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Valentine's Day is just a few days away, are you looking for a fun Valentine's Day activity for your kids? Maybe one that could double as a gift? Check out the craft idea below, it can work for all ages!
I have my child's classroom exchange gifts ready to go, but I still needed to figure out what to give his teachers/staff at the daycare he attends. (Are you still looking for classroom exchange cards? Check out my post with four card freebie options!) So I decided we would do a fun Valentine's Day craft that doubles as a gift we can give out at daycare.
If your child doesn't go to daycare (or you/the daycare don't do gifting), this would also make a fun craft to do for friends, family, and neighbors as a way to brighten up their Valentine's Day.
I bought enough of everything to make 12 little crafts/gifts, the total cost came out to less than $5 each. I bought a 12-pack of Mason jars at Target. I got the ones with smooth sides to make them easier to paint. The whole pack only costs $12. We already had the paint at home. We used acrylic paint, which works on glass (though I wouldn't wash the glass too much). I then bought the different ingredients to make a sweet Valentine's Day trail mix. Parker helped me with mixing the trail mix. Then we painted the 12 jars together. Each teacher/staff member gets a painted jar full of trail mix with a little tag. I am very happy with this project because it was fun to make and a thoughtful gift!
You Need:
The jars:
Mason Jars
Acrylic paint
q-tips
paintbrush (optional)
Heart stencil (I made mine from cardstock)
Ribbon for tags
Paper and hole punch for tags
The trail mix:
Feel free to be creative and include whatever ingredients you think will work well!
M&Ms (I chose regular M&Ms because the daycare my son attends is peanut free)
Mini pretzels
Frosted cookies
Yogurt covered raisins
Cherry Hearts
Cheerios (Some of the boxes even have heart-shaped cheerios!)
Set-Up:
Trail mix:
Because I was making 12 jars, I had a lot of trail mix supplies. So I had a couple of big bowls ready to go. Then I opened the packages and helped my little one pour the ingredients into the bowl. I then gave him a spoon to help me stir the ingredients together. I used a measuring cup to fill the jars (I did this after he went to bed).
If you have large bags (I have 2.5-gallon bags left over from Thanksgiving), you could dump all the ingredients in the bag and mix them together in the bag. I would probably do this next time to evenly distribute ingredients instead of separating them across multiple bowls.
Art project:
You will probably want to cover your table or workspace so the paint does not get everywhere. I have a tablecloth we use for painting. I also put trash bags over my son's chair, so he doesn't get paint everywhere. I have found that it wipes up pretty easily if cleaned up right after we are done with the craft.
I prefer to have the paint and q-tips out on a paper plate ready to go so we can immediately get started because my little one is not the most patient, especially when he is excited.
I prepped the mason jars before we sat down as well. I had them out (all packaging removed) and taped them with the heart stencils I made before I sat Parker down to get started. You can certainly use one stencil for each jar, but I found it easiest to have them ready to go.
Do this first: Making the Trail Mix
I recommend doing this step first before the paint comes out and everyone gets messy. This is super simple. You really just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir. My son loved to help with this. We have a helper stool in our kitchen for him and he loves to stir and dump things out, so this combined his favorite kitchen things.
Note: You want to either go ahead and fill the mason jars or have a container to store the trail mix in. If you want to get everything done at once, I recommend filling the jars first because then you don't have to wait for the paint to dry.
Art Project Time:
My son and I had so much fun making these. The key for me is patience and not expecting an adult-level art project. By letting him have fun, I have more fun. So while it can be difficult to not provide a significant amount of guidance and to not worry about a mess, we both have more fun when I let go and just let him enjoy.
I put some music on and I worked on painting while he was painting so I could let him be creative without trying to guide him too much. It was also a good opportunity to start teaching him that we only paint on our own art projects, and we do not try to start painting on our neighbors.
I had the paint and q-tips ready to go. All of the jars we were painting had a stencil already taped on.
The idea is to use the q-tips to make polka-dots around the heart stencil, then when you take off the stencil there will be a heart-shaped window into the jar. If you are doing this with little littles, don't expect them to actually make dots. They will probably just get paint all over (that is what Parker did), but it still looks cool when you take off the stencil. Older kids can use the q-tips to make polka dots.
I started by making Parker's handprint on each of the jars. I told him that we were giving each jar a "high-five." Since he understood this, he did a great job with the handprints and thought it was funny to give a jar a high five. Once the hand-print is done, you may want to wait a few minutes to give the paint a bit to dry.
Then let your kids just have fun with the supplies you put out. I really enjoyed painting the jars too!
Note: If you are painting a number of jars, you may want to do this over a period of days. Parker painted about three before he was over it. I painted the rest because I was trying to complete this project in one sitting. So in the pictures, you may notice some jars that I painted with a paintbrush over the stencil - this looked cool too. Let your kids be as creative as they want and use a variety of materials!
I had originally planned on Parker painting a piece of cardstock and once the paint dried cutting out little cards and writing a message on them. That didn't work out this time, so I printed some out on cardstock instead and used ribbon to attach to the jars.
The Final Product
We have 12 jars ready to go to daycare for our administrators and staff and it was a fun craft to do!
Remember Mama, you are doing a great job! You got this!
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