Valentine’s Day crafts—and cookies

As far as kids are concerned, Valentine’s Day is for spreading the love far and wide. Instead of focusing on a special someone, they enjoy giving cards to everyone they know. (With a little emphasis on a few special someones, like their parents.) Grandparents can encourage the grandchildren’s profligate affection by helping them make and deliver Valentine’s cards—and maybe decorated Valentine’s cookies, too. 

The way I’ve always approached Valentine’s card making is to buy supplies and then let imagination rule—as opposed to having a particular design in mind. Typically, I set out some subset of the following:

• Construction paper in Valentine’s colors (pink, white, and red)

• Card stock, especially in Valentine’s colors

• Tissue paper in assorted colors

• Something to inspire creativity—paper in other colors, multicolored paper, new or used wrapping paper, confetti, googly eyes, etc.

• Doilies

• Silver or gold glitter pens or metallic gel pens (kids love writing shiny messages!)

• Stickers (hearts, of course—and/or butterflies, flowers, etc.)

• Colored markers

• Glitter, if you dare 

• Scissors (safety scissors for the little ones)

• Glue

• Various sizes of envelopes (including large manila envelopes) for mailing

• Stamps for mailing

Very often, a stock of supplies like this is enough—the kids (and you) will have plenty of ideas for cute and loving cards. But you can always add a technique or two! For example, older kids might enjoy making pop-up cards like this. The linked instructions come recommended by my sister, Sarah Comfort, who has a lot of experience with projects, having long taught art in elementary and middle school. She likes the linked video because it, “shows clearly where to glue so you don’t glue the card shut or have glue everywhere.” That and it requires “no measuring or complicated instructions, and it only shows plain paper, leaving the rest up to the child.” She does recommend that an adult make a heart stencil as a starter—she has found that freeform cutting , as shown in the video, often frustrates kids.

Once your completed cards have dried as necessary (all that glue), the kids can hand them out in person, or mail them. Mailing cards to long-distance grandparents or to the child’s aunts and uncles makes for great connections. And mailing cards to the child’s parents is a lot of fun!

And then cookies! I recommend the sugar cookies, in plain or chocolate, from the Nora Cooks website. These happen to be vegan, for those who appreciate that, but the more widely shared reason these recipes are terrific is that the dough is super-easy to mix, roll out, and cut. That and the cookies are delicious! The site has helpful tips for every step, too, from choosing ingredients to decorating. Heart-shaped cookie cutters aren’t absolutely needed—you can cut hearts freehand or use other shapes. But in case you want to procure some, here’s an option with multiple size hearts (I haven’t ordered these, but I’ve had good luck with the Webstaurant website in the past). 

I have to add, too—when you’re choosing what food coloring, sprinkles, etc., to use for decorating the cookies, be aware that commonly used food dyes—especially Red Dye No. 3, ubiquitous in Valentine’s colorings—have been found to be carcinogenic. Some brands, like the Watkins brand, make sprinkles and dyes with vegetable coloring.  They aren’t as vividly colored as what we’re now used to, but I know from experience that the kids don’t care. (Further note: Some Watkins products contain Red Dye #3! Label reading needed.)

So Happy Valentine’s Day to all readers! I hope you can enjoy spending an afternoon card and/or cookie making with your grandchild(ren). It’ll give you a lot to share with them—and a lot to share with others.