Valentine’s Day is the absolute perfect occasion to draw inspiration for some crafts with your toddler.
I say this as someone who is absolutely dreadful at arts and crafts. I do it because I love my toddler, and she loves being creative, and it gives us something to do together.
However I like to go easy on myself, why overcomplicate things after all? So I have picked out my favourite easy Valentine crafts.
What I love about this theme is hearts are really pretty and there’s so many things you can do with the shape. Cut them out and stick them, colour them, paint them, whatever you can think of.
1. Tissue paper hearts
Get a piece of red card and cut out some heart shapes. Then give your toddler some tissue paper. You can either let them pick the colours or go for Valentine-inspired reds and pinks.
Then show your toddler how to rip the tissue paper up and scrunch it into balls.
Next I got some glue (I used a child-friendly red glitter Pritt stick which is fab for this) and applied it all over one side of the heart. Then I just let her go nuts with sticking the paper to the heart. She loved it and the results can be turned into hanging decorations or stuck to cards to be given to relatives.
2. Heart biscuits
I made star biscuits for my baby’s first birthday party. The recipe is easy to follow and my toddler loves helping to cut out the biscuits from the dough and icing the cooked biscuits.
Simply buy a heart-shaped cookie cutter and follow my recipe here.
3. Melted crayon hearts
This is such a brilliant activity to use up broken bits of crayon that your child can’t grip and use anymore. Get your crayon pieces and if they’re a bit chunky still chop them a bit smaller with a knife or let your toddler snap them up into pieces with their hands.
Next work with your toddler to fill a love hearts silicone baking mould with the pieces of crayon. What’s great about this though is you can use any shapes you want. My mould also has star and circle shapes.
Next pop the mould on a baking tray and then put it in a pre-heated oven at 200C. Leave it for five minutes and check on how it’s doing. It should take no more than 10 minutes for the crayon pieces to melt.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Then simply pop the crayon hearts out of the silicon mould.
You can either tie ribbon around them and hang them as a Valentine’s decoration or stick them on cardboard and create your own 3D card for a loved one.
Or your toddler could use them to create a drawing!
4. Celery stamp flower painting
This one is so very clever! Get a whole celery, chop off the stalks so you’re just left with the root, then dip it in paint and use it to make flower-shaped prints on paper. Such a fab, cheap and imaginative way to encourage your toddler to enjoy art.
5. Heart shaped hand and finger painting
There are a variety of ways to do this. I got my heart-shaped hole punch and made some small hearts. I then stuck these to a piece of card using blu-tac and got my toddler to paint around them with her fingers. When it was dry I lifted the hearts off and we had a gorgeous picture.
You can also get your toddler to do finger prints on a large cutout of a heart and then write a message on the other side to send as a Valentine to a relative.
6. Toilet paper roll heart stamp
The simplest of the lot! Get an empty loo roll, bend and fold it into a heart shape and then get your toddler to use it as a heart stamp on some paper or card.
7. Handprint love you poster
Use a blank sheet of paper or print off a “love you” message for your kids to decorate. Simply print it off onto a piece of thin card then get your child to make handprints around the “love you” message. You could frame this and give it to your other half as a Valentine’s Day gift.
8. Valentine’s suncatcher
I purchased a sheet of acetate and some sticker gems. I then cut out a heart shape and let my toddler stick the gems wherever she wanted. I punched a hole at the top of the heart and threaded a ribbon through so it could hang by the window. You could also use pieces of ripped up tissue paper and stick them on the acetate.
Alternatively you could cut out a cardboard frame to go around the acetate shape and get your toddler to stick tissue paper on it as a bonus activity.
9. Valentine’s Day playdough
Use my really easy homemade playdough recipe here with pink or red food colouring.
Then encourage your toddler to make heart shapes with her hands or using a cookie cutter.
10. Footprints in heart
Get a piece of card and draw a large heart shape. Get your toddler’s feet, one at a time, and dip them in red or pink paint then place them in the heart to make a print that fits inside the shape.
For more great ideas for what to do with your toddler, check out these posts:
40 easy activities for toddlers
50 free or cheap things to do with a toddler
Great ideas here – especially that they are easy – it’s so much more likely I’ll actually do them with my nieces haha x
Thanks lovely! I am way more likely to try stuff when I don’t feel totally intimidated by the scale of the project, I love Pinterest but it scares me sometimes, haha! x
Brilliant. I’m terrible at crafts but I could do these !! Also you’ve reminded me valentine’s Day is approaching, which means so is my baby’s second birthday! #fortheloveofblog
Honestly I am awful at crafts and we managed all of these! Ah happy second bday to your little for next month x
Shoo haven’t even thought about Valentine’s Day – crazy as it is next month. Some great ideas as my kids love making Valentine’s cards that they give to their grandparents and us. Will share these ideas with them, thanks for sharing.#fortheloveofBLOG
Tell me about it! These things just race up don’t they? x
Great ideas here! I will be bookmarking for Feb, thanks #fortheloveofblog
These are lovely ideas. My daughter is 12 and she still makes me a card for Valentines day.
#fortheloveofBLOG
Ah that’s so sweet! I hope mine still do at 12 x
Great ideas for crafting- especially love the celery stalk flower! Will be doing that with my little one 🙂 #fortheloveofBLOG
Yes I thought that one was really cool too! x
These are perfect for me – I’m so bad at crafts, it’s ridiculous. #fortheloveofBLOG
I’m dreadful but it’s such a good way to make the day less boring! x
Might show my other half this! He loves crafts (He’s a designer) and perfect for him and Small Boy to do. #fortheloveofblog
Oh wow, I bet his at home crafty projects always come out looking amazing! x
He takes it very seriously! I’m surprised he hasn’t gone to Lidl and bought a 3D printer yet. He made handprint mugs for the grannies for Xmas last year.
I love all of these ideas! My little girl just turned one and I’ve been on the hunt for some fun things to do this Valentines Day!
#ForTheLoveOfBLOG
Ah fab! Happy to have helped x
Super ideas. I cannot believe we are nearly at that time again! #fortheloveBLOG
Thanks lovely x
Must. Get. Crafty!
Yes you must! That’s how I feel every time I look at Pinterest! x
These look brilliant! Jacob loves painting at Nursery so maybe I should start getting more creative at home. #fortheloveofBLOG
I’ve found it’s a great way to pass the time at home on rainy days x
Some great ideas here! I hadn’t even thought about Valentine’s Day yet. #fortheloveofblog
I’m trying to be more organised this year! x
The melted crayons are a great idea – can’t believe its almost Valentines already! #fortheloveofBLOG
Me too! Where is the time going? X
Oh my goodness Vicky – firstly – your blog is looking fab.u.lous!! I know I said this to you a few weeks ago over on Insta but it just blows me away everytime I’m on your site how fantastic it looks! Love all of these ideas – thank you! You had me at the title! I don’t have an arty bone in my body and anything more complicated than a play dough cake is usually beyond my capabilities but these actually do look easy!! I love people like you thinking up these lovely ideas so mums like me don’t have any of the brain work to do! Will definitely be trying the melted crayons one with my older two – with them being 6 and 4 they like something with a bit of oven fun for an added element of danger!!xxx #fortheloveofblog
Ah Jemma, you always say such lovely things. You’ve been one of my biggest supporters since launching the blog and I appreciate it so much! Enjoy trying them out, they really are easy, trust me! I can’t even draw a stick man, haha xx
I love this and so many of them look so easy too! Can’t wait to give some of these a go! #fortheloveofBLOG
Thanks lovely x
Great set of resources here! #fortheloveofBLOG
These are great ideas! I particularly love the crayon hearts! I think we’ll give that a go when we get to the crayon stage #fortheloveofBlog
Yes I loved those ones too! x
These look brill! I’m naff with arty stuff but these look really simple even I could do it! 🙂
If I can do it, then so can you!
Excellent ideas for the craft-challenged like myself. #fortheloveofBLOG
Thanks lovely x
Loads of great ideas! I’ve promised myself I’m gonna do more crafty bits with the Littles this year so I’ll be coming back to this post. We attempted home made Play Doh last week which thankfully wasn’t as messy as I was anticipating. #fortheloveofBLOG
Yes I’m the same, I’m trying to do a few new things each month. We loved making our own play doh! x
These are great craft projects and not just for toddlers…my 7 year old would love making these too! #fortheloveofblog
Ah thanks lovely x
crayon hearts are a great idea! I have some of those molds somewhere in my cupboard and they would be idea. My boys aren’t toddlers anymore but I would love to make them!:)
Mainy
#fortheloveofBLOG
We enjoyed doing them and the results are really pretty x
These are a delightful set of activities to do with your little ones. #fortheloveofBLOG
Thanks lovely x
Some lovely, simple ideas here. I’m terrible at being creative with crafts – and almost as bad at actually making things, sadly. 🙁 #fortheloveofBLOG