Thursday, February 7, 2013

Valentine Crafts with Preschooler

My 3-year-old daughter really enjoys doing crafts. I enjoy crafts also, and I enjoy doing them with her. However, I have to admit that it can be difficult sometimes to come up with projects that she can do that turn out nice enough to display someplace besides on the fridge. I'm a little behind the curve, but have finally discovered the value of Pinterest for discovering good craft projects and activities suitable for my preschooler and me. Here are a few Valentine's Day crafts that we have recently done together.  

 

Simple Valentine Wreath


I really enjoy having a Christmas wreath on my front door and have always admired wreaths on other people's door for other seasons. I figured they either have a lot of money (wreaths can be very expensive) or are very crafty and have a lot of money (even the supplies for making wreaths can be cost a pretty penny). After tossing my Christmas wreath into the trash can, I decided I would make a wreath.

I had three criteria:

  1. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money; 
  2. I wanted to have my 3-year-old help make it; and 
  3. I would like it to be versatile enough to be able to use it for different seasons. 

Here's what I did:


  • Saved some branches from pruning my dogwood shrub and formed them into a wreath shape.
  • Found some silver ribbon and thin red ribbon that I had at home and let my daughter help me wrap the ribbon around the wreath.
  • Found some red and pink felt that I had at home and cut out heart shapes. I used a hot glue gun to glue the center hanging heart to the ribbon. As I was considering how to attach the rest of the hearts to the wreath, my daughter suggested that we just tuck them under the ribbon. Genius! She could do that part and when Valentine's Day is over, we can just pull them out and create a new design for Spring.
I have seen many more elaborate and beautiful wreaths, but this one met my criteria and suits us just fine.

Simple Valentine Wreath detail

Paper Heart Garland 1:


I found this simple Paper Heart Garland craft on Pinterest. Just cut strips of construction paper or card stock, fold in half, use a hold punch, then string ribbon through the holes and hang!

Paper Heart Garland 2:


One of the first crafts we did for Valentine's Day was to cut out some paper hearts which my preschooler then decorated - some with stickers, others with glued-on sparkles, and still others with colored pencil. What to do with these hearts next?

I used the same idea from making the Paper Heart Garland 1 to have my daughter help punch holes, string, and hang these hearts as well.

Paper Heart Crown


This is what my daughter decided to do with the leftover paper hearts that we didn't use for the garland.

"Tie-Dye" Window Hearts



I saw this Tie Dye Coffee Filter Valentine Heart Craft on Pinterest. As I don't use white coffee filters, I used paper towels instead and they worked great.

Sweet Pea used washable markers to make her design. Then she dripped water using a water dropper.


We let it dry, then I cut a heart out of construction paper and she glued on the tie-dyed paper towel. We taped it to the window when the sun came out. Pretty!

Strawberry Greek Yogurt Smoothie


After all this crafting, you will want a special snack to share with your little Valentine.
To make this smoothie:

  • Put 10 large frozen strawberries and about 1 tablespoon of honey in a food processor (I love my Cuisinart!) and puree that to a slush.
  • Add greek yogurt (maybe about 2 cups), a tablespoon of flax meal, and a little milk (1/4 cup or more to your thickness preference).
  • Puree till smooth and thick.
  • Since it is so healthy and we wanted to make it extra special, we put a little dollop of whipped cream on top. Yum! 


I hope you enjoy doing these crafts with your favorite crafting pal. 

Happy Valentine's Day!








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