DIY Valentine’s Day Construction Cards for Toddlers

Valentine’s Day cards! They are so much fun to give out and to receive. What’s even better is to have your toddler make their own Valentine’s Day cards to add their own personal touch to spread the love!

This is technically Remy’s second Valentine’s Day, but last year, he was so little for his official first one and he wasn’t in daycare yet. Now, he has lots of teachers and girlfriends to celebrate the day of love with, so it was time to have him make his own cards for each person! These DIY construction Valentine’s Day cards are super cute and sweet and they let your little one get “toe”-tally involved. ???? Plus, we were able to use some of Remy’s shaving cream art from last week that added such artistic character!

Materials:

-Toddler

-Non-toxic, washable paint in yellow

-Paintbrush

-Construction Paper

-Markers/Crayons

“Step” on it

The first “step” is to have your toddler make a footprint on each card. To prepare for this ahead of time, I cut each piece of pink construction paper into quarters in advance. That way, they would all be lined up when it was time for Remy to get to work and we wouldn’t be scrambling to get the next card while a toddler squirms around with wet paint on his foot. Once I had the paper cut in fours, I sat Remy down in his high chair and let him have fun painting his own artwork. This occupied him while his dad and I worked on getting his footprints on each card.

TIP: Use an empty egg carton for a paint pallet! You can reuse and toss when it gets to gunky.

Using a paintbrush or sponge, paint a thin layer of yellow paint onto the bottom of your toddler’s foot, then press firmly onto the piece of construction paper in a diagonal direction (as if the construction truck was climbing uphill). It doesn’t matter which foot you choose to use.

Set the painted piece of paper to the side to dry and move onto the next card. You’ll repaint the foot prior to stamping each card. Make as many cards as you like!

Express your artistic ability

Now that your little one’s hard work is done, it’s your turn! Once the painted cards are dry (they shouldn’t take more than an hour), it’s time to turn that footprint into a construction truck! Using a black marker, draw and fill in two circles for the wheels, two windows, and an exhaust pipe as shown below. It doesn’t have to be perfect, because come on, it’s still a tiny footprint LOL!

Then using a brown marker, draw the dirt with some texturizing lines. Color in the ground with the marker or crayon. Draw the bed of the truck on the side of the foot. Finally, draw and color in hearts in the back of the truck, either with one or multiple colors! I liked drawing some of the hearts falling off the truck to indicate that there is so much love to carry! ????

Personalize it

Finally, write “Sending you loads of love!” and sign your toddler’s name on each card! Personalize it by writing each person’s name. We used one of Remy’s shaving cream art creations from last week, cut out hearts, and wrote names on each one. We then glued it to the corner to make an interesting spin on the card!

These only took us about an hour or so to do and now we’re prepared for Valentine’s Day for Remy to give out these precious cards! We certainly hope each recipient LOVES them! What kind of cards have you made with your kids to give out on Valentine’s Day? I would love to see other wonderful ideas!