Easy Valentine’s Day Crafts For Toddlers

As a self-proclaimed craft queen, you can always find me and my daughter, Olivia, crafting on a regular basis. My craft studio (aka office) has become more and more filled with seasonal craft supplies to keep her busy. At three years old, she thinks she needs to be constantly entertained and glued to my hip so crafting has become an easy way for me to spend time with her as well as get things done around the house.

I spend a lot of time browsing social media coming up with inspiration for crafts, sensory bin ideas, and “science experiments.” There are so many great Instagram pages out there tailored to crafting with kids. A few of my personal favorite accounts are @mothercould, @themamanotes, and @aplayfilledlife. Not only do they give great ideas but also include full supply lists, good toy wish lists depending on age, etc.

One of my favorite holidays to make things for is Valentine’s Day. I have a deep passion for fun bright colors and all of the pinks, reds, glitter, and sparkles fit the bill. However, if you are thinking
“yeah, not me girl but I still want to do something with my kid for Valentine’s Day,” I got you. I have found three cute, simple, inexpensive crafts that anyone can do and enjoy with their kids. 

Tissue Paper Heart Canvastissue paper heart craft

Supplies needed

A canvas, different colors of tissue paper, sponge paint brush, modge podge, scissors, and a small bowl filled with water. You can find all supplies at Dollar Tree for under $5!

Instructions

Simply cut different sizes of hearts out of the different tissue papers you have selected. Arrange the hearts in a way your child can easily pick them up and place on their canvas. Smaller children may need you to separate the pieces for them as tissue paper clings to each other.

Once they have laid out their hearts on the canvas, they will dip the sponge paint brush into the water and lightly dab each heart to make it stick onto the canvas. The tissue paper will absorb into the canvas. Keep doing this until they have created their art piece. My daughter loved placing colors on top of each other because the tissue paper allows them to blend and mix to create new colors. When they are finished, mix a little of the modge podge and water together to create a sealant and brush over the canvas. 

Handprint Heart Framehandprint frame

Supplies needed

Salt Dough (recipe from @chalkfulloflove – 1 cup salt, 2 cups flour, and 1 cup water. Mix and Chill), rolling pin, parchment paper, butter knife, your color of choice of acrylic paint, a circle cookie cutter, modge podge, sponge paint brush, and a black permanent marker. You can find all of these supplies at Dollar Tree for under $10!

Instructions

Lay your parchment paper out on a flat surface. Roll out your salt dough with a rolling pin to about ½ to quarter inch thick. Take your butter knife and draw a fairly decent size heart (the size will be based on how large your child’s two hands are). Once you have your heart shape, have your child place both hands next to each other in a way that their two thumbs are touching and place down firmly into your salt dough heart near the curved sections. Once handprints have been made, take your circle cookie cutter and punch out a circle in the middle of the hands to create a window for a future picture.

Bake your heart at 200 degrees for about an hour to an hour and a half. Dough should be hard and dry; if not – cook longer. Once baked and cooled off, paint only your child’s handprints with the acrylic paint and write whatever message you would like. Seal with a layer of modge podge.

Recycled Love Robotcardboard robot craft

Supplies needed

Recycled cardboard or cereal box, scissors, hot glue & glue gun, googly eyes, and whatever craft supplies your child would like to decorate with – stickers, paint, markers, crayons etc; we chose quick dry paint sticks, and stick on jewels. Quick dry paint sticks are amazing. You can find them at Amazon/Target and the rest of the supplies at Dollar Tree. You can complete this project for under $10.

Instructions

Cut a small square for the robot’s head, a larger square for the robot’s body, four rectangles for the arms and legs, a small rectangle for the neck, and four semi circles for the hands and feet. Hot glue all of these pieces together in the shape of a robot as well as glue their eyes in place. Give to your kiddo to decorate, and create their own love robot! 

Hopefully this gave you some ideas to get crafty with your kiddos and create some fun process art with them for Love Day.

Shadai King
Hi, I'm Shadai. I was raised in Shawnee/Overland Park but have pretty much lived all over the KC metro area. I now live in Lees Summit with my high school sweetheart Nick, our very sassy and energetic 2.5 year old Olivia, and little old grumpy yorkie Milo. I'm a Clinical Trial Specialist turned SAHM who drinks way too much coffee and is obsessed with crafting/DIY projects. I am also a pop culture aficionado who got sucked into the world of TIK TOK during quarantine and may or may not need a self help group to stop watching/cracking up at them before bedtime. My other interests include but not limited to: true crime series/podcasts (shout out to my fellow murderinos!), reading, binging Netflix/Hulu, good local KC restaurants/coffee shops, pretending like I know what is going on with KC sports since my husband is a HUGE FAN (yay sports - do the thing, win the points), IG scrolling for craft ideas/outfit inspos and shopping for good deals. Although my days are filled with trips to the park and crafts with Olivia, I can't wait to meet all of you KC Mamas!