How to… make Gorgeous Valentines Cards with your Toddler (Guest Post)

We have another lovely crafty Guest Poster for you today: Kelly from Domestic Godd-esque. A lovely family blog featuring lots of fab photos, thoughts on life and family life, as well as, the very important, crafty bits!!! Kelly creates some lovely crafty magic with her children and they are the its that I love best (well I would, wouldn’t I?!). But it is also worth checking out the rest of the blog – from a very toughtgul post on writing wills, to how to kick start your weight loss.  Do stop by at Kelly’s and say “hello”. Today she wrote a fabulously lovely Guest Posts on Valentine’s cards for us –  l love how she involves her children and comes up with clever ideas that make it easier for them to take part. Over to Kelly.

The wonderful thing about the interweb is that it provides you with instant access to a pool of ideas. As with children’s craft. There is a limit to how many books you can buy or borrow from the library to use for ideas. There’s a limit to how many craft supplies you can have in your house at any one time. And sometimes you find yourself unexpectedly stuck in because of foul weather or couriers who will deliver sometime between 9.30am and 6.30pm and need a way to entertain your children with homemade glue and whatever is in your recycle box. Come to think of it, aren’t Recycle boxes great? They’re basically Giant Craft Boxes. But I’m getting off point. I love having access to sites like Red Ted Art and Nurture Store and so many of the other blogs that I have found through Wikio or Tots 100 Index or British Mummy Bloggers. It’s them I turn to for ideas when I’m lacking creativity (and sleep).

Lately the Threeva and I stole borrowed an idea from Nurture Store for a Family Calendar which has been a wonderful tool, not just for occupying the former-Pocket-Dictator, but also for talking about the future in a way that she can comprehend. She can see at a glance the order in which events take place throughout the year and it’s stopped her expecting Santa to be dropping by in a few days with another sack of goodies. January is still a big fat blank, but there are a few events in February that have got her excited, so I thought that I’d get an early start and have a go at making some Valentine’s Cards.

They’re very simple really. You need:

• Some corrugated cardboard
• A hole punch
• Some ribbon or wool
• A child-friendly needle (I bought wool needles from Hobbycraft)
• A card, or piece of card folded in half.

Firstly, cut out a heart shape (I used a cookie cutter as a guide) from the corrugated cardboard just smaller than your card. Using the hole punch, punch holes around the edge of your design. Alternatively you could punch the holes using a pencil: put a lump of blutack/plasticine/playdough under the card and push through the card into the tack with your pencil.

Thread the ribbon onto your needle and get your child to ‘sew’ in and out of the holes. Finish at the apex with a bow. You could also use coloured wool, or use several strands of ribbon for a more dramatic look.

Glue your heart to the card and leave to dry.

Other ideas you can try include:

1. Cut a heart out of the front of your card. Decorate around the heart as you want, either with stickers or paint. I made simple dots with a red pen and stuck a bow at the apex. Stick a photograph of your child in the gap, sealing in place with Sellotape and voila- a Valentine and a photo-gift in one.
2. Cut a heart from glittery card, or paint and cover with glitter ( I used ready-made foam glitter hearts that I bought in Hobbycraft) Cut strips of wrapping paper, in this instance red and white striped, about 2 cm wide. Stick the wrapping paper to the back of the heart, following the shape of it, and gathering (folding) as you go. I held it in place with sticky tape. Turn over and trim any edges until you are happy with the frill, then stick to the front of your card. You can try this with fabric and doilies as well if you want a different look.

I’m really pleased with how they turned out. Have fun with your ‘hearty’ crafty moments.

Linking with