Hellobee

We have an artistic gene on my dad’s side of the family. I definitely don’t have it, but it seems like my three and a half-year old Louis does! This weekend Louis and I decided to make some valentines cards. Valentines Day isn’t as big in Sweden as in the States so children don’t hand out valentines cards to their classes. But we thought it would be fun to give some cards to grandparents and close friends.

I think with smaller pre-schoolers it’s a good idea to keep art projects relatively simple, so that there is lots of scope for artistic expression instead of having to follow instructions too closely or go through too many steps. I wanted Louis to feel free to paint what he wanted, so we made these simple heart cut-out cards to turn his art into valentines. Léonie (21 months) was also in on the fun – she painted with edible finger paint.

All you need to make these is paper (big or small), paint (or crayons or felt pens), and scissors.

This is how we made ours:

1. Fold your paper in half to make a card, and then fold the “cover” of your cards in half again, but only really press the fold together in the middle (which will be cut out anyway).
2. Cut out a drop-shape along the fold to make a heart. You can draw the shape first if you want. I didn’t.
3. Let your child paint the inside of the card.
4. Write a little message on the inside of the cover or anywhere else where you have space.

You could also just make the card and let your child paint the inside first before cutting out the heart, but sometimes I think it’s neat to be able to show your child the concept before they start painting, so they sort of know how it’s going to turn out.

You don’t have to have three kids in pre-school to have a lot of kids art around your house. Here are three easy ways to turn that art into handmade valentines for friends and family. Before you do anything else though, take a picture of the art you’re going to work with so you have it documented and can include it in a photo book of your children’s work if you want to. Then get out your scissors, glue and paper and make some cards:

1. Heart cut-out cards. Make heart cut-out cards out of paintings or drawings your child has already done. Just make the cards following the step 1 and 2 above, and then cut out a square or rectangle out of a piece of artwork and paste it into the inside of the card so it shows through the cut-out. You can use one piece of art to make a ton of smaller cards to give away. Or take a piece of art that your child has made, fold it in half so the painted side is on the inside, and cut a heart out of the “cover” to make the painted side visible through the hole.
2. Heart collages. Cut out tons of little hearts (or use a heart punch) from a piece of painted or drawn art and let your child paste the hearts onto simple white cards to make valentines. You can intersperse the art hearts with hearts cut-out of magazines, plain paper, wrapping paper or fabric.
3. Heart cards. Simply cut big hearts out of your child’s artwork and write a valentines message on the back.

Happy crafting!