Foam Valentine Bears

With a houseful of girls, Valentine’s Day is a big deal at our house.  It is the most frilly, girly holiday there is.  Making crafts with hearts, lace, glue, glitter and markers is right up our alley.   Last year, I took a homemade approach and shared my recycled crayon valentine project.  This year we went with a prepackaged approach.

We happened to be in Michael’s in early January for some errand when the Valentine’s Day craft supplies had just arrived.  My 5-year old zeroed right in on the foam sticker selection.  We found some really cute make-your-own Valentine teddy bears where all the foam pieces were pre-cut and self-adhesive.  They came in a pack of 12  bears for about $5.

When we got home from the store, my young art enthusiast wanted to get started on them right away.  She sat for an hour dutifully making all the valentines all by herself.  This was a fantastic craft for this age group because it was entirely self-created.  I did not need to help with anything at all.

The downside of a prepackaged craft is that it doesn’t allow for much creativity.  Well, you might think that (as I did) but that underestimates the creative powers of children.

“Mom, now I am going to make a Valentine’s rabbit.”

“Ok, great!” I said, not looking up from what I was doing but curious as to how she was going to make a rabbit out of a teddy bear shape.

“Look, mom!  It’s done!”

She proudly showed me her work, in which she discovered that if you turned the teddy bear shape upside down and used the bear’s legs as “ears” it did make a convincing rabbit shape!  It was a moment that would make Martha Stewart proud.

We found some Dove heart-shaped chocolates that were the perfect fit for the heart on the bears (and rabbits) and taped them on.  She wrote her name in Sharpie on the animals’ arms and added some small drawings too for a personalized touch.

After weeks of asking when Valentine’s Day would ever come, she took great pride in delivering the valentines she made herself to her preschool class this morning.

Yesterday, Michael’s offered a free Valentine making session for children that we attended and had great fun using punches, glitter glue and markers to create unique valentine art.  We also wanted to take advantage of Michael’s 60% off foam valentine craft kits to stock up for next year.  Sadly, the store was almost completely denuded of anything valentine-related.  All the valentine shelves were bare.  There was hardly a heart-shaped anything to be found. An elementary school teacher was lamenting what craft she would do with her class the next day and the Michael’s staff was helping her come up with alternatives.

So, if you love Valentine’s Day like we do, next year, put it on your calendar to check out Michael’s Valentine’s Day supplies in mid-January!    Also, if you intend to do any crafting for St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) or Easter (April 24), you might be interested to know that Michael’s has its stock in now for these holidays!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers!  Wishing you lots of love and happiness throughout the year!