Have some family fun with these Valentine's crafts for toddlers – from potato prints to homemade cards, decorations and more!
There's no reason why your little one can't join in and get crafty this Valentine's Day. We have plenty of fun simple creative ideas, so get ready to make some memories!
For many of these craft ideas you'll need paper or card, glue, paint and other crafty things like string, toilet rolls, and maybe some felt. ... browse through the list below and choose your favourite ideas to make with your little one.
We've also got some fun Valentine's easy baking recipes that your little ones will love help decorate – check out our heart-shaped fairy cakes and these heart-shaped Valentine's biscuits!
1. Fingerprint hearts
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These hearts are easy to make and SO cute when you use your toddler's little thumbs to make them.
Simply dab their thumbs in some red finger-paints, and then press them onto a sheet of white paper one at a time on top of each other at an angle so that they make a heart shape!
Tip: If you have too much paint on the thumb it'll be harder to see the actual fingerprint marks, which are the prettiest bit, so just dab them once lightly on a separate piece of paper first to remove excess paint.
Fingerprint hearts are perfect for simple homemade Valentine's cards for the family and little keepsake pictures.
2. Mini heart canvas
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We love these cute little canvases. you can buy them very cheaply in craft shops and they make adorable little gifts for special occasions like Valentine's Day.
Get your toddler involved in making a special painting of a heart ...
– Draw a heart on a piece of card that is slightly bigger than your mini canvas
– Cut the heart out of the card so that you have a template
– Hold the heart template in place on top of the canvas and help your toddler fill it in with a romantic colour like pink or red
Tips: Your toddler can try using a paintbrush or their fingers and hands to transfer the paint onto the canvas. It doesn't matter how messy it gets because once you remove the cardboard cutout, you'll have a lovely heart shape filled with your toddler's markings!
3. Heart-shaped potato prints
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Your toddler will have lots of mark-making fun with these homemade heart-shaped potato prints!
You'll have to carve the potato stamp, of course, and probably help to guide your toddler to dip the potato into the paint and then press it onto the paper.
This is a fun Valentine craft idea for kids and an easy way to design a homemade Valentine's card or picture from your toddler for a loved one... or even their nursery school teacher – how sweet!
4. Tissue paper hearts
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Your toddler will love helping you scrunch up tissue paper into little balls and stick them onto a cutout heart!
All you need is some sturdy card (choose the same colour card as your tissue paper to help fill in any gaps!), coloured tissue paper and some PVA glue.
When your toddler's heart is sufficiently filled in with all their efforts you can punch a hole in the top and hang their heart from a string in their bedroom.
Tip: If you have lots of tissue paper on your hands you make lots of these to construct an attractive hanging mobile – just hang them all from a wire coat hanger!
5. Painted hand love heart selfies
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This is a fun, messy Valentine's activity you can do with your kids ...
Paint your toddler's hands with poster paint and dry them off with a hairdryer – make sure it's not too hot!
Then show them how to make a heart-shape using their fingers. Alternatively you can just paint hearts onto their palms instead.
They can look at themselves in the mirror or you can take a selfie with them to send to your other half or friends to wish everyone a cute happy Valentine's from you and your little one!
6. Make love bugs
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Toilet roll crafts are a classic crafts idea for little ones – and we love these love bugs for Valentine's Day!
You can help your toddler to customise their love bug however they like ...
Here are some cute ideas:
– paint them pink or red
– cut out heart shaped wings
– cut out heart shaped antennas
– stick on googly eyes
– stick on a pom pom nose
– use biodegradable glitter
– decorate with heart stickers
– give it a name
– make it friend to spread the love!
7. Make a bunch of paper flowers
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How about this for an adorable Valentine's gift for family and friends?
If you're in a couple, one of you can help your toddler to craft a lovely bunch of paper flowers for the other – but if you're a single parent this is just as fun to do with your toddler!
You'll have to cut out most of the components for your little one, but they can help with any colouring in and sticking down.
Half of the fun is gifting the bunch of flowers to a valentine though, so why not take your toddler around to your neighbour's house so that they can wish them a Happy Valentine's Day?
8. Pressed flowers
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Pressing flowers is such a quaint, old-fashioned hobby that's perfect for Valentine's!
There's plenty of fun to be had with your toddler ...
...from going out to collect flowers from the garden or choosing some from your local flower shop ...
... to arranging the flowers in the flower press or inside a big old heavy book for pressing ...
... to revealing the finished pressed flowers a few weeks later and making pretty pictures!
You can choose to press the flowers ahead of time if you like, so that your toddler can have fun sticking them in a picture frame for a special Valentine's gift or memento.
9. Paper plate woven heart
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This craft is great for toddlers and practicing hand-eye coordination!
The beauty of this idea is that your toddler's weaving doesn't have to be perfect, symmetrical or follow any kind of pattern – they can literally weave in and out of any hole they like!
Just cut a heart shape out of a paper plate and then use a hole punch or pencil to poke good-sized holes all around the heart.
Then thread some coloured wool onto a chunky plastic needle and guide your little one to poke it through the holes, aiming for the somewhere on the opposite side each time.
These look really pretty when they're finished if you hang them in the window so that the light can shine through the woven heart.
10. Paper heart flowers
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We love these cute paper flowers made from paper hearts, inspired by Red Ted Art, and we think they're perfect to make with your toddler.
First draw and cut out all of your hearts. Your toddler can help by organising them into colours for you.
(to get symmetrical hearts, fold the paper in half and draw half a heart with the middle at the folded edge, then cut it out and unfold into the full heart!)
You'll need 4 hearts per flower and a pom pom each for the centres. Just stick them together like in the picture – with your toddler's help, of course!
11. Valentine's Day washing line
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We love this idea from Red Ted Art – it's a washing line with pegs that you can use to hang up your Valentine's cards, pictures and heart decorations!
All you need is a piece of string, several pegs and some adornments like little hearts to glue on the pegs, or you can just paint the pegs pink and red!
Clip clothes pegs to the string and you're ready to attach all your toddler's other crafts ...
– make potato print hearts to cut out and clip to your line
– make homemade Valentine's cards
– display your toddler's drawings of the family
12. Stuffed love heart
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have fun making this simple stuffed love heart cushion hanging decoration with your toddler ...
Just cut two red heart shapes from card or felt and decorate with glue and tissue/paint/ biodegradable glitter/cellophane or whatever you have to hand.
Glue or staple your hearts together and stuff with tissue for a 3D heart!
13. Decorate Valentine's biscuits
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Baking biscuits is something your toddler will love to get involved with.
They can help with the mixing, rolling and cutting ... and of course the best bit – decorating!
Use different coloured icing and let your toddler ass sprinkles. You can even help them to pipe on some icing hearts!
Tip: For an easy life just buy plain ready made biscuits to decorate! if you're baking your own use a simple recipe such as this one foreasy iced biscuits. If you have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, even better!
14. Stained glass hearts
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Try this pretty valentine's craft idea with your toddler. It's really easy, but they'll still need lots of help.
Use a clear plastic bag as your base. Tear up coloured paper and dip into a mixture of water and PVA glue. Stick onto the bag, and when dry, cut out a heart shape.
Place it in a heart frame cut from card and stick on the window to watch the sunlight coming through ... it's enough to make the whole family feel loved up!
15. Colouring in
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For a really simple Valentine's activity and an easy way to get your toddler involved in making something cute for Valentine's Day – we have plenty of free printable Valentine's cards you can print off for your toddler to colour in!
Help them to tear up bits of paper to stick down for more of a collage effect, and don't forget to add other adornments like biodegradable glitter and confetti hearts too!
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