Easy Valentine’s craft: Grandparents’ cards

With Noah being out of day care right now, we are having to put a lot more effort into making sure he gets a variety of activities, and I think crafting/art is probably one of the most difficult for us.

One of the nice things about day care was that when holidays around, Noah would come home with an armful of handmade goodies for us, for grandparents, for our dogs, whatever. But now if we want him to be able to give a handmade gift, we have to put in the effort to make it happen.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not super crafty, so I didn’t want to tackle anything too major, but I did want to do something nice for Noah’s grandparents from him for Valentine’s Day. He loves painting, so that’s where I started:

Initially I was going to have him do this really cute heart-handprints card from Mom on Dealz, but I decided it was far too likely to end with both of us covered in paint from head to toe. So I just gave him some paint and paper and let him go to town, knowing I could just figure the rest out later.

Here’s where we ended up:

To Grandparents, from Toddler Valentine’s Card

Supplies needed:
Washable paint
Paper
Scissors
Blank cards
Pen
Tape

Instructions:

Let the kiddo go to town with the painting. I tend to strip Noah down to his diaper and set him up in his high chair. (Hint: If your kid has been learning colors like mine has, this is a great teaching opportunity, too.) Once he’s thoroughly painted up a couple of pieces of paper, set the masterpieces aside to dry. Once the paintings have dried, turn them over and draw multiple hearts on the back in a variety of sizes, then cut them out. The paint may flake off a little, but it will flake much less the less you bend the paper — so cut straight! Once you’ve cut out enough hearts, it’s simply a matter of putting tape on the back (double-sided tape would work great) and sticking them to the blank cards. You can also let  your toddler help with this, but I did it during nap time to save time. Once this was done, I wrote a note “from Noah” to his grandparents on the inside of the cards in crayon.

This is a super easy craft with a really cute end result. Seriously, if you are like me and not all that crafty but kind of secretly want to be, just stick with the simple stuff. You’re more likely to maintain your sanity and actually be pleased with the results!