Valentine's Day Activity

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I was shopping online at Target for Valentine’s Day crafts for my children to make for their friends this year. I ordered a bunch of the fun foam supplies because it is fun, easy, and multi-age friendly. All must-haves in this house right now! While searching for this, I found a simple Valentine’s Day activity for the whole family! Funny how that happens with Target, right?

Wooden Hearts for a Simple Valentine’s Day Activity

I saw these wooden heart kits and got super excited. They came in sets of 3, so I ordered 2. One wooden heart for each of us.

Sometimes when I order things online, even when I remember to check the measurements, I am disappointed by the size when it arrives. Does that happen to you? These did not disappoint though and are a great thickness as well! They came with a set of paints too, which we will save, but didn’t use for these. I wanted to pick the color palette so it matched our breakfast room. And a brush, that we did use! I think they sold out pretty quickly, but I am sure they will have something similar next year. Or the next holiday…easily could apply this project to shamrocks, Easter eggs, pumpkins, etc. If you are big on DIY I’m sure these would be fun to make with scrap wood.

Other Options

I think the thicker size makes them extra fun, but Amazon has all kind of thinner options and sizes. Some of them come with quite a few for a decent price and they would make sweet little gifts for your loved ones. You could attach a magnet to the back as well. These ones come with a hole (in the shape of a heart!) and then people could hang them somewhere. I like that it comes with some twine (and I would definitely save that), but I think I would use some cute ribbon instead!

I love that this project was quality time spent as a family. It also can be fun for any age. I know my kids especially love when we do whatever is going on too, which isn’t always fun as an adult. Luckily, my husband and I both like to paint, yay! We even had our almost two year old paint his own heart.

We did the activity during his nap so we could help the others and do our own. Then, when he woke up it was much easier to do with him one on one. So maybe not complete togetherness, but it was the best way for us. We did ours ahead of time, but this would make a great Valentine’s Day activity that your children won’t expect. It also takes very little prep, yay!

Pick a Palette

I picked out the colors I wanted to use from our acrylics stash and just squirted the same amount on three plates. We love using these IKEA plates for painting. Easy to clean, and feel good! Does soggy paper bother anyone else? Anyways, I wanted these hearts to “go” with the things in our breakfast nook. They could easily go a lot of places, but I thought they would be cute grouped together on our buffet. We recently added a little more color and fun in this room that you can see here. Including a small painting I did, also using a similar palette. Although, I chose colors with this room in mind, they are kind of the colors I have throughout my house. Always nice when things can be moved around!

The kids all took different approaches and we talked about making a plan in our heads of what we wanted to do. I offered a pencil if they wanted to lightly sketch something first, but nobody wanted to do that. No surprise there. We talked about maybe needing a background or base coat first depending on what you want to paint. Otherwise, they pretty much had complete artistic freedom!

Not Breakable Decor

My plan was to use these as Valentine’s decorations every year. It is always exciting when you find decor as a mom that can’t be broken (I hope) and isn’t too precious (well, they are precious to me!). It is fun that we can display these in a lot of different ways. My kids will surely move them around and play with them. It will be fun to find them in different positions, but not have to worry about them breaking.

Painted wooden hearts for a simple Valentine's Day activity

I also love that when we pull these out each year they will remind them of the time we spent together making them. I don’t have a ton of Valentine’s Day decor, do you? We always hang this heart garland I made a few years ago. We have also saved several adorable preschool crafts my little ones have made and display those. Holiday decorations are a big deal to my kids, and I’m excited for these to be a special addition!

I didn’t spray and seal mine, but I still might, I’m not sure. I haven’t decided what is on the menu yet for Valentine’s Day, but I am thinking these would be darling as “place cards” too over our cloth napkins, or just standing up in front of their plates. If I use them in that way though, I probably should seal them…because…kids ;).

Alternative Valentine’s Day Activity

Another cute idea if you don’t want to buy anything is to cut out a heart for each member of your family from paper. Follow the same process, but then glue them all together on another piece of paper and display it as a piece of art. I think choosing your color palette is key to cohesiveness. You could even frame it, or stick it in one you already have for February. All year wouldn’t be so bad either, family is forever! 🙂

I hope this inspires you to do some version of a simple Valentine’s Day activity! Make ahead of time for a decoration, or even something to do on the day while it is so cold outside! If you’re not feeling it this Valentine’s Day save the idea for the next holiday!