Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and the price of Valentine’s Day gifts seem to keep getting more expensive, while the amount people want to spend on the holiday keeps getting lower. If you have children, you can easily make an inexpensive Valentine’s Day gift for your loved ones. Grandparents will especially love their new artwork – made by their grandchild, with love!
Materials Needed:
1 piece of plain white paper, preferably card stock
3-4 colors of paint (including red, of course!) that is safe for little hands
1 small paint brush
newspaper or other covering to protect your table
Time Needed To Complete: About 30 minutes
Approximate Cost: About $5, unless you already have everything on hand!
Instructions:
First, cover your work space with newspaper so that you don’t ruin your furniture. Also, make sure your child isn’t wearing any clothing that you would be upset to get paint on. This craft shouldn’t be messy, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Once your work space is ready, choose your first color. I prefer to use the darker colors first, but it’s your work of art! Just save the red for last! Help your child make a heart with their thumbs and pointer fingers, then, using the paintbrush, cover the “heart” with paint. Take the piece of paper and place it randomly on top of their hands, applying painted hearts onto the paper. Do this as many times as you like, changing colors every few hearts.
Once you have as many hearts as you want on the paper, have your child make a backwards “L” with their RIGHT thumb and pointer finger. Using the red paint, make an “L” on their fingers, then place the paper on top of it so that a properly facing “L” ends up on the left side of the paper. Next, make a red heart the same way you did the others, right next to the “L”. This will be the “O” in the word “LOVE”. To do the “V”, have the child put up a peace sign. To get the best “V”, paint the top side of their fingers, not the palm-side. To get an “E”, you can just have them put up their first three fingers and paint the palm-side. I didn’t have my son put the vertical line in his “E”, but obviously you can if you want.
If you want a more formal gift, you can frame your masterpiece or do it on a small canvas instead of card stock. Of course this will increase the cost, but it will look great and likely last a lot longer.
Have fun and happy Valentine’s Day!