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Really Easy Kids' Valentines
Published 01.20.2010 | Permanent Link | Comments (2)
Are you already plotting Valentine's Day cards and gifts? Or, is that just us?
If you know me, then you know my mantra is "little effort, high impact." I'm a big fan of recipes, projects, and just about anything that requires little effort, but delivers a big impact when eaten or presented, etc.
As such, for awhile I've been collecting ideas for kids' Valentine's Day gifts that are easy to make but that look like oh-so-much work. Trust us, these ideas are reallllly simple.
Homemade Chocolates
Homemade chocolates in heart and flower shapes are super simple and very delicious if you use the Wilton candy melts. You can choose from lots of colors like chocolate and red and they make lots of candy molds like hearts, roses, and even lollipops. You don't need to get all fancy and create a multi-colored chocolate masterpiece. Plain ol' chocolate candy wrapped in a treat bag with a pretty ribbon around it will hit the right note. (don't forget to buy the lollipop sticks). To personalize, attach it to a free Valentine's Day card or add a cute sticker to the bag.
Homemade Gummi Candy
If you already bought the candy molds or you're more of a gummi bears than chocolate person, consider making gummi hearts for Valentine's Day. I had no idea how easy it was until our own contributor Cindy Hopper showed us how to make homemade gummi candy on her own site. Look at how fantastic these are! All you need is flavored and unflavored gelatin (like Jello & Knox) and then package up a handful and tie a red ribbon around the treat bag.
Fruit Roll-Up Roses
All you need to make these edible fruit roll-up roses are fruit leather and a circle cookie/ biscuit cutter. Unbelievably simple to make and very impressive. Well done Jessica at Zakka Life!
Candy Cane Hearts
Along the same lines of playing with your food, Marie at Make and Takes deconstructs left over candy canes into food art or candy cane hearts. She also took the same strategy and applied it to making valentine messages from candy canes. Now, kids will need a lot of supervision on this food craft as it involves touching (aka bending) softened (and HOT) candy canes. You should definitely do the candy cane bending. I'm sure they'll be exhausted breaking apart the candy canes by that time anyway.
Matchbox Valentine Candies
Brooke at Inchmark is a lovely creative force and I just love visiting her site. Last year she filled empty matchboxes with valentine candies. I adore this craft because kids can do so much of it by themselves: empty the boxes, fill the boxes, cut the wrapping paper strips and decorate the boxes as well. Brava, Brooke!
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Marie LeBaron is a 30 something stay at home mom in Utah. Before life as a mother, she graduated with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education, after which she taught four years of Kindergarten. After her first child was born, she decided to read books and sing silly songs at home. She misses the classroom, but she now gets to bring the fun and learning into her home and ours. You’ll see her kids a lot in these projects as they are her guinea pigs and for whom she's creative. You can follow more of her projects at her personal blog Make and Takes.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (2):
Katie said:
Those matchboxes are adorable. I am trying to find a good crafty Valentine I can do with my two-year-old for his little classmates so these ideas are great! Thanks!
Posted on January 20, 2010 16:45
sunnymama said:
Love the edible fruit roll-up roses and the matchboxes are so cute! I've linked to this post here:
http://sunnydaytodaymama.blogspot.com/2010/02/50-inspiring-links-love-creativity-and_08.html
Posted on February 9, 2010 06:51