Veronika has made lots of Valentine cards to give away this year, but we realized our house was lacking in decorations that we had kept for ourselves! I had leftover doilies from one of her projects, and these only needed a little toddler-friendly embellishment before we could hang them in the windows.

First, Veronika used dot markers to decorate some of the doilies. We chose red and purple, to keep with a Valentine’s color scheme.

I thought she might also enjoy painting some of the doilies, but she hasn’t wanted to get her hands messy lately. Instead, I placed a few of the doilies in a plastic container and added two balls, one big and one small. Squeeze in a few drops of red paint, then roll the balls around. Your toddler might want to do this with his or her hands and get nice and messy!

Veronika preferred it when I showed her how she could til the container to and fro, making the balls scatter paint across the doilies.

Let these painted ones dry before adding to the other doilies hanging in your window. This made the easiest toddler “garland” ever!

The heart crafts with Veronika continue, a great way to teach toddlers about the connection between Valentine’s Day and love… and messy crafts! Today we used hearts in our painting, but in two very different ways.

For the first, I cut heart shapes from pink construction paper and placed these on a tray. Dribble on a little red and white paint, then fold the heart in half.

I encouraged Veronika to flatten out the heart! She could either use her hands or roll over it with a small rolling pin. Because we’d used too much paint, this turned out to be a very smooshy messy process!

Open the heart up for the big reveal!

Let dry, then write a Valentine message on the back for someone special.

The second method is one I did with Travis when he was not much older than Veronika is now (!), making it one of the earliest posts from this blog. It’s fun to repeat activities with my kids and see how they differ across the years. All you need is an empty toilet paper tube; push in one edge slightly to form a heart shape.

I showed Veronika how to dip this “stamp” in red paint and print!

Make as many heart prints as your child desires. I remember Travis wanted to cover his whole paper, but Veronika tired out about half way through.

If you try both of these heart crafts, please share in the comments which one your toddler liked best!

We’ve been making lots of Valentine’s Day cards and crafts to send, but Veronika wanted something to be hers around the house! This “stuffie” heart was the perfect Valentine’s friend to keep.

First, I knew we’d need to cover a large area with paint so I laid down our roll of craft paper. I decided the easiest way for her to paint this would be simply to dollop paint all over the paper and let her smear it with a wide-bristle paintbrush.

We used three shades of red, pink, and purple, one of which was glittery, so it all combined into a nice mix.

Once we had covered the paper, I set it upstairs to dry where little feet wouldn’t accidentally walk across it!

Later in the day, it was time to make the heart into a “stuffed animal”. I drew a heart shape on the paper and cut out, then traced it so we had two hearts. Use hot glue to attach these at the edges (so much easier than sewing!).

We used cotton roving for stuffing, but if you don’t have any roving, wadded up newspaper would probably work just fine.

I drew on a smiley face as the final touch.

It turns out Veronika wasn’t the only one smitten with this new stuffed friend. It brought an instant smile to big brother Travis’s face.

And needed a big hug, too!

Kids are sure to love this Valentine’s Day friend.

These sweet Valentine’s (thanks Parents magazine!) are sure to give every one of your kid’s classmates an ego boost. No matter where the spinning arrow points, a compliment is waiting!

To start, trace a 3-inch round cookie cutter onto cardstock, making enough circles for each recipient. Next, trace additional circles on two different colors of cardstock (we used shades in the red and pink family). Divide each of these circles into 6 segments and cut out. You’ll need double the number of segments as you have classmates (so for Travis’s class of 15 kids, I needed 30 red segments and 30 pink segments).

Using a glue stick, attach these segments onto your base circles, alternating colors. Such a pretty tricolor effect!

Next, write in sweet and empowering messages on each wedge of the wheel. Older kids can take charge of this step, but I knew it would be overwhelming for Travis to do so much handwriting. Instead, I wrote 5 of the wedges for each card (with statements like “You’re Gr8!” or “Superstar!”) and left the final wedge blank for him to write in the classmate recipient’s name.

For the arrow spinner, I traced an arrow on a fourth color of cardstock, then traced and cut out 15 of them. Poke a brad fastener through the arrow and then through the center of the wheel, folding down to secure in place.

Give that wonder wheel a spin!