Creative Table: Valentine's Day Cards

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this Creative Table invites children to make Valentine’s Day Cards that are sure to delight not only the children in your home.

Creative Table: Make your own Valentine's Day Cards | TinekerLab.com

One of our favorite ways to engage children at the art table is by setting up invitations to create. Toward this end, we started the Creative Table series as a way to capture easy set-ups and inspiring ideas that encourage creative and independent thinking.

All you have to do is gather some basic supplies, set them up, and then let the creativity begin…

Valentine’s Day Cards

Supplies

Pre-made blank cards or cardstock cut into card-size pieces
Glue sticks or PVA glue
Markers
Child-friendly scissors
Decorative Paper
Waste basket to collect scraps

More Ideas:

Self-inking Valentine stamps or stamps and ink pads
Decorative Paper ideas: wrapping paper, tissue paper, scrapbook paper, candy foil wrappers, doilies
Treasures: googly eyes, sequins, foam hearts, stickers
Cardboard
Hole punchers and ribbon

Set up your table Valentine’s Day Cards Table

Clear your table. If it’s looking a little messy (like ours usually does), take a minute to clear everything unessential off. Our art table is marked up, so we often cover it with this awesome butcher paper (Amazon) or oilcloth (Amazon) to make it extra inviting. Oilcloth is especially nice because it can be wiped clean after each use, but keep in mind that if it has a busy pattern it could be distracting.

Set up the materials for the Valentine’s Day Cards

Center of the Table:

Stack of pre-folded blank cards
Bowl full of scraps (pre-cut hearts, shiny paper, and doilies)
Markers
Stickers
Bowl of self-inking Valentine stamps

In front of each station:

One pre-folded blank card
Stack of patterned paper
Scissors
Glue Stick

Now it’s time to get creative!

Tip for making art with kids: When my children have new ideas that vary from mine, such as using materials that aren’t on the table or using them in a way I hadn’t anticipated, I’ll embrace it. This is the time to encourage independent ideas and creative thinking. Children experience new materials and stimuli differently than we do, and we can look at these moments with awe. Who knows, your child may give YOU a new way to make things…mine often do!