DIY Valentines Day Gift Ideas

When it comes to Valentine’s Day Gifts, most of us don’t have much time or energy to spend on making things. It is always easier to go to the store and buy some heart shaped sweets and cards and let the kids hand them out to their friends and family. Yet if we were just to spend a short time making something ourselves together with the kids, it will be fun and give the kids a feeling of accomplishment. Here are some ideas that are inexpensive and only take a short time to make. Hope you enjoy working with the kids in making this Valentine’s Day special.

Wax Crayon Valentine Gifts

Everyone in our home is big on recycling, and it is amazing to see what you can make out of old materials that are about to be thrown away. When the kids, who are ardent drawers, come to the end of their wax crayons or they are broken into smaller pieces, the first reaction is to throw them away. But here is a better way to use them and this project can also be a great Valentine’s Day Gift.

Materials you will need.

• Old broken crayons
• Silicon mould oven trays with the shapes you require, you can use metal oven trays
• An old knife or instrument to cut the crayons

Method:

Set your oven on 110ᵒ. Make sure all the paper around the crayons is removed.  You can break or cut the crayons into smaller pieces. Put the crayons pieces into the moulds making sure you mix the colours evenly. Ensure that you fill the moulds above the level of the tray which will allow the wax to fill the mould. Put the moulds into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the wax has melted. Remove the tray from the oven and allow it to cool. Wait until you can touch the bottom of the tray and then gently twist the silicon trays to remove the set shapes from the tray. Or if you used a metal tray slowly prise the shapes from the tray.

Heart Cookies

It is always fun to make cookies with the kids and heart-shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day is a great gift. Just a note for you, that if you are unable to make the dough yourself you can always buy the readymade mixture.

Cookie Ingredients

170 g of melted butter or margarine

¾ cup of sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon of vanilla essence

2¼ Cups of flour

1 Teaspoon of baking powder

A pinch of salt

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 200ᵒ. Melt the butter then add the sugar and mix until it is smooth. Add the vanilla essence and the egg and mix well. Then add all the dry ingredients and mix well until you have dough that can be rolled out and cut. After you have mixed the dough it is important that you place it in the fridge for 1 hour (or preferably overnight). Roll the dough out until it is about 5 mm thick or as thick as you want your cookies to be. Using cookie cutters cut the dough into your desired shapes, heart shapes are ideal for Valentine’s Day. If you don’t have heart-shaped cookie cutters you can always cut the cookies into squares. Then after they come out of the oven you can cut a heart shape from paper and place it on top of the cookie. You can sprinkle icing sugar on top of the paper and then when you remove the paper you will be left with a perfect heart shape which you can decorate as you desire. Place the cut dough shapes onto a baking tray and place in the oven for at 200ᴼ for 10 minutes or until the cookies are brown. Allow to cool.  

Love Bugs

Kids love to create and decorate, so these toilet roll love bugs, for Valentine’s Day, will be great fun and it also makes a perfect gift. You can let their imagination run wild as to how the kids will decorate these love bugs and this is what you will need.

Materials.

• Paper towel cardboard rolls cut in half or toilet cardboard rolls
• Water Paints
• Eyes or you can use a button or something else that is small
• Pipe Cleaners
• Beads
• Craft glue
• Sheets of fairly thick paper
• Crayons or Koki Pens
• Scissors
• Skewer

Method:

Firstly you need to paint the cardboard rolls and let them dry. Then let an adult make six holes for the pipe cleaner legs to go through, using the skewer. Now take two pipe cleaners and cut them in half. Thread three of these pieces through the holes in the roll and fix beads on the ends to make hands and feet. Take the paper and fold it in half and draw two, half-hearts, to the size you want. Then cut them out and open it up, you now have your wings. Do the same for the heart-shaped antennae only allowing a stem at the bottom of the heart for securing to the roll. Using the craft glue, attach the wings, antennae and the eyes to the roll and let it dry. Now the kids will be able to use their imagination and decorate their Love Bugs just as the desire.