Toddler-Friendly (and Mess-Free!) DIY Painted Valentine’s Day Cards

Say hello to the cutest mess-free craft! Make these easy, adorable, and memorable DIY Painted Valentine’s Day Cards with your toddlers and little kids this February for the sweetest valentine! 

DIY Painted Valentine’s Day Cards

(Post Updated January 2020)

Guess what? A little project of ours (because, yes, Scarlett got to help out on this easy DIY!) was featured on Style Me Pretty Living over the weekend and I am SO excited to share a peek here as well.

As a crafty mama, it’s hard not to want to try every arts and crafts project with my baby girl. My mom always made great craft projects with us as kids, and I just cannot wait. But when your little one is only 18-months old*, and still learning how to use a spoon (without spilling chicken noodle soup all over her lap, of course), craft projects can feel a bit ambitious. Thankfully, our awesome sitter – who used to work at a preschool – mentioned an adorable, mess-free way to finger paint with your toddlers, and I loved the idea. (*Scarlett is now FIVE and this is still a favorite craft to do with both of our little girls!)

Mess-Free Art Project

We had to try the craft project more than once – the first attempt was an epic fail: for the record, plain white printer paper does not withstand drowning in a ziploc bag filled with heaps of paint. Still, once we got ourselves a pack of card stock that could hold up to our paint-filled bag, the project went off without a hitch. It’s like finger painting, without any mess. I’d call that a mess-free painting success.

This really is a perfect “first art project” for toddlers and young kids. And of course, a handmade DIY Painted Valentine’s Day Cards is so much sweeter and more memorable than your traditional store bought valentine. Our girls love mailing their handmade painted valentine cards to friends and family!

So if you’re itching to make an adorable Valentine’s Day craft with your little ones (babies and toddlers included!), and want to make handmade cards, pull up a highchair and get painting! (Adorable pictures of Scarlett, included.)

DIY Painted Valentine’s Day Cards

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Acrylic Paints*
Cardstock Paper
Ziploc® Bags
Tape (painters tape or scotch tape)
Craft Glue
Scissors
Glitter Alphabet Stickers (We used gold glitter and silver glitter letters!)
Heart Stickers (optional)
Heart Doilies
Construction Paper (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Step 1

Place one sheet of white card stock into a zip-top bag. (We used freezer-sized bags so that there was plenty of room for the card stock sheet and for our toddler to squish around her paint.)

Step 2

Squirt various shades of paint into the bag and be sure to seal closed. Tape the bag to your child’s high chair tray or a table. Either painters tape or traditional scotch tape works great to secure all four edges of the bag to the table or highchair table top.

Step 3

Let your little ones squish and smack away at the paint-filled bag. (You can also experiment with letting your little one run various objects over the bag – q-tips, toy cars, etc.)

Step 4

Carefully pull their masterpiece out of the bag and allow to dry fully on a covered surface.

Step 5

Using your grown-ups-only scissors, cut out your heart shapes from the now-painted card stock sheets, making individual card stock painted paper hearts.

Step 6

Decorate! We used heart doilies and red and pink construction paper to cut out larger paper hearts to affix our painted hearts onto. Attach your painted hearts to larger paper hearts with Craft Glue or a glue stick. Give your little one stickers to decorate the front of the card with as well. (These foam stickers are great because they’re easier for little fingers to manipulate.) Write a message on the back with a permanent marker or use something like these adorable glitter sticker letters to spell out your message on the back or front of the card. Have fun making adorable handmade valentines!

*We use a lot of paint in this house! Some of our favorites include this line of satin acrylic paint from Target (this line has so many pretty soft pastel colors!), Apple Barrel acrylic paint – available on Amazon, and Martha Stewart Satin Craft Paint (our go-to for metallic paint).

Instead of acrylic paint, you could also use squeezable watercolor paint, which feel similar to acrylic paint, but not quite as thick. (This is a great watercolor set to get you started!)

This is the, “Mom, I’ve grown bored of these pictures and I’m ready for a snack” face. Luckily for her, I also made these amazing sugar cookies that same day.

Let your little ones’ painting dry completely and then cut, cut, cut.

Time to play with stickers and glue!

You can even attach a blank card to the back to fill in your Valentine’s message, or just use a permanent marker to write a love note or sweet message on the back of your DIY painted Valentine’s Day card.

And there you have it: one simple, mess-free, and adorable way to make a memorable handmade valentine everyone will love. Happy crafting!

If you want to see even more adorable pictures, head over to Style Me Pretty Living.

Do you have any favorite homemade cards for Valentine’s Day? Do you make valentine day cards with your toddlers and kids?

Looking for more fun activities to do with the kids?

• DIY kinetic sand dinosaur dig sensory bin

• our favorite water beads and accessories

• our ridiculously pretty DIY painted rocks

• the original super easy 3-ingredient glitter slime

• DIY fluffy slime

• DIY colorful scarf magic wipes box (perfect for babies!)

• simple DIY snow globes

IF YOU LOVED THIS KID-FRIENDLY DIY, YOU CAN SEE MORE OF OUR LIFE WITH TWO LITTLE ONES HERE.

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