Happy Heart Valentines

This is a great DIY toddler Valentine’s Day project. My daughter and I had a lot of fun making these valentine’s for her class. She has a small class of 15 kids, so we also made some extras for her many adoring tías and tíos (aunts and uncles). While in the process of valentine making, we also unlocked my daughter’s love for painting with watercolors. Now she is painting nearly everyday, sometimes multiple times a day!

All you need to make these fun, happy heart valentines is:

a stack of cardstock 

a watercolor palette

a few paintbrushes that you don’t mind being abused

a pair of scissors

some glue

a heart stencil made from the cardstock (I made mine small enough so I could get 4 hearts per page)

some red string

an assortment of googly eyes

The first thing you need to do is to have your toddler paint the sheets of cardstock. This is the fun part! I roll out a vinyl tablecloth on my table first, then grab the palette, paint brushes, and a little jar of water, and last, set the tiny painter up in her highchair, ready to paint. The first time we did this, I had to show her how to put water on the brush, then put the brush on the palette and then on the paper. We did a few paintings this way with me guiding her along. I was pretty amazed at how quickly she picked up the concept and started just going to town, so focused! Now she always wants my husband and me to sit and paint with her, and often we do. It’s quite nice, actually, having our little family-painting time.

Once you have enough finished paintings, you can start to assemble your valentines. Trace the heart stencil as many times as will fit per painting, and then cut out the hearts. Once they were cut out, I wrote funny little short valentine messages on the back of each card. I used rubber stamp alphabet letters because I have them, but you could just write them out with a pen or marker. I used the kind of messages you usually see on Valentine’s Day conversation heart candies, like “be mine,” “you are cute,” “text me,” and “BFF,” among others. I find them really funny, knowing they are being given to little toddlers who can’t read yet and don’t even speak very much. Hopefully their parents will have a good laugh. I’m definitely laughing.

After the little love messages are on the cards, I glued the eyes on the painted side and cut short sections of the red string and glued them under the eyes to make a little smiley mouth. The last thing to do was to write the kids’ names from Violeta’s class on each one and sign her name for her. I bought extra big envelopes so that we could also slide a sugar cookie inside with each valentine. Since young children definitely don’t care about the cards, a sweet treat is usually a winner. Her class is full of some really nice kids, so we are more than happy to send them a special little treat for Valentine’s Day.

After the little love messages are on the cards, I glued the eyes on the painted side and cut short sections of the red string and glued them under the eyes to make a little smiley mouth. The last thing to do was to write the kids’ names from Violeta’s class on each one and sign her name for her. I bought extra big envelopes so that we could also slide a sugar cookie inside with each valentine. Since young children definitely don’t care about the cards, a sweet treat is usually a winner. Her class is full of some really nice kids, so we are more than happy to send them a special little treat for Valentine’s Day.

I did not realize before that this is a very American tradition to give valentines at school. I just assumed that Mexicans did it, too. They do have Valentine’s Day, but they call it El Día del Amor y la Amistad (The Day of Love and Friendship). I was expecting the school to tell me to bring in valentines for everyone in the class like they do in the states. When I asked her teacher for the list of students so we could make valentines, and she seemed a little surprised, I realized that this must not be an assumed custom here. But it’s a tradition that I grew up with and really love, so we are going to share the love with Violeta’s new buddies.

Honestly, it does take a little bit of time to assemble these valentines, but I just love that they are made with her original paintings. She was very much a part of the process, and she had fun doing it. So much fun that I now have so many original paintings by her I don’t know what to do with them all! We made her a little gallery wall in our living room, and she absolutely loves admiring her own work. My proud painter! Happy Valentine’s Day to all! xoxo