With Valentines just around the corner, this week we've been having fun with some Valentines inspired crafts.
We arrived home from nursery the other day to the most gorgeous hand made card from one of our besties Lyla, and when Billy opened it he said "mummy she sent me a heart, that means she loves me" - (mummy's heart melts)!!!! So this inspired me to keep the love alive and have some fun with heart themed crafts. These can be made just for the fun of it, or to use as gifts for loved ones or even teachers.
Love Bugs
First up are these adorable little love bugs. Billy loved creating these little cuties, and they've taken up residence on the fireplace along with our emotions balloon family from a few day back. Im sure by the end of this month, there are going to be more craft family members living in this cottage then there are actual people!
What you'll need
Empty toilet roll
Glue gun or any glue (I always prefer to use a glue gun as it dries instantly)
Scissors
Paint and paint brush
Pen (we used black, but any colour is fine)
Coloured card or paper
Craft eyes (if you don't have any, just use pen)
Pipe cleaners (or you can use straws, lolly sticks, anything to create the bugs arms)
Any additional crafts to decorate your bug; ribbon, glitter, glitter pens, buttons etc.
Method;
Take your empty roll and paint it in whatever colour you like, then set it aside to dry.
Repeat this using all different paint colours on as many rolls as you have.
Draw some hearts on a sheet of card and cut them out.
On the back of your roll, apply glue to the centre and stick your hearts in place to create wings.
Draw two smaller hearts that have a little tail, these are going to be the bugs antenna's.
Apply glue to the inside of the top of the roll and stick on the antennas.
Take some ribbon and wrap it around the roll to see what size ribbon you need, cut to size.
Then, apply some glue around the roll and stick on the ribbon.
We then took some glitter glue pens and applied glitter in-between all of our stuck ribbon pieces.
Next, take a pipe cleaner, fold it in half and cut to form two pipes.
Turn your bug over, and slide your pipe cleaner's in place behind the wings to keep them secure.
Now it's time to apply your googly craft eyes. If you don't have these you can draw eyes.
Next, we applied pom pom's or buttons as noses but you can simply draw a nose if you prefer.
Now it's time to add the finishing touches. We applied buttons and sprinkled glitter on our bugs.
And voila, your bugs are ready! Have fun creating all different bugs, in as many designs and sizes as you like.
We loved this fun craft, it was easy and the best part was letting our creative juices flow to create different bugs. We created a family of 3 but you can create as many as you like.
Heart Painting
Another fun craft that uses up your empty toilet rolls, but this ones even easier! We were so happy with how our picture turned out that we decided to frame it and gift it to our teachers with a little thank you note saying "it takes a BIG heart to teach little minds" - hopefully Billy's teachers will love these when we hand them out Friday.
What you'll need;
Paper
Empty toilet roll
Elastic band
Different colour paints
Bowls to pour your paint into
Glitter (optional)
Method;
Pour some different coloured paints into some bowls.
Take your empty toilet roll and manipulate the end into a heart shape.
Apply an elastic band (or hair band) to the roll to hold the heart in place.
Dip the heart into your paint, ensuring you have a good amount of paint on the roll.
Press your heart down onto your paper to create your hearts.
Repeat this process using all the different paint colours to create a beautiful scatter of hearts. You can use the same roll for every heart, we did!
To finish off our picture, we applied a sprinkle of glitter (obvs)!!
Leave your picture to dry and voila!
This craft only took us 5-10 minutes, super quick, super easy and super fun and the picture that we ended up with was so gorgeous. We can't wait to see your's too!
Yarn Hearts
Last up are our yarn hearts. I have some much yarn taking up an entire draw, so I really need to start trying to find ways to use it. That's how this little activity came to light. If you don't have yarn you can just as easily recreate this using straws, thread, lolly sticks or even pipe cleansers! Use your imagination and get creative Raindropz!
What you'll need;
2 sheets of paper
Pencil (or pen/crayon)
Scissors
Yarn (or thread/straws/lolly sticks/pipe cleaners)
Glue gun (or any glue)
Glitter (optional)
Method;
On a piece of paper (we used white, you can opt for any colour you like), draw a large heart.
Gently fold your paper in half without creating a fold line and using your scissors make a small cut in the centre of the fold (this is so that you can cut your heart out of the centre of your paper, whilst still leaving edging around the cut, basically we're creating a heart template.
Unfold your paper and starting where you created your small slit, cut out your heart. Once complete, set this aside.
Take another sheet of paper and lay it out, then take some yarn and lay it out flat across your paper, this is to help you determine what size your yarn needs to be, you basically don't want it to be any longer than the paper itself. We folded our yarn in two and then cut it to size, this will just create a thicker yarn for your picture.
Repeat this for all of your different coloured yarn, laying each one flat on the paper as you go. Tip: apply the heart template you cut out earlier on top of the yarn as you go, this will act as a guide to help you see how much additional yarn you need to add.
Once you're happy with the amount of yarn you have (basically you want to make sure your yarn fills the entire heart template you cut earlier), then its time to glue your yarn in place.
Take your glue gun (or sellotape) and apply to the edges of your yarn to hold them in place.
Now take your pre-cut heart template and apply glue to the back. Stick this on top of your yarn paper, ensuring you line it up correctly.
We decided to sprinkle some glitter on ours, but you've probably guessed by now that we are a little obsessed with all things that sparkle.
This activity was again really easy and Billy loved helping choose the different coloured yarn. Ok so I admit... at one point he did make a run for it with a whole ball of yarn, and managed to use the entire ball, tying it around everything in the house, including the stair case, which we could then not walk up without tackling a yarn obstacle course first!!.. But he eventually got bored of that and came back to continue the yarn heart fun!
We hope these 3 simple crafts help you have some fun this Valentines. As always we loved seeing your crafts come to life so please share them with us by tagging @raindropznroses in any social pics you share, and if you have any other fun valentines crafts hidden away in those creative minds of your's, we'd love to see those too!
Thanks so much for supporting our small business, by taking time out to read this blog. Sending you all the biggest raindrop hugs and rosey love for Valentines Day.
"What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork".
Love Nikki, Claire, Livvie Loo and Billy Bear
x x x
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