A Valentine’s Day Craft for the Not So Crafty Mom

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Like most moms these days, I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  

However, with three small children, I don’t often have the time, energy, or patience to execute perfect little crafts.

My 3-year-old, Theo, doesn’t have much interest in art, and I really should spend more time with him doing fun activities such as painting, drawing, etc. 

When he came home with a note from preschool stating that there was going to be a Valentine’s Day party and that he should have cards for his friends, it was the perfect opportunity for us to make a Valentine’s Day craft!

And by perfect opportunity, I mean that I had no choice.

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Valentine’s Day Craft

I perused Pinterest, and found a pin that said in bold writing “NO MESS VALENTINE’S Dy CRAFT FOR KIDS.”  No mess sounded good to me, so I decided to do it.

(You can find the original link to this craft here.)

Supplies:

• A clean, empty jar or can, with a secure lid (I used a coffee can.  The lid probably wasn’t as secure as it should have been, but it worked fine.)
• Cardstock (I got a multipack of pinks and creams for $2 at Michaels.)
• Washable Paint
• Glue Stick
• Felt Sticker (optional)

Tutorial

Begin by cutting your cardstock so that it will fit inside the jar. 

I cut mine in half and it worked great. 

Put a few drops of paint and some candy hearts or dried beans inside the jar, let your kids shake it around a bunch, and voila!

A beautiful, pink and red speckled piece of cardstock!  I didn’t have any candy hearts or dried beans, but I figured that coffee beans are dried beans, so I used those. 

IT DID NOT WORK. 

The coffee beans just stuck in the paint and nothing happened when Theo shook it up. 

Thinking that they must be too light, I grabbed a few pennies and dropped them in.  It worked much better! 

When we did a few more the next day, I found some small decorative stones.  These worked amazingly well.

Let your child shake the can around a bunch.  Bonus points if they show off some sweet dance moves.  Then remove the cardstock and let them dry.

Once they are completely dry, cut them into hearts.  The only way I know how to cut out a heart is by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting out a half heart. 

I didn’t want to crease the paper, so I attempted to cut out a heart freely.

Needless to say, it didn’t turn out very well! 

I ended up just gently folding the paper and cutting out a half heart, and you couldn’t even see a crease. 

Once they were all cut out, I let Theo glue these little glittery felt hearts onto them.  I wrote ‘Love, Theo’ on the back, and held his hand so he could help write his name. 

He just turned 3 and we have yet to master any sort of writing skills. 

You could also glue several of the paper hearts onto a piece of paper to make a bigger card, which is what they did in the original tutorial.  Since we needed 16 of them for Theo’s classmates, I just kept them solo.

Final thoughts

It definitely was no mess, so that was a win. 

Theo was interested in it for approximately 30 seconds (he shook 4 of them) before he wanted to run away and play with trains. 

It would probably interest an older child a little bit more.  You also have to wait until the next day to cut them out and decorate them, so don’t think that this is an activity that you can entertain your child with for hours. 

All in all, I think it’s a fun activity and would do it again.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram! I post lots of our family fun on my stories 🙂