Easy Heart Crafts for Preschoolers

Paper doily heart crafts are a traditional favorite for Valentine's Day. My granddaughter made this sweet laced doily heart craft for me when she was 2 years old. 

Laced Doily Heart Craft Materials and Tools

• White or Pink Heart Shaped Paper Doilies
• Red or pink card stock or construction paper
• Glitter, sequins or small paper cutout shapes: hearts, stars, flowers
• Yarn or thin ribbon
• Paper punch - single, hand held puncher
• Child safe scissors
• Craft Glue or Glue Stick

Simple Doily Heart Craft or Ornament

The heart craft pictured above is a simplified version of this heart craft project. Toddlers will need help with punching holes and lacing; you can prepare the punched lacing holes ahead of time for very young crafters.

1. Punch a series of evenly spaced lacing holes through the heart shaped doily, along the edge of the solid center part of the doily as shown. 
2. Lace yarn or ribbon through the holes then tie ends in a bow on the front. 
3. Decorate the white space inside the laced heart area with paper shapes, stickers, glitter and sequins.

Laced Doily Heart Craft Card

This version requires a bit more work and involves use of scissors and glue plus measuring and punching holes.

1. Glue a paper heart doily to a piece of card stock, then trim around the heart shape leaving a border about 1 inch wide all the way around. 
2. Mark a guide line lightly on the card stock midway between edge of the card and edge of doily heart shape. Mark a series of evenly spaced dots along the heart shaped line about an inch apart, then punch holes through the card stock on the dots. 
3. Have children lace yarn or ribbon through the holes, starting at the top of the heart and working all the way around. Tie ends together in a bow on the front, or a hanger loop on the back.

Using glue or a glue stick, decorate the inner part of the doily heart with glitter, sequins, cutouts or stickers. Older children might enjoy cutting out their own small paper shapes to decorate the heart.

 I made these cute heart craft ornaments with my toddler granddaughter for Valentine's Day. We used recycled materials to make our tissue paper hearts: leftover gift wrap tissue from Christmas, cereal box cardboard, and scraps of embroidery floss

With just a little bit of help from you, a two year old can craft this easy heart paper craft ornament for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. You might even want to craft these tissue paper heart ornaments for Earth Day - they're a green craft, made from recycled materials: cereal boxes, strings and gift wrap tissue.

Find more free crafts for kids at Pastiche Family Portal - http://parenting.leehansen.com

Tissue Paper Heart Craft Materials

• Recycled light weight cardboard from clean food cartons (cereal, cookie or pasta boxes)
• New or used gift wrap tissue paper 
• Masking tape
• White kid-safe paint
• 1 inch paint brush
• Yarn, ribbon or string
• Glitter glue

Tissue Heart Craft Ornaments Instructions

1. Cut out simple cardboard heart shapes about 3" to 5" tall from the cardboard cartons. Make as many hearts as you'd like ornaments, in varying or same sizes. 
2. Tear the colored tissue paper into bits about 1 inch square. Allow about a handful of tissue bits for each heart. 
3. Cut a 12-inch length of string, ribbon or yarn. Fold in half to create a loop and use masking tape to secure the ends to the blank cardboard side (unprinted side) of each heart.
4. Spread a coat of white (or pink, or red) paint on the printed side of each cardboard heart.
5. While the paint is still wet, press random tissue paper bits onto a heart. Don't press down too much, just enough to make the tissue stick to the cardboard heart. The paint will act as glue. Cover the entire heart with tissue bits then set aside to dry for a few hours or overnight.
6. After the tissue covered hearts are dry, squiggle on some swirls of glitter glue over each heart. At this point you can add a few more bits of tissue paper or sprinkle on some extra glitter.
7. Allow hearts to dry again (we let ours dry overnight), then hang them in the window or on a door knob.

Hearts Suncatchers Materials and Tools

• Clear or frosted contact paper
• Decor Bits: Torn or cut tissue paper, paper punch scraps, sequins, floss or thread, pressed flowers or leaves - pieces should be 1 inch in size or smaller for best results.
• Ribbon or String
• Scissors

Cut a piece of contact paper about 10 inches square.

Remove backing paper and fasten contact paper to work surface with sticky side up.

Arrange decor bits in a single layer with some slight overlapping on the contact paper.

Stick a second sheet of contact paper on top of the arrangement to create a sandwich with the decorative bits inside the contact paper sheets.

Cut out heart shapes  from the finished contact paper sandwich. You can use heart shaped cardboard templates or cookie cutters, or cut your designs free hand. Punch a hole near the top, or use tape to attach a piece of yarn than hang your suncatcher hearts in a window.

Alternate method: Don't cut the contact paper sandwich arrangement into a heart. Instead, cut out a shape from a piece of card stock to create a shaped mat and attach the sheet to the back of the mat, then stand or hang the framed suncatcher in the window.

Mother's Day Printables - free printable Mother's Day cards, iron on transfers, bookmarks and gift coupons.

Mother's Day Crafts for Kids - a resource shopping list at Amazon, my favorite place to find bargain books and crafts for kids.

Mothers Day Crafts (Craftbooks) - A creative crafts for Mother's Day book.

Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts: 225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations - Martha's crafts never disappoint. Get your young crafters into the Martha habit with these handmade crafts for year round fun.

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com