A Huggable Valentine’s Day Craft

Every year since I can remember I have given my grandfather a Valentine’s Day card. It’s a tradition I have since passed down to my four-year old daughter. Because my daughter enjoys crafts we now make a Valentine’s Day card or craft instead of purchasing one, which to me is much more personal and heartfelt anyway.

Thanks to the brilliance of Pinterest, I have access to hundreds of great Valentine’s Day crafts. This year, I let my    daughter chose which one she would like to do and right away she chose this “hug” craft from a blog called The Party Event: http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/valentines-crafts-for-kids-a-long-distance-hug-a-beautiful-present-for-someone-special-diy/

The craft was really easy to make and involved simply tracing and cutting out your child’s handprint on red or pink construction paper, and attaching it to a ribbon (or yarn) of your choice, then cutting out several hearts and also gluing them to the ribbon, followed by printing or writing out and then attaching a verse to explain what the craft is.

My daughter was able to cut out her handprint that I traced for her, as well as cut out some of the hearts and glue them to the ribbon. She also chose where she would like to place the hearts along the ribbon. The ribbon is the exact length of her arms stretched out – or the size of her hug.

My grandfather does not live in town, so this was the perfect craft to make and send to someone who will not be hugged in person this Valentine’s Day.  It was, however, tricky to find an envelope that would fit her handprint without having to bend the fingers, so keep this in mind when tracing your child’s handprint – the more spread out the fingers are, the larger the handprint will be and the less likely it will fit into a standard letter-sized envelope.

In the end, we made it successfully fit in an envelope and mailed it off. My daughter and I are happy that her great-grandfather will have her “hug” on Valentine’s Day. In fact, my daughter loved this craft so much, she made one for her best friend as well as one for her father. She’s so huggable…

Tags: Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day cards, Valentine's Day crafts

Category: Arts & Crafts, Blogs, Stuff of Interest, Valentine's Day Crafts