Valentine Stampers

I wanted to show you this super simple Valentine's Day craft in plenty of time to plan out an event.  It's such a cute idea, and the kids tend to really love it. I had some kids make two, three, or even four valentines for friends and family (but I set the limit at four, because that's a lot, you're good now). 

You Need:

Paper in various colors, some cut into hearts of various sizes
Paint (I used washable tempera paint) in red, pink, purple, and blue
Toilet paper/paper towel tubes
Rubber bands (optional, but useful)
Glue
Other things to decorate (glitter, feathers, crayons, etc.)

How It's Done:

Take your toilet paper tube and press in on one side, bending it inward. On the opposite side, bend it out a little bit. This makes it a heart shape. If desired, hold this shape in place by wrapping a rubber band on the outside of the tube.


   



Put out paper plates with various paint colors. Glue paper hearts onto construction paper, and decorate by stamping the cardboard tube into the paint, and then onto the paper.

Decorate with markers, crayons, glitter, etc., until you're happy with the result. 

Notes:

This was super popular, and very, very easy. The kids loved that I let them make multiple valentines, and some made them to send to grandparents, etc. They loved the "I made it myself!" aspect, and the parents enjoyed that it was easy, fun, and also looked pretty nice, even with the smallest children. (It's hard to mess up stamping.)

Kirigami Paper Flowers

I am all about the paper crafts lately. This easy paper flower is a hit with my teens, and since you can quickly learn how to make them, I just so happen to have about 10 of them on my desk right now - not that I'm complaining. So cheerful!

The photo at the left here is actually two flowers stacked on top of each other. Doesn't it look lovely that way?

This craft isn't origami, because it's not just folding, and I don't know if it's technically kirigami (folding and cutting paper), because you're also using tape, but it's still fun. We can call it kirigami, anyway.

You Need:

Paper - any kind, but probably not something too thick, like card stock.
Scissors
Tape

Here's How:

Start with a square of paper. If your paper isn't square, you can make it square by folding the short side of a rectangle onto the long side, and trimming off the excess.










Fold your paper in half on the diagonal, then in half again, and then again.

 

With your favorite pair of scissors, cut off the corner (the right angle) and round out the shape. This will be your petal shape.


The next cut you want to make will be in an arc shape, as I drew here. Make sure you start at the open end of the paper (not the corner where all the folds meet), and cut toward *but not all the way to* the other corner.

Unfold your paper, and behold its beauty.

Put a bubble of tape in the center of your flower. Then, take the center paper flap on one of the petals, and fold it toward the middle of the flower, securing it to the tape.

Repeat on the other three petals. You are done!

Variations:

You can use any type of paper at all. You can paint/color/decorate blank paper to really customize them, or use recycled books, origami paper - anything! They also look very nice when you stack them on top of each other, as in my original photo (at the top). GORGEOUS, I tell you!

3D Paper Snowflakes

Have I mentioned how much I love arts & crafts? I really do. I've started an almost-weekly art program for teens, which I'm calling "Crafternoon" (I also love puns), and I've pulled out all my favorite crafts - plus a few new ones! 

This craft is also my current decoration on the windows near my desk. 

It's super easy to make these, and you can use any kind of paper that you want. Origami paper, wrapping paper, construction paper - even boring old printer paper. I've chosen to upcycle an old book that had been recently weeded, since I'm in a library and all. 

You will need:

Paper - 6 sheets per snowflake

Scissors

Tape

Stapler

Instructions

 1. You need six sheets of paper for each snowflake, preferably all the same material, if not color. Because my book wasn't a square to begin with, I did the old trick of turning rectangles into squares - fold the short side against the long side to form a right triangle, and trim the excess.

2. Fold your square in half diagonally, and then in half again.

      

3. Starting at the folded edge, make three cuts parallel to the long side of the triangle. I've drawn them here in orange marker, but you don't need to draw anything out - just cut through the entire piece of folded paper, starting at the folded edge - but don't go all the way to the end.

 

4. Unfold your paper and behold its beauty. It should look like this: see how the cuts make a V at two corners, but are joined on the other two corners? Perfect.

5. Take the paper flaps in the center of the square and curl them toward you into a small tube. Tape to secure.

6. Flip your paper over and take the next-innermost flaps, and curl them toward you into a small tube. Tape to secure.

7. Again, flip your paper over, so your last tube is on the bottom. Take the next-innermost flaps, and curl them toward you into a small tube. Tape to secure.

8. One last time, flip your paper over, and tape the last two corners together into a tube. 

THERE! Isn't it beautiful? Your paper tube-spiral should look like this.

9. Repeat with all sheets of paper, so you have 6 paper tube-spirals.

10. Take three of your spirals, staple them together at one end. Then, staple the spirals where the paper touches, at the widest part of the spirals. Repeat, so you have two of these.

 

11. Staple your two half-snowflakes together, and attach the last two corners of the spiral. And... voila!

 

Notes

Since you're attaching multiple sheets of paper together, your snowflake may be larger than you expected it to be. You can always start with smaller sheets of paper, but it becomes much harder to staple together when the snowflake is a smaller size. Glue or tape may work better in that instance.

You can also make snowflakes with 8 or 10 sides, but even numbers always look nicest, because they're symmetrical.