Valentine's day Paper strips Heart Craft Tutorial

For preschoolers Valentine's day begins as soon as they start making heart crafts in school. It was amazing to see my daughter (Anna) involved so much in this year's Valentine's day celebration. For her Valentine's day is all about making crafts for someone you love. They have been making Valentine's day crafts, puzzles, mazes etc the whole first two weeks of February. She had to take something for her friends for the Valentine's day party in her class. She wanted to make something for her teachers too.This is what we came up with. It was simple, different and based on the teacher's favorite color we decided which color paper to use.

Supplies:
 -Color Print Paper strips: 0.5 inch wide and length based on how big heart you want. We used 2 strips each of 5", 6",7.5" (in your choice of color)
 -Stapler or Glue
-Fish line or Ribbon
 -Color Pen

 

 Instructions:
For the first loop using 3 strips.
1. Apply glue on one end of the strip measuring 7.5",place the end of 6" and press.
2. Now apply glue on this and place end of 5" strip. Refer pictures.
3. Make a loop using the 5" (innermost) strip and glue the end as shown. 
4. Repeat with the rest of the strips. Make the second loop by repeating the above steps. Glue or staple these two loops that you made.

 

Variations
-Anna decided to write on the outermost strips for her teacher. So we used white strips for that.
-We also used the teacher's favorite color to decide who is getting which heart.

-She later decided to make one for her favorite aunt in the colors which are her son's and Anna's favorite.This one she made with no help from me at all.
 Notes:
-We found that glue worked better than staples so in the last one we used glue to stick the loops together.
 -To attach string we used stapler.(optional)
 -Parents should do the stapler part for younger kids and supervise for little older kids. For her friends we got some heart shaped erasers and lollipops. We packed it in cute packing. It was an extension of a craft we did earlier. We will share that with you soon.

Tissue paper Valentine's day greeting card

The best Valentine's day card I ever received -


I love you Mom, I love you Dad, such beautiful emotions....
All kids express these precious feelings one way or other almost every day. Valentine's day gives an opportunity to express these feelings to your loved ones in a special way.
My daughter, who is not even a preschooler yet, made this on her easel. She said she is making this for her Papa (Dad)ans later she changed her mind. She says it is for both you(mommy) and Papa. Along with that came a warm hug.

I always feel that it is the thought behind any card or a gift that counts more than the card or gift itself. This is the first time she made a Valentine's day card all by herself so I thought of sharing the process of creating it. As it is the thought of a 3 year old that makes this extra special.

My daughter loves crafts specially anything to do with paper and stickers. She keeps cutting paper a lot with safety scissors. She also likes experimenting with different kinds of craft glues. Glue stick and and a pointed tip craft glue are her favorites. She is quick to reject a glue which does not stick quick enough.

She told me to make a big heart on the paper on her easel. I made it with a pink crayon. Then she wanted pink and red tissue paper. She kept cutting them. They were not uniform shapes but roughly 1 inch rectangle or squares.
Next she asks me I want to decorate this heart with these papers. "Mommy Tell me how my can do it?" (her exact words, she keeps switching my and I).

I told her to keep folding one piece of the tissue paper she cut so it becomes a
little ball. Then glue to the boundary of the heart. I didn't specify any pattern with red or pink. I thought it would be more than enough if she tries to stick on the boundary I made. Not expecting much of it I went away to do my daily chores. Surprisingly, she kept doing it for sometime with lot of patience.Then she got tired. Took a break for may be about 5-10 min. Then she was back at her craft activity (as she calls it).


After sometime she comes and says I put some blue on it as I love blue mommy.Then she asks for a flower sticker saying that she wants to make "the heart beautiful". I said it is very beautiful as it is. She says, the heart is empty. I want to make the heart full with beautiful big flower.
So the flower you see is to "make the heart beautiful".

When it was all done she says I love you Mommy...I made this for "Heart day" for you and Papa. Thanks to the playschool that kids this age know Heart day (Valentine's day as they make heart crafts in school too).

I wrote the details here as I truly enjoyed the entire process of her creating this cute little toddler craft. It definitely melt my heart and filled with more love than ever. The whole thought process was as beautiful as the craft was.
We are both so proud of her little creation.We love you too sweetheart.

Supplies needed: A loving heart and a willingness to create something for your loved one.

Hope some of you might find inspiration and create something beautiful for someone you love this valentine's day.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to everyone.

Tip: You can frame a greeting card for it to last long and see it more often.This one is going right into a frame.