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Valentine baskets and lollypop flowers

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I was looking for inspiration yesterday as I had some Love Heart sweets for my girls and was wondering how to use them as a Valentine gift. I had some great suggestions from friends on my Facebook page and on Twitter. I knew my girls would definintely want to eat the sweets, so rather than stick them onto anything I decided to make some Valentine baskets to put them in.  This idea reminded me of a bag I’d made as a child. Here’s my interpretation. I hope you like it – and hope my girls do too.

You will need: two circles of red card, some tissue paper, scissors, ribbon, stapler, something to decorate you heart: I used a decorative hole puncher and some heart stickers

Step One: Decorate the two card circles on one side only. This gives your child an opportunity to be creative and use their own ideas.

Step Two: Fold each circle in half.

Step Three: Fit the folded circles together to form a heart shape. Staple the two together – one staple at the base and one staple on each side at the top where the circles intersect.

Step Four: Add a ribbon handle (stapled on) and some tissuepaper inside. (A little glue or stickytape helps the tissuepaper stay inside the bag)

Pop some goodies inside and the basket is ready to give to the one you love.

I’ve also make these lollypop flowers inspired by a lovely  idea over at The Mad House.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you!

happily shared with the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party

Chinese lantern scissor skills

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These paper lanterns are a great way for young children to practise their scissor skills and perfect for decorating the house in time for the Chinese New Year celebrations on February 19th 2015. Red is the traditional celebration colour in China but as the lanterns look so good you might like to make some in your child’s favourite colour and string them up to decorate their bedroom too.chinese lanterns paper lanterns - great scissor skills activity and fun Chinese New Year craft

To make one you will need: 2 sheets of paper, scissors, sticky tape or glue (and pens/pencils if you want to add any embellishments)

Following the above pictures clockwise from top left:

Step 1: Fold one sheet of paper in half lengthways

Step 2: Cut lines along the FOLDED length of the paper, but not all the way to the unfolded edge or you’ll just end up with ribbons. I drew lines on the paper for my daughter to follow. She’s just getting the hang of scissors so this was a great craft to let her make something with the scissors which she could pretty much manage all by herself.

Step 3: Open out the paper

Step 4: Add any drawing you like to decorate you lantern.

Step 5: Roll up the lantern and stick the ends together with sticky tape (you could use glue, but you know my daughter won’t wait for it to dry!).

Step 6: Cut a thin strip of paper from the other sheet and stick it on to make the handle. Then string them up to decorate your room

chinese paper lanterns

Valentine craft :: carrot printing

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February 14th is nearly here so we’re starting on our Valentine crafts with this carrot printing picture. It’s a simple craft for young children to try out, so long as they’re old enough to understand that this carrot isn’t to go in their mouth. You may have tried potato printing before but I find carrots are easier for little hands to grip.

You will need: a paper plate, some red and pink paint, a plate to put the paint on, a carrot, a craft knife or a kitchen knife with a sharp point, a ribbon and some sticky tape.

 

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Cut the carrot in half and etch out a heart shape. A grown-up needs to do this part of course, but it’s fairly easy – I managed it! We did a small heart on one piece of carrot and a big heart on the other but you could do a cross shape for a kiss too.

 

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If you level off the other end of the carrot you’ll be able to stand it upright when you’re not using it.

 

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Put some paint on your plate and dip your carrots in.

 

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Print out your hearts on to the paper plate.

 

Put some paint on your plate and dip your carrots in.

Keep going using the red and pink paints until your artwork is complete.

 

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Add a ribbon on to the back using sticky tape and hang your decoration for all to admire – or give as a present to the one you  love.

 

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More lovely Valentine’s Day activities for your children

Did you see all my other Valentine’s Day activities for children? I’ve got more free printables, art, math, science, literacy and play ideas, all with a Valentine theme. You can find them all here.

 

A complete resource of Valentine crafts and activities :: math, science, language, art, craft, play, sensory, recipes

Landscape garden art

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We’ve just finished ordering seeds for the garden ready for the Spring (roll on!) and so have a few seed catalogues lying around. Rather than put them straight in the recycling bin we were inspired to make a garden landscape picture.

We used a long roll of white paper, but the back of an old roll of wall paper would be a good alternative.

With four artists at work we set up 4 stations along the roll with crayons and glue sticks. The older children went through the catalogues and cut out lots of the flower illustrations and then everyone set to work. The younger children enjoyed using the glue to stick on a bright collage of flowers.

The older ones concentrated on adding their own illustrations, with lots of talk about hanging baskets and mini beasts.

Like this idea? How about using a roll of paper to make a street map or a life sized picture of your child?

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