Easy and Fun Valentine’s Day Painting for Kids
Looking for a fun and adorable Valentine’s Day painting idea that kids of all ages will love? This Valentines painting is so much fun for everyone! Older kids, preschoolers, and even toddlers can make this simple craft. February 14th is right around the corner, and this heart painting takes very little prep.
So many Valentine’s Day crafts are just too complicated for younger kids, especially toddlers. But this fun idea is a great way to include even the youngest kids because there’s really no way to mess it up. Even two year olds like my son can do this easy peasy craft!
This heart art project would also make a great gift idea for Mother’s Day or if you need crafts for lessons on the heart shape.
What You’ll Need
If you already do crafts with young kids at home, you may have everything you need. Otherwise, head to the craft store or dollar store for the few craft supplies you’ll need.
- Red and white washable paint
- Paint brushes
- White canvas
- Heart stickers of different sizes (we like to use the foam ones for this)
- Paint shirt or smock
Note: At our house, paint brushes are always optional. My son is still pretty young and loves to use his hands to paint. Or you can turn the painting into a whole painting activity with other items to build fine motor skills.
You can also do this craft of construction paper to turn into homemade valentines! Just be sure to choose thick paper (like card stock!) to hold the paint, and choose stickers that don’t stick to paper as well like these chunky, foam ones.
Valentine’s Day Painting
This craft idea is great for any age child, but you can tailor it to your child. The fun part is the painting, so feel free to paint according to your child’s interest and development level. There’s no one right way to do it!
The most important thing about this activity is not the end result, but going through the process of making the painting. Check out all the benefits of process art here.
Setting Up the Painting
First, you’ll want to randomly place the heart stickers onto the white canvas. You can have your child do this part, too. Just make sure the stickers are flat and firmly placed on the canvas.
Depending on the age of your child, they may be able to do this step entirely by themselves. My son is two and a half, and still needed help.
Painting the Canvas
Next, comes the painting! First, we always talk about colors. And on a special occasion like a holiday, we talk about the specific holiday colors.
For, Valentine’s Day, we always talk about red and white first. Have them point of other Valentine’s Day decorations that are red and white.
Mixing the Paint
Then, we make a big point of mixing the white and red paint to make pink! To make pink, add a drop of red paint to a much larger amount of white paint. You can always buy pink paint if you want instead.
The final colors of paint are up to you! If you have little kids, encourage them to mix the paint themselves, too.
Painting the Fun Way
The best part of this project is that children can paint the canvas however they want, and this easy project will still turn out great! If your child is like my son and prefers finger paintings, they don’t even have to use paint brushes.
The only ‘goal’ we try to accomplish with my son is to paint over and around all the stickers. He doesn’t need to fill the whole canvas, even though he inevitably does because we can’t pull him any from the paint.
You can also turn this into a handprint craft! If you want to only do handprints with your child, we recommend having two canvas next to each other-one for handprints and one for free painting. This way you can help them make a hand print, and, then, children can still paint the second canvas as much as they want.
Finishing the Project
Once your child is done painting, pull off the stickers. If you let your canvas dry completely, the stickers can sometimes get stuck in the paint.
Don’t worry if you smudge the paint while removing the stickers. If you do, touch up that spot yourself. And even if the stickers don’t come off perfectly or the paint bleeds a little bit, the project will still look cute!
Benefits of Painting
Breaking out the paint for young children can be intimidating for parents or teachers, but there’s tons of benefits to the children! Painting is an easy way to incorporate messy play into any holiday or every day activity. Messy play has numerous benefits for development you can read about here.
The first time bringing out the paint will for sure be a mess, so start small. But, over time, the more children are exposed to paint, the better they get at containing the mess. But this is why we always use washable paint with children.
Painting also encourages creativity, imagination, and cognitive development in young children. This is the perfect opportunity to express themselves in a fun way.
Looking for Another Fun Activity on Valentine’s Day?
Try our dollar store Valentine’s Day sensory bin! Super easy and inexpensive to make, this sensory bin is a lot of fun and great for fine motor skills! Check it out here.
More Valentine’s Craft Ideas
Here’s another one of our favorite crafts that also makes wonderful Valentine’s Day gifts for parents, grandparents, or teachers with a personal touch! And, like more of our craft ideas, you can get all your supplies at the dollar store! Check it out here.
