Valentine's Craft for Kids

Aidan and I decided to make little valentines for his classmates as opposed to buying the boring (and pricey for what they are!) little cards you can buy at the store. We made a dozen of them (with leftovers to make several dozen more) for $4.50.

Materials:

Pink & Red Construction Paper
3" round paper doilies
glue stick
individually wrapped heart candies
Magic marker or crayon in color of your choice
*optional- low tack glue dots

For our purposes, we used 2 sheets of red and 2 sheets of pink. First, I measured 4 1/2" squares and cut them out (6 red, 6 pink). Then Aidan took out his trusty glue stick and adhered the paper doilies to the center of each square.

Next, I measured the size of the chocolate hearts we were using and with the scraps of construction paper leftover, cut out 12 heart shapes (again 6 red, 6 pink) -1/2" larger on all sides than the candy piece.

Aidan then wrote one classmate's name in the center of each heart.

Finally, Aidan glued the bottom 2/3 of the heart (along the edge) and with my assistance, attached it to the doily like a pocket. We let them dry overnight and this morning, slipped a chocolate heart into each one. I think they came out really cute!



*I had some of those gummy glue dots left over from another project and decided that to survive the trip to school without candy falling out all over the place, it would be wise to adhere a dot to the backside of each candy to secure it in place inside the heart pocket.

A cute little crafting idea

Aidan and I made these adorable little Rudolph candy canes for his preschool classmates. If your kids go to a school that allows them to celebrate and share their holiday traditions, this is an easy and affordable project that can be done in no time!

Supplies:
(your costs may vary slightly)

(2) 12 pack boxes of candy canes ($.88 each)
(1) package chenille stems (pipe cleaners) ($1/50 pack)
(1) bag 5mm googly eyes ($.89/60 pack)
(1) bag 10mm red pom poms ($.89/100 pack)
Regular white glue (no cost, we had some at home)

Total: $4.54 for 24 reindeer



The only real time associated with this project is the glue drying time.

-Add a tiny dot of glue for each eye and allow at least 1/2 an hour to dry before trying to add the pom pom nose. (If you add too much glue, the eyes will slide down, so it's best to do the gluing in stages.)
-Once the eyes are dried, add the pom poms and again, allow at least 1/2 an hour of drying time.
-Finally, the antlers- fold one chenile stem in half, loop it around the hook of the candy cane and twist it tightly to keep it in place.
-Grab both ends of the stem and fold in a zig zag motion, then seperate the two pieces and pull out from ends slightly to adjust them.

That's it!

Aidan had a lot of fun with this- he calls them "Oobi eye Rudolphs" (anyone with preschoolers who watch Noggin will get his analogy)