Valentine’s Day Kids’ Craft

Crafting with your children can be one of the best ways to create memories, especially for the holidays. This Valentine’s Day Kids’ Craft uses craft foam and a few simple supplies. Then I turned them into a fun Valentine’s Day Gift Basket similar to the Love Buckets.  

Who wouldn’t love to receive one? I think even adults would love receiving a Gift Basket filled with things they love and a cute “Owl Be Your Valentine” on it!

I found lots of fun inexpensive goodies for the Baskets at Walmart including a Stuffed Animal, Stickers, Note Book, Hot Wheels Car, Cards, Slinky, Balls, and more.

Before we get going, I wanted to share a few tips on making these…

• This is a Kids’ Craft, but it absolutely needs adult supervision
• The Craft Foam is easy to work with, but cutting the shapes out should be done by an adult or older child
• There are 2 methods for cutting the shapes – 1) hammer and cookie cutter method – works well, the cut is clean but it will ruin the cookie cutter and 2) tracing and cutting – this method works well too, but the craft foam does not always cut cleanly
• We did try to use a craft punch but the foam is too thick, even after searching for an alternative and trying to loosen the screws on the punch. Note: someone needs to invent a punch that craft foam will fit in.
• We found that using Glue Dots was best. We tried with the hot glue gun and it melted the foam a bit and showed through to the front side.

There is lots to cover, so let’s get started…

Valentine’s Day Kids’ Craft Supplies

• Craft Foam – you can buy it in large sheets or packages of 50 (5.5 x 8.5) in the craft department at Walmart
• Cutting Mat
• Glue Dots
• Ruler
• Scissors and/or X-ACTO Knife
• Pen or Pencil
• Sharpie – for the “Owl Be Your Valentine”
• Cookie Cutters or template cut from paper
• Hammer and scrap wood (not shown)

Step 1

• Measure the basket or container and determine what size you need for the background, I used a 5.5 x 8.5 piece
• The baskets I used are from Walmart, they were less than $3 each and I found them near the other containers and baskets.
• It’s also nice to choose a container that you can use after the holiday for other items, in this case, these are great for storing toys in a kids’ room

Step 2

• To make sure the size and shape I needed for the baskets, I cut a piece of paper first. If you are following my instructions exactly, you will not need to do this step.
• I also used a bowl to mark the curves of the piece so I could see how the size would work.

Step 3

• Cut the Owl body from the craft foam –  4 x 5 inches

Step 4

• Use a bowl to mark the curves. I used a 6 inch bowl.

Step 5

• Cut out the curve on top and round the corners on the bottom with scissors or X-ACTO Knife

Step 6

• Cut the body pieces from paper to be sure the sizes will fit on the owl
• You will need – 1 oval for tummy, 3 circles in various sizes of the eyes, 1 scalloped shape for the wings, 1 small heart for the feet

Step 7

• Now let’s cut the shapes. There are 2 methods (READ tips above on these), 1) use a cookie cutter, scrap of wood and hammer or 2) trace the shapes using the cookie cutter and cut them out with scissors or X-ACTO knife

Step 8

To cut the shapes using a cookie cutter and hammer –

• Place an extra piece of craft foam under the piece you want to cut and place the cookie cutter on top
• Cover the cookie cutter with a piece of scrap wood
• Use the hammer to cut the shape
• NOTE: if you choose this method, you will ruin the cookie cutter. It DOES make a clean cut, but you sacrifice the cookie cutter

Step 9

• Or if you want, you can use the cookie cutter to trace on to the craft foam and cut out with scissors or X-ACTO knife
• NOTE: This method is not as clean as using the hammer, but you also don’t ruin the cookie cutter

Step 10

• Cut a piece of white to fit on the background, I cut 4 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch, and draw your note on with a Sharpie. I used a fine tip, and then went over the writing a second time.

Step 11

• Attach all the pieces with Glue Dots

There are endless color combinations, have fun and mix them up!

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