Bouquet of Hearts
Who doesn’t love flowers? This bouquet of hearts custom made by your very favorite little artist just for you! Valentine’s Day is a great time to reinforce learning about heart shapes too!
- Gather your materials. You will need some card stock or stiff paper, markers or crayons, pipe cleaners, and scissors.
- Start by drawing a heart on the cardstock,
then, cut it out and use it as the template to draw more on the other cardstock. 
You can simply draw the hearts individually too. If your child is able, have them draw the hearts! - Have your child color the hearts.
We chose other red and pink colors for drawing but any color marker or crayon will work!
- Make 3 small holes with sharp scissors or a very small hole punch in the heart.
- Thread the pipe cleaner through. This is great for fine motor development, but really little hands will need help. The pipe cleaner should have some extra after being threaded through and you will bend that to secure it.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each heart.
- Older children can write messages in black pen on the heart or you can have your child dictate a valentines message for the recipient
- Tie a pretty bow around your bouquet of hearts and give it to someone you love!
Books!
” Valentine Friends” by April Jones Prince is a great book for toddlers who have just made some valentines or are just about to. The text is as simple as it gets, explaining one simple step of a valentine’s day art project on each page. The first letter of the action matches the first letter of the animal doing the action . My son liked pointing out the art supplies, animals and sat well for the whole book which isn’t always the case. Cute book for the very young!
” Who Do You Love? “ by Martin Waddell has a cute concept and the cats on the cover grabbed my attention. The book I got from the library was in board book form and I was a little disappointed when it had as much text on each page, my wiggly man shut it on the 2nd page and insisted on a book about school buses instead. When I grabbed it later, he sat back down to look at some of the pages but the story didn’t grab him.
In the story, a cat and a kitten are playing a “Who do you love?” game, listing all the cats the kitten loves before bed. It’s very sweet. The part where the kitten says that she loves the cat she met in the woods yesterday gave me the heeby geebies, though. I understand it’s supposed to be funny that the kitten lists this stranger and hasn’t said her mama yet, but it just came across as creepy. I would just skip that line if I read it again.
Amy from Occupation: Mommy says
This is absolutely adorable. Our nursery school is having a babysitting night fundraiser next week, and we will be having the kids make these. Thanks for the idea!
I have been reading your blog for a while now, and have recently started doing letter crafts with my two younger daughters, ages 21 months and 4 1/2. We have done S is for snow and H is for heart so far. They are loving it! I am going to try to save them and put them in a book when we get through the whole alphabet.
Jenny says
I love the heart flowers! We will do those today!
MoziEsmé says
Very sweet!
Kacey says
This is so cute, I think we’ll be trying it this weekend! I also wanted to give a big plug for the book “The Day It Rained Hearts”. http://www.amazon.com/Day-Rained-Hearts-Felicia-Bond/dp/0066238765
My daughter just received this book for her birthday and it is so sweet. And I think given the crafty nature of your blog, you’ll enjoy it. The little girl collects raining hearts and makes a series of crafts for a variety of friends. It’s not until the end of the book that you realize who each valentine was for, and why they’re so perfect for each recipient. (for example, a big red heart with one big fluffy white pom pom glued to the middle was made for her friend the bunny rabbit, with a big fluffy white tail).
The Schaeffer Family says
Buzz on over… http://schaeffer08.blogspot.com/2009/02/peeking-out-from-under-covers.html
MaryBeth says
I just wanted to say I love this site! I recently found it, and already so many of your ideas have come in handy with my four girls ages 3,2,2,&2. Thanks for the wonderful ideas!!
Stacey says
These are so cute. I’m going to do these with my daughter next week when she gets home from visiting her Oma and Opa. I think it’ll make a great gift for her to give Daddy for Valentines Day.
Megryansmom says
These are so cute. We’ll be making them next week. Thanks for the great idea!
Georgine says
Thanks so much for this Idea! B and I made these to give to my sister for Valentines Day. I used some heart printed issue to wrap the stems and then tied with a bow. I think we’ll make a couple more to give to her teachers this week. Thanks again for sharing this great idea!!
stacief says
I loved this idea so much that I had my boys do it and I put a picture on my blog. I linked it to you so I hope you do not mind.
Ana says
I love this and all of your kid crafts! Everything kid-made and actually doable!! So many other crafts online look amazing but super complex for kids — really appreciate the authenticity!
Allison McDonald says
Oh my gosh thank you ! This is music to my ears, the only reason I have ever included my kids on this blog is to show just how doable these activities are!