a peek inside the fishbowl

08 Feb, 2011

Crafty Valentine’s Day card ideas for kids: a round up

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|File under crafty

Did you know… one of my most favourite things in the whole world is a vintage Valentine’s Day card. I pink puffy heart love them. Here’s one I bought on Ebay some time ago:

Vintage Valentine's Day card

I remember pouring over those big paper books full of perforated cards and lickable stamps. Each card was different. It was quite a conundrum. Who would I give the BEST cards to? Who could I foist the little boring ones upon? It was A Big Deal.

Today, I think homemade Valentine’s Day cards are truly nicer than many of the storebought varieties out there. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen cute storebought ones, but many grocery-store variety cards really have nothing to do with Valentine’s Day at all. The Power Rangers wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day? What’s the point of that? It makes me a little sad, actually. Kids LOVE to make stuff, and this is a perfect opportunity to crank out something special with them. Consider it a family art project!

Here’s one we made in 2009:

DIY lollipop flower for Valentine's Day

Sidebar: I beg you, from one parent to another, don’t waste your money on dollar store pencils and incorporate them into your kid’s cards. We have dollar store pencils EVERYWHERE around here. I can build a bird cage out of dollar store pencils, because that’s about all that they’re good for… and I don’t want to build a bird cage out of dollar store pencils. From this day forward, dollar store pencils that arrive at Casa Fishbowl are going straight into the garbage. It sounds harsh, I know, but they drive me batty with their unsharpenableness. DON’T DO IT.

If you or your child wants is going to make cards this year, start as soon as you can. Like today.

  • 1) Find an idea you both like
  • 2) Buy the supplies (or better yet, work with what you have)
  • 3) Make the cards in batches, assembly-line style. There’s nothing worse than staying up late – alone! – or with a crying kid trying to cut 30 paper doilies into 30 intricate heart shapes on February 13.

Here are a couple things we made in the past:

They’re both pretty easy to assemble and customize – and very inexpensive to make! Some other ideas I like:

This is the easiest card ever:

  • Cut out small rectangles or heart shapes out of red or pink construction paper and have your child stamp or draw or punch heart shapes on each one. Fold in half, sign, and voila, your card is complete.

Any other ideas for Valentine’s Day card crafts for the classroom? Do share!


10 Responses to "Crafty Valentine’s Day card ideas for kids: a round up"

1 | Karen at Virtually There

February 8th, 2011 at 9:26 am

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Great ideas! Here’s what we did for Emily (grade 1) this year. She came up with the idea and I massaged it to make it easy and fun to make: using red card stock we did gingerbread boys and girls. On the back of each I wrote “it’s a sweet treat to have you as a friend”. Emily labelled and signed each and decorated the front of each. She’s taping a Silly Band to the back of each one. Low stress, fun and inexpensive since we chose a pack of SillyBanz that both girls and boys will like.

2 | andrea

February 8th, 2011 at 9:42 am

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That’s a great idea Karen! I think the addition of the SillyBanz is really neat, and the kids would love it.

3 | Jen_nifer

February 8th, 2011 at 9:54 am

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We did your “easiest card ever” suggestion above last year. My son was in Junior Kindergarten for his first Valentine Card exchange.

He’s not very crafty, but was happy with this rare opportunity to use Mommy’s stamps!

4 | karen

February 8th, 2011 at 11:05 am

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My daughter always made her own Valentine’s Day cards. Sometimes we would get a little crazy and spent way too long working on them.

My son is 8 and he hasn’t made homemade cards since he was 4. He has no interest what so ever. Crafts are not his thing. I showed him a few cute and very simple ideas this year and he still wants no part of it. On the bright side he has a great art teacher this year and just loves it.

5 | Chantal

February 8th, 2011 at 11:11 am

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my 5yo son decided he wanted to make his own cards this year. I tried to convince him to let me make a heart shaped potato stamp or something but he would have nothing to do with it. He simply wanted card stock, folded in half and he is drawing a heart on it and signing his name. That’s it. Simple and he is happy (and proud that he made them).

6 | binki

February 8th, 2011 at 11:19 am

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About the pencil thing. I totally agree. Super cheap pencils that don’t sharpen well at all. And they are painted…in China. Is it just me or do you also get the willies when you see paint on something made in China? Ick!

I say no pencils and no food for Valentines gifts. Just cards.

Here’s what we’re doing. The girls will draw a really nice (detailed) Valentines drawing with some blank space in one corner. I will photograph the drawing and print it in 4×6 size. The recipient’s name is then hand-written in the blank space. All done for 15 cents each.

7 | andrea

February 8th, 2011 at 11:29 am

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Karen – you’re right. You totally can’t force a kid to make a card. If they don’t want to, they don’t want to. (But do they want to RECEIVE cards? I always dangle this question in front of DDs when they balk. If you want to receive, you have to give.)

Chantal – The sense of pride and accomplishment they feel when they’re done is practically reason enough to take on the challenge for me!

Binki – I really like that idea. Alternately a parent could photocopy their children’s Valentine’s Day art and print it 30 copies. (Hopefully you can squash as many on a single page as you can!) Many home printers can photocopy and print nowadays.

8 | Laura Daub

February 8th, 2011 at 6:42 pm

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Nice Valentine’s card ideas, thanks for sharing.
I organized a handmade Valentine’s card making session at work last week and we’re aiming for 143 cards to drop off at 2 retirement homes on Sunday! It has been so much fun and so great to see how different all the cards are… We’re hoping it might brighten the day for people receiving and the people who made them!

9 | Amy

February 10th, 2011 at 1:05 am

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Just thought I’d add something.. I really enjoy all these ideas and will be cataloging them for my sons approval:) we’ll see how many he does.. and how many mommy does!
I did want to mention though, that in the public school my daughter attends, the parents have been asked for the last few years not to send candy or food of any kind. (I really like those Valentines the best personally) but there has just been too many allergies in the school.. so it never hurts to run it by the teacher if your child is planning a treat with their Valentine.

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