Want to make a gift for a loved one this Valentines Day? Get inspired with these art and craft ideas from @playful_porter

Love Bug Boxes

These cute love bug Valentines boxes can be filled with loveheart sweets or chocolates to give to those we care about. Such an easy make and fun activity to do with children of all ages.

What you need:

How to make:

  • Choose a craft box of your choice and paint in your chosen colour. Heart shaped boxes are perfect for Valentines Day.
  • When the box has dried, decorate the lid by adding small black hearts for the ladybird’s spots and a black nose. You may wish to use paint, colored pens or glitter pens for the decoration.
  • Next, glue on some wiggly eyes and pipe cleaners for antennae.
  • Once everything is dry, fill the box with tissue papper and add some love hearts sweets or chocolates as a gift for your loved one.
  • Finally, pop on the lid and your gift is ready to be presented.

Valentine’s Sun Catchers

Paper plates are fantastic for arts and craft activities. On this occassion, we want to share with you how to create Valentine’s themed sun catchers. When making them, the girls had so much fun using self adhesive film to stick on their decorations. The advantage of this is that we didn’t have sticky glue everywhere!

What you need:

How to make:

  • Sketch a love heart on to the back of your paper plate (in the middle, not on the rim) and carefully cut it out.
  • Next, decide what colour you want your heart sun catcher to be and paint the upper side of the plate.
  • When the plate has dried, cut out a circle from the self adhesive film paper (large enough to cover the heart shape but smaller than the plate itself) Stick to the back of the plate with the sticky side of the film paper facing to the fronf of the plate.
  • Decorate your suncatcher by adding sequins and others materials of your choice to the sticky paper.
  • Finally, finish your heart suncatcher by attaching a loop of ribbon to the top of the plate. Now your suncatcher is ready for hanging in a window or displaying.

Valentine’s Jars

Have great fun creating these Valentine’s Jars. From jars rolled in glitter (we highly recommend this one) to jars covered in tissue paper, these jars are reallly effective and super quick and easy to make. We used doilies to make the largest jar and it looks so pretty that we may just keep this as our treat jar after the season of love is over. Which is your favourite jar?

What you need:

Warning: Battery operated tea lights should be used for this activity as actual candles could cause accident or injury.

How to make:

  • Get an old empty jam jar that has been cleaned.
  • Decide on the design you want. You can cover your jam jar in glue before rolling it in a tray of glitter, stick different beads and decorations aroubnd it, or you may decide to cut out different shapes from the tissue paper such as love hearts and stick these on. See the designs below for more inspiration!

Have fun exploring these Valentine’s Day crafts and don’t forget to go to @playful_porter for further arts and craft inspiration!

Thank you to @playful_porter for sharing these lovely craft ideas with us.