Love is in the air!

Four ways to say I love you!

Are you looking for some hand-made valentines day crafts that will wow your loved ones? I have four simple ideas for you ranging from a simple drawing to a rustic wall-hanging. Low budget, no mess ideas for your classroom! Love is in the air!

Drawing:

Collect together all your warm coloured pencils and crayons, the more tones and textures the better. Choose your background paper or card, white would be ok, but another colour such as dark blue or black can really make your drawing stand out. Draw a heart nice and big in the middle. Start at any point and scribble sections of colour like a patchwork quilt until the entire thing is coloured in. This can make a great card or a unique artwork. 

Printing:

Make a simple monoprint! All you need is some acrylic paint, a roller, some background card and a stencil. Cut out a stencil, something personal like your loved ones name perhaps? Roll a thin layer of paint onto a not-so-precious table surface, then working quickly, lay your stencil back-to-front, and press you background card on top. Make sure the entire page has been pressed down flat before removing the card, though don’t leave it too long or it will stick down, about 10 seconds will do it. When you remove your card you should get a print of your stencil that reads the correct way. The acrylic paint should just wash straight off the table. Turn this into a unique artwork or a card.

Assemblage:

I had to spend a bit of time outside for this, collecting small chunky sticks with curves and bends in them. It is a great job to give the kids. I arranged these in a heart and got winding with some pink wool. Wool is great because it is cheap, and gives some good tension to knots. If kids are working on this project they may need some help ensuring winding is tight, and knots are secure. Pipe cleaners are another alternative for kids who struggle with tying knots.

Gradually tie your sticks together one at a time until you have a complete heart. A bit of wonkiness is charming! This will make a great wallhanging – perhaps make a tail of wool or string to hang from the bottom.

Collage: 

Gather up some old magazines or junk mail from your recycling bin. Find as many sections of pink and reds as you can and tear them out in small fingernail size pieces. Put them in a box or bag or you will lose them! Choose a background material to build you collage onto, dark colours work great. Draw a heart in pencil, and then begin to collage your pieces of torn paper around the edge of your heart. You can fill the shape if you like, but I chose to build up a thick boarder and leave the centre empty. Trim around the edge leaving a bit of a border if you like. 

There are many ways you can craft with hearts for your Valentines Day projects. It is such a fun shape to work with, and such bright cheery happy colours. WE could all do with a little of that at the moment.

Happy crafting folks – and heres to a little love to everyone!

Let us know your thoughts – please comment below – we would love to hear from you!

Tracy x