clothespin. We recommend painting it pink or red for Valentine’s Day.
- Glue googly eyes at the top of the clothespin. Then, draw on a smile.
- Attach the pipe cleaners at the top of the clothespin for the antennae. You can leave them straight or curl them to look more like butterfly antennae.
- Place the clothespin in the middle of the sandwich bag with candy on either side. So, the candy should make the wings of your butterfly.
With the right supplies and some creativity, you can help your children create fun crafts for this Valentine’s Day. Check out Interweave Knits for supplies to get you started. Then, let your children’s creativity take it from there to make something that they will be proud to show off for Valentine’s Day this year!