Cupid is on his way. Here are some easy Valentine’s gift ideas that are easy enough for 3-5 years olds to make on their own. They require minimal supervision from you, and take just 5 minutes to create tops.

Photo Frame
Take a page out of a magnetic photo album, and cut a heart shape out of it.

Open the clear cover, and stick a picture of the recipient in the center, leaving the sides blank.

Decorate the sides with heart stickers, heart shapes cut out of colored paper and colored cellophane paper.

Leave a little space at the top of the page for the cover to stick to the page when you close it.

Once you have everything arranged the way you want it, close the clear cover shut.

Place a piece of magnetic tape on the back of your instant photo frame.

Valentine ’s Day Bouquet

Cut strips of green poster board into 12 inch x 1 inches sizes.

Take a few shiny bows, and stick to the top of each strip. Decorate some colored tissue with heart shaped stickers, and wrap the “bow flowers” in the decorated tissue paper to form a bouquet.

Tie a bow with a satin ribbon to secure the bouquet. A perfect gift for Daddy!

Valentine’s Day Book Marks

Cut heart shapes out of craft foam, or buy packages of pre cut craft foam from crafts stores. The pieces should be around four inches in diameter.

Decorate these foam hearts with smaller craft foam pieces in star shapes or more tiny hearts.

Take a craft stick, and write a Valentine ’s Day message to the recipient.

Happy Valentine’s day, Mommy.

I love you, Daddy.

The message should fit inside the craft stick.

Glue the craft foam heart to the top of the crafts stick.

A Valentine’s Day Candle

Take a thick red candle, and hammer a few rhinestones or metal studs in a heart shape or some other pattern. Choose a thick candle that can hold a heart shape etched on it easily.

Show your child how to hammer in the studs, so they are safely inside the candle.

Add your old pierced earrings to decorate the candle by hammering these in too.

Clay “I Love You” Card

Take some white air dry clay, and flatten it with a rolling pin till it’s about a quarter of an inch thick.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out a heart shape from the clay.

Decorate the clay heart by taking brilliantly colored jewels and beads, and pressing them into the clay. Take care not to smash the clay.

Cut out pieces of red and white textured paper into squares, the red one smaller then the white square.

Use thick crafts glue to stick the red paper on top of the white one.

Stick the clay jeweled heart on the red textured paper.

Enjoy!

If you absolutely cannot bear to throw away your child’s artwork, it helps to remember that it’s probably not that important to him anyway.

Kids enjoy the process of creating something beautiful; they are not as focused on the results as we are.

So, if you secretly only want to keep only a few of the best pieces, and dispose of the rest, rest assured your preschooler isn’t going to freak about it in 15 years’ time.

Guilt reduction out of the way, here are more innovative ways to display artwork.

• Use them as gift wrapping paper. Obviously the paper will have to be of considerably larger size, than regular drawing sheets, but they can make charming wrapping paper for gifts for family members and close friends.
• Make greeting cards out of them. Cut out elements that they really like about their artwork like a bright sun or a flower, and stick on a folded piece of card stock. Decorate with squiggles using sketch pens, and help her write a message to the recipient inside the card.
• Laminate them, and use as place mats. You don’t have to get them professionally done; just slip each paper in a plastic cover, and seal the open end.
• This one is slightly more expensive and time consuming, so make sure you pick out only the best artwork to go in here. Take 12 of her best art pieces and make color copies of each. Get them printed up as a calendar with her name on each to give as gifts to family members.
• Create an Art Album. Cut up thick black chart paper into large rectangles. The size should be around an inch bigger on each side than the regular sheets you give your child to paint in. Get these chart paper pieces spiral bound, and stick each sheet of artwork on a single black page. The black backdrop enhances the visual appeal of the art, and the spiral binding ensures that your Art Album will stand the test of time through a million look throughs.

Here’s an easy way to teach your child to recognize different colors.

What You Need to Do Beforehand

Take a couple of dozen plain white sheets, and stack them up evenly one on top of another. Draw a simple tree shape with a thick trunk and a bushy top on the topmost sheet of paper. Use a sharp paper cutter to cut out the shape of the tree, so you have a couple of dozen cut out paper trees.

Take a single tree cutout. Pour different colors of paint - red, green yellow, and orange - in separate bowls. Cut up a piece of sponge into small 1/2 inch circles, and oval shapes. You can draw these shapes on the sponge, so you get the required shapes.

Tell your child to use a tweezer or clothespin to pick up a piece of sponge, dip in color and create apples on the tree, by dabbing in the appropriate bowl of color. Once she’s done with apples, give her another tree cutout and this time, tell her to add pineapples or oranges or melons to the tree. For each fruit, she’ll need to figure out which color is to be used, and dip the sponge in that color.

This will not only help her with color differentiation, but will also help her learn the names of fruits and vegetables. You don’t really have to supervise, and the only thing you need to help with is making stacks of paper tree cutouts. Easy!

I like this one, not just because it requires both you and your child to participate, but also because it’s a great way to preserve her artwork for life.

What You’ll Need

White tightly woven fabric (like a kitchen apron or a pillow cover). The tight weave helps hold the color better.

Non toxic fabric paints in red and green

What to Do

Wash and dry your child’s hand.

Use a paintbrush to paint his outstretched palm with the green fabric paint, and before it dries, quickly make an imprint on the white fabric, with the fingers slightly spread apart. Get the paint off before it has a chance to dry – the paint is easier to get off the hand when it’s wet. (Just soap and water will do. Because time is of the essence, I suggest you try this near a water source, like your kitchen sink. )

Once you have the green palm imprint, and have washed her hand clean, take your child’s finger, dip it in red fabric paint and create a flower shape at the tip of the ring finger, creating a circle of five petals. Dip another finger in yellow, and press on the fabric in the middle of the flower to create its center.

Repeat the procedure – create another flower on the tip of another finger imprint, until all fingers have a flower perched on top.

Use the tip of her thumb to dip in green paint, and create two or three leaves, randomly placed among the fingers.

Tip: For best results, try on waste cotton fabric first before using the apron or pillow cover.

By the time your child is three, he will (hopefully) begin seriously dabbling in art at home. Add to that, the mountain of artwork he will collect over the next few years from school projects, holiday crafts projects and others, and you have a logistical nightmare.

So how, and where do your display little Picasso’s masterpieces? Here are a few places to set up an impromptu art gallery.

Bulletin Board

Use a bulletin board displayed at a prominent space in the house to display artwork, and update regularly. Getting rid of old artwork (after a few months, you’ll have a sizeable collection of masterpieces that’s he’s created at home, plus dozens of school projects that his teacher will send home with him) will be impossible, so set aside an acid proof box (available at stationery stores) to store pictures once they step off their exalted status on the board.

Avoid using pins, especially if the board is low enough for a child to reach up and remove them. Use staples instead.

Wall Gallery

This isn’t every parent’s favorite way to display pictures because they can damage paint. Try using gift wrapping bows to attach pictures to the wall. They don’t damage the paint as much.

Besides, the colorful and shiny bows add a special accent to the artwork.

Or, frame the pictures and hang them on an entire section of a wall or entranceway, so every one who enters can have a look at them.

Refrigerator Gallery

Stock up on refrigerator magnets, and use them to turn your refrigerator into a gallery. This is an inexpensive and non messy way of putting artwork up, and is easy enough for your child to do it himself.

Clothesline Gallery

Hammer in a couple of nails about 6 feet apart on your child’s bedroom wall, or a passageway, and tie a clothesline to each nail. Use clothespins to hold up artwork. You can create two rows of lines, and push pictures back when they are older, using the front row for the new ones.

Door Gallery

Cover the back of your child’s bedroom door in colored paper chart paper, and staple or stick artwork on it.

Frame Gallery

Buy one of those large inexpensive poster sized box frames, and use them to hold multiple pictures. You can have more than one such frame displayed in the living room, dining area, and another in his bedroom.

If you have more than one preschooler in the house, have separate frames for each child.

Let your child create his own personalized New Year’s cards this year.

You’ll Need:

Thick card stock sheet

Different colors of paint

Pencils with erasers at one end

Small sized containers to hold the paints

Prints of your favorite picture of your child

What You Can Do:

Cut the card stock into separate pieces depending on the size you want the card to be. Fold each piece into two.

Then, use a paper cutter to cut out a 3 ½ “ x 3 ½ “ square at the top of the card. You might want to change the size of the cut out depending on the size of your picture.

What Your Child Can Do:

Dip the eraser end of the pencil into the paint, and press against the card to create a little polka dot.

Continue doing this one color at a time, until the front and back of the card are covered in little colorful dots.

Remember to leave the top half of the card front untouched.

Open the card and stick the picture using cello tape, so the picture is visible from the outside.

If your child is able to write alphabets, make her write a message to the person receiving the card.

Remember to help your child mark these gifts with his name as the sender. These are his own personalized greeting cards, and will make him feel all grown up!

This is an easy gift to make. All you’ll need are fairly large sized rocks, preferably ones that are large enough to hold in the palm of the hand. Smooth rocks are preferable, the kind you find on the beach are perfect.

Wash each rock, and dry. Ask your preschooler to use poster paints to draw a face or smiley on the rock. Once the artwork is complete, dry the rock thoroughly. Cut out a piece of felt or velvet cloth and stick to the bottom of the paper weight with glue. Voila! You have a paperweight that’s good enough to gift!

Now that the holiday season is here, it’s a great way to introduce your child to the joy of gifting presents that are wrapped in lovely paper they made on their own. These wrapping paper ideas are easy and fun to create, and inexpensive to boot! Plus, they are simple enough for a 3 year old to try.

Before beginning any of these, spread out a large plastic sheet on a work table or on the floor. If possible, create a space for the project outside the house. Make sure he’s dressed up in something comfortable, but old – finger painting can be messy!

Finger Painting Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• White or colored paper
• Non toxic paint

Method

Give your child several colors of finger paint. Allow him to be creative with his fingers. Try using a theme for different papers – shapes, stars, etc.

Once he’s done with each paper, hang it up to dry on a clothesline or wire, and secure with pins.

Fireworks Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• White or colored paper
• Non toxic water colors
• Some drinking straws

Method

Spread out the paper and ask your child to pour small gobs of paint randomly across the paper. Let him then use a straw to blow air over the paint so it spreads in uneven directions. This creates a firework effect.

Tip

Use sharply contrasting surface and paint combos for a truly spectacular effect. Try a pale colored paper with dark paint or a dark colored paper with white or pale pink color.

Use gold glitter paint to outline the fireworks.

Sponge Painting Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• Different colors of poster paints
• Sponges cut in various shapes (circles, triangles, stars etc.)

Bowls for mixing color

Method

Pour colors into separate bowls. Let your 3 year old dip each sponge shape in the color and press it on the paper. As always, dry each paper on a wire.

Tip

Try cutting out different animal or bird shapes. Fish are easy to draw and cut out, and so are numerals, party hats and so on.

Wrapping gifts for their grandparents and other relatives with paper that they painted and created themselves makes children feel proud enough to burst! Make sure you inform the gift recipient about the hard work gone into their wrapping paper, and encourage them to make a fuss over the effort!

You know what it’s like. You’re putting the finishing touches to dinner, or just settling down to watch Oprah, and your preschooler just won’t settle down. There’s a way to get around this. Set up a simple Crafts Kit that contains all the materials he needs to keep himself pre occupied for a couple of hours.

It doesn’t take long to put together, it’s cheap and best of all you don’t have to spend 30 minutes collecting crayons, tearing off sheets of drawing paper and getting him all set up at a worktable. With a kit that’s stocked and ready to go, all you have to do is haul it out when your angel needs to get his hands dirty!

A Crafts Kit doesn’t have to be elaborate. A simple cardboard box will do just fine. Or you could use one of those large plastic containers that are available at home improvement stores. Really in a pinch? Just grab your laundry hamper, and begin throwing stuff in there!

Here’s what your Crafts Kit should include:

• Crayons
• White chart paper
• Colored chart paper (yellow, pink, pastel blue and green)
• Black paper
• White paper
• Gray paper
• Pencils
• Poster board
• Pair of scissors
• A bowl for mixing
• Non toxic washable markers
• Glue
• Chalk in various colors
• Modeling clay
• Non toxic water colors
• Paintbrush (medium and small sized)
• Stick for mixing
• Hand wipes
• Large plastic sheet to cover the work area
• A smock or loose comfortable shirt (for your little artist)
• Poster paints
• A box of glitter
• Glitter paint
• Cellophane
• A hole punch machine
• Small sponge
• A roll of thread

Keep your Crafts Kit somewhere high up on a shelf or locked in a closet, so he can’t get to work on his own when you’re not around. When in need, just drag the box out, settle him down on the floor or work table and enjoy an hour or so of peace and quiet!