There are some adorable store-bought Valentine Card options for kids, but there’s nothing quite like making your own Valentine’s Day cards. One of my strongest Valentine’s Day memories is of cutting and pasting doilies with hand-cut hearts, and this is a tradition that I’m excited to pass along to my own children.
One of the most successful strategies for encouraging art-making and creativity in my home is to set up self-serve areas filled with a buffet-style selection of materials for my kids to choose from.
I first introduced this self-serve kids Valentine card station on my blog last year, and with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this seemed like a good time to share it again.
How to set up a Self-serve Kids Valentine Card Station
- Start a thoughtfully selected smorgasbord of wrapping paper, scrapbooking paper, construction paper, paper cut into heart shapes, flowers, silk flower petals, shiny paper, doilies, and stickers
- Fill clear containers or bowls with these materials
- Add a bottle of glue or a small jar filled with glue, and a paintbrush.
- Invite your child to make, play, and create. Invitations can be accepted or ignored. I always try to pay attention to how these things play out because, of course, I want my invitations to be accepted!! If it’s ignored, it could be that the timing wasn’t right, your child isn’t yet ready for this invitation (maybe it’s too challenging or not of interest), the materials are too familiar, or the set-up wasn’t appealing enough.
5. Be open to riffs. While you may have a clear idea of how the invitation will play out in your mind, your child will probably have a very different idea. If you can accept this, you’ll both be happy!
Mailboxes are always nice to have for Valentine’s Day. We’re fans of all-things-handmade and actually made our own mailbox last year, but the hand-made Valentine box truly couldn’t compete with this light-up Hello Kitty mailbox.
More Valentine’s Day Activities
Valentine’s Day Ideas Pinterest Board
Organize a self-serve Creativity Area for Kids
Do you have any favorite tips for setting up a successful self-serve art experience?
Note: I’m an Amazon affiliate, but only share links to products that I love or that I think you’ll find useful.
I do a “self serve” art experience with my three year old. I put out stickers, paint, crayons, markers, a glue stick and yarn pieces to let him create a multi-media picture. I bought a “composition” notebook to keep all his work together (and I love to see the progression!)
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing your experience with this. Catching all of your son’s work together in one spot is a great suggestion. We keep ours in a gigantic storage container, but I’ll keep my eye out for a composition notebook like you described.
Rachelle
I love this. I call it cafeteria style when kids get to choose from an array of stuff to do art with.
Great idea on the self-serve station! My son has a habit of not using the stuff I give him whenever he does Valentine’s cards. I might have stifled his creativity a bit there.