Happy Valentine's Day!

This year a lot of my friends asked me for advice on how to make valentines with their kids, so I wanted to post what I made with my daughter, who is 2-1/2, for her babysitter and grandparents. It can be tough to find a simple project that is age-appropriate so that you can easily get your kids involved, and you don't end up doing it all yourself or taking hours to prep it.

I thought it would be nice to make something the grandparents could display beyond just a card, so this year we made heart garlands. This is a project you can do with your child regardless of their age, and depending on their skill level they can do a lot or just a little of it. The prep work I did on this was to create a heart template, and then cut out the hearts in paper of a few different colors. Each garland had 9 hearts, so it was a lot of cutting, but I did it after she went to bed and I got to catch up on tivo'd episodes of The Bachelor, which I felt was somehow appropriate for a Valentine's Day project. (Oh, Ben. Will you ever find love?)

Together we punched holes in the top and bottom of each garland, and then I gave her the hearts so she could draw on each one. Next I took twine, which I had pre-cut to lengths of about 48" each, and while she was decorating the hearts I strung them onto the twine. I tied a loop at the top, and a knot at the bottom, and together we spread them out evenly. (I also ended up making the cards -- I asked her to decorate them but she didn't like that idea, so I just drew hearts on them.) We placed the garlands in small square glassine envelopes, and put those in larger red envelopes with the cards, and away they went.



This is a very simple project, and by using different papers, embellishments, ribbon, etc, you could do this many years in a row and never have it look the same. I would love to hear what projects you did with your kids this year. Happy Valentine's Day!