Valentine Crafts: Make St. Valentine's Day A Fun Family Holiday!

Valentine crafts make St. Valentine's Day a big deal in this house. We enjoy making...

• Homemade cards
  
• Card holder craft kits
  
• And even yummy desserts

Card Holder Kit

The last couple of years we have made Valentine card holders on St. Valentine's Day as part of a traditional Catholic homeschool party.

These make a great party craft as they are easy enough for kids of all ages to do but challenging enough to be fun.

These are also a great buy from the Oriental Trading Company. One year, I bought three different kits. This year, I bought two because I had some left over from last year. They range in difficulty and appeal ;)

The most difficult to put together was the frog. We used a hot glue gun to put him together.

One that was fun but a little easier was the monkey. He came with some adhesive parts but a few things we had to affix with the hot glue gun.

The easiest was the cute little puppy.

He was all adhesive and easy enough for a three year old to put together with a little help.

Adult supervision was required but these kits made it very easy to put this Valentine craft together.

Handmade Valentine Cards

The card holders need to hold something...

In step the valentine cards.

Some years I give the children construction paper and markers, but this year I splurged and bought each of them a kit from Oriental Trading Co.

Toddler-fah made bubble wands. These were super easy as all she had to do was attach the label to the bubbles. We did learn that bubbles don't ship well. There were some spills. The labels were very cute.

They read, "I am bubbling over with excitement that you are in my class." I scratched out class and wrote family. You could easily make a stop at the dollar store, buy some bubbles, and make your own labels. I'll do that next time around.

Lolli's was by far the most labor intensive. Maybe that was because I had to help, lol. I am getting so used to having teenage daughters, but they weren't home that day.

They are such a blessing to me, always eager to help and never saucy like teenage girls are suppose to be.

Anyhow, Lolli made sun catchers.

They turned out lovely. We (read: I) made a solution of Elmer's glue, or milkie as we call it, and water. I painted it onto some precut heavy plastic hearts.

Lolli dropped precut tissue paper onto the glue. Then we added the precut foam frames when the tissue was dry. They turned out really pretty.

Declan made clothes pin butterflies. They were cute and he was able to do them by himself. He is six. It was a completely peel and stick project, and he was able to follow the picture directions.

We will put a dollar bill into each clothespin so the other children can buy themselves a candy bar. Another option would be to write a nice Valentine's message.

Since Declan was not a writer yet, I think it best to put a buck in each one this year.

Patrick put together my personal favorite. "St. Valentine, Pray for Us" valentines. I was thrilled with these.

It isn't very often you find a truly Catholic valentine from a secular company. I loved it.

The Bible verse is: "My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another." 1John:4-11 These were easy but fun for Shammy to put together.

Iggy's valentines were a little difficult. They had a religious feel with the crosses but they were difficult crowns for him to put together.

It must have been the design. They were the only difficult ones, and as a ten-year-old, Becket usually doesn't struggle with crafts. I can't wait to wear my crown around the house tomorrow.

Michael and Faustina made their own valentines on pre-folded cards and envelopes I purchased. There were pink, red and white cards and came with envelopes. I also purchased them some foam valentine-themed bug stickers, and they used some nice markers to complete the cards.

Mary made adorable love bug candy holders. We don't eat a lot of candy but I did buy a bag of St. Valentine's Day colored M&Ms. It made them so cute. She put a little message to each of us on a post-it note.

Other years we have made our own cards. For the little ones, it is easy to make a quarter fold card out of white construction paper. Have some stickers, heart doilies, and markers on hand and they are happy.

Heart shaped paper are always favorites of elementary aged children.

I always put our left over Valentines doilies, stickers and paper with the decorations so there is plenty to choose from the next year. The children love taking full advantage of the hodge-podge of Valentine crafts items.

Focusing on patron saints is another theme that we never tire of. Last year, my son drew a picture of each recipient's patron saint in the middle of a construction paper heart. It was very thoughtful.

The big girls like to use the Cuttlebug to make their own papercraft masterpieces. In the past, they have used symbols of each person's patron saint to add a personal touch.

Valentine Crafts For Grown Ups

Simple cards that I have made in the past have required:

5x6 card stock paper in reds and pinks

Scissors

12x12 card stock heart design paper

Glue and
Self adhesive white, glittery foam hearts

I always start by making a prototype to be sure I like what I am working on. Then I find it is quickest to work with an assembly line. For the project above:

1. Fold the card stock in half
2. Using a heart template draw a heart on the inside left of each card
3. Cut this out to create a viewing hole
4. With the same heart template, cut out a heart from the Valentines card stock paper
5. Shutting the card so the cover is facing you, glue the heart into the hole. This will ensure the hearts line up perfectly
6. Peel and stick a foam heart into the center of the heart
   

These are easy and super cute. It took me 20 minutes to make nine of these and an additional 10 minutes to write a little note to each person.

A Chocolate "Craft"-Oh Yeah!

We are avoiding sugar so we made our own delicious chocolates to share for St. Valentine's Day. For these healthy truffles you'll need:

• Ice cube trays,
• Cocoa powder,
• Unsalted preferably raw butter,
• Coconut oil,
• Peanut butter, peppermint, orange extract, and
• Honey, of course!

We always have a blast on St. Valentine's feast day! We enjoy making our Valentine crafts and making our Valentine goodies. The best part is peeking into our card holders to see all the goodies we recieved. It was wonderful sitting around the living room opening our cards and thanking one another for the sweet messages.

While everyone enjoyed their chocolates, we read about the life of St. Valentine, an early martyr. To off set the pagan Roman custom of boys picking what girl they would court on February 15, many priests successful began the tradition of writing notes to those you love on the holy martyr's feast, February 14th.