Eazy, Peazy, Last-Minute Valentine Ideazy

I have a confession, I don’t do that many crafts with my kids. I love the idea of doing crafts with my kids and I would like to do more, but when my oldest daughter gets on Pinterest and is like Mom! Lets make a giant squid hanging lantern and wind chime all in one! All we need is a hula-hoop, 6 yards of organic cotton fabric cut it 2 inch wide strips, a light bulb wiring kit, fishing twine and 12 feet of copper pipe cut in 1 foot increments!  I start to twitch, while my eyes roll back in my head. Then I contemplate the inevitable fate in store for us all, which is that she’ll lose interest while we’re in the check-out line of home depot, while I stay up past midnight cussing at a hula-hoop squid I never wanted to make in the first place.

But my other confession (if you can call it that) is that I love a sweet ,homemade  craft–Valentine’s crafts included.

When it comes to crafts, and in this case classroom Valentines, I want the idea to be simple, easily executed and for some reason the most important thing is to have all the supplies on hand. I don’t mind taking a little time to actually make them while I hang out with my kids, but I detest driving around to gather craft supplies for an ‘easy craft.’ I had the idea for these super simple Valentine butterflies last week and the only thing I had to buy was a bag of Valentine candy (full disclosure: I also needed more construction paper, but that is something I usually have on hand). One piece of construction paper folded 3 times, with 1 simple cut will yield 2 Valentines! Some stickers and a handwritten message, glue on your candy bar and your done. Homemade valentines for kids don’t have to be that hard, and with a little effort, they can be super adorable.

Supplies:
Construction paper (not card stock, it will be to hard to fold)
scissors
markers for writing/drawing
stickers  or even sequins, glitter glue etc. (optional)
glue (I ended up using hot glue)
fun size candy bars (not pictured)

Directions
First, take your paper and fold it in half hamburger style (PSP taught me this! It means the short way, as opposed to hot dog style, the long way–ha!) Then fold it in half again, and in half one more time for a total of 3 folds.

Now you’re going to cut half a heart shape on this piece of paper.  Assuming you’re right handed, hold the paper in your left hand  and the long sided fold on the right and the open parts of the paper on the left. You want to make sure that instead of ending the cut on the same side as you start the cut, you want to end it on the bottom of the paper so that you include the corner of the folds in the heart. (I’ve drawn it out below so you can see the heart shape, but no need to draw it when you cut on your own).

Now cut your half-heart shape. It should look like this:

Open it up to see a heart, open that side to see a set of heart shaped butterfly wings, and pull them apart to see 2 sets! Wash, rinse, repeat.

Decorate and  then hot glue a fun-sized valentine candy bar in the middle.

Then do it a few more times!

The Valentines above where the ones I made for the tutorial, but the girls made their own to give out to their classmates (well Lamp will take the ones I made as well as doing 11 on her own would be a little too much.)  Lamp couldn’t cut the butterflies out herself  (which would be tough for lots of 5 year olds because you’re cutting through lots of layers), but PSP did the cutting, writing, and decorating herself…of course I also assisted with the hot glue.

There you have it! If you need a last minute Valentine for kids this is an easy one and you most likely have everything (minus the candy) you already need!