It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, and kids love to make mum & dad or their grandparents a crafty valentines gift or card. Here are four easy ideas, all inspired by the garden to kitchen for you to try out with the kids at home.
Drying Petals for Valentine Cards
Drying flowers, petal and leaves is rarely seen these days. The difference is that now the choice of flowers is really something spectacular to behold and is a far cry from the rose petals and daisies we were used to drying.
You will need:
· A collection of your favourite petals and flower heads from the garden
· Some heavy books
· Some blotting paper
Place the petals and flowers between two sheets of paper and flatten them between two weights of your choice (books are good). It should take between one to two weeks for the plants to dry out fully but make sure they’re not too brittle or they’ll fall apart. Create a design on card or paper with the dried materials — maybe in the shape of a heart or a bunch of flowers. You’ll be amazed at how well they’ll be received!
Stone Painting Gifts
Secret love messages can be written, pictures drawn or just random displays of art created to show someone you care.
You will need:
· A collection of stones of any shapes and size
· Paint of varying colours
· Outdoor varnish (optional)
· Paint brushes
Clean, dry and paint the stones in Valentine’s inspired design. Leave to dry in the sunshine and varnish if you like. Instead of paint, younger children can use pencils or markers. Nail polish works well too, but with adult supervision!
Plant the Seeds of Love
Create a card for your loved one with any design or picture on the front (even using the dried flowers from above) and give a seed inside the card attached to a piece of decorated, labelled cardboard, this will grow into a beautiful flower or plant and what better way to show someone you love them!
You will need:
· A packet of seeds – most supermarkets have them. Choose what you would like to give. To keep with the love theme you could choose roses, sunflowers or even chillies or tomatoes.
· Three x 10cm cardboard strips, cut to a point and decorated as desired
· A non-toxic water soluble glue (to prevent the seed from being smothered and allow it to breathe and germinate when planted)
· A little card giving growing instructions
Carefully remove the seeds from the packet and place two or three on each piece of card. Using a non-toxic water soluble glue, stick the seeds to the card at the bottom of the strip. Get the kids to write a really brief list of instructions on how to grow the seeds, such as:
· Plant me in well-draining soil so that the cardboard is about 4cm above the top
· Water me
· Put me in the sunshine
· Watch me grow!
Sweet Heart Cookies
How about baking the one you love some sweet heart cookies decorated with love.
You will need:
· All purpose flour
· Granulated sugar
· 1 stick of butter
· Heart shape cookie cutters
· Coloured icing for decorating
· Sprinkles, sugar hearts, sugar balls for decorating
Make your basic pastry dough by sifting your flour to remove any lumps, add the sugar and butter and crack your eggs into the mixture, fold everything together until you form a soft dough.
Roll out your dough with a rolling pin onto a floured board or table (so the dough doesn’t stick add a little flour to your rolling pin too!) Cut out your heart shapes and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees oven for 20 minutes.
Then you can have fun by decorating them any way you like, try lots of different colours, add sprinkles, names and messages.
