Easy Dollar Store Valentine’s Day Craft for Preschool
Here’s a great way to make a fun Valentine’s Day craft for little hands that you can find at the dollar store! Check out this fun Valentine’s Day picture frame that kids of all ages will love to decorate!
While at the Dollar Tree, we found this cute wooden heart shape picture frames that are great for painting! With February 14th coming up fast, we decided to make a few with my son for fun Valentine’s Day crafts.
This Valentines craft is easy enough even for toddlers or can be done by older kids. There’s so much room for creativity and imagination in this cute craft. Making this adorable craft is also a great way to make a Valentine’s Day gift for parents, grandparents, or teachers.
What You’ll Need
For this fun activity, all you need is some basic craft supplies that you may already have at home or can easily find at the local craft or dollar store. We found everything we needed at the Dollar Tree.
- White and red paint
- Paint brushes
- Heart cutout picture frame from the Dollar Tree
- OPTIONAL: Glitter
- Paint shirt or smock
At the Dollar Tree, they had a few wooden frames to choose from for Valentine’s Day. And craft stores usually carry wooden frames all year long, so choose any frame that works for you.
When it comes to choosing paint, we always use washable instead of acrylic paint, so there’s an easy way to clean everything up, especially little hands. You should expect little kids to make a mess with paint, so plan ahead.
NOTE: We rarely, if ever, use glitter in our projects with little kids because of the huge mess. But for a few simple crafts, we choose to add some glitter like this frame in order to make them a little more festive. Totally up to you!
Tips for the Mess
Here’s a few ways to minimize the mess while painting with young children. First, paint outside if the weather permits. If not, grab a few plastic table clothes from the dollar store to put down for painting that you can just throw away after.
Next, assume paint will get on their clothes, so have a paint shirt or smock. We dress my son in just an old over-sized t-shirt with no pants.
And lastly, only give them a little paint at a time. We keep adding to the paint as we go, otherwise my son will try to use it all at once.
Cute Heart Frame for Valentine’s Day
The first step in this easy craft is to mix your paint! We make a point to mix white and red paint to make different shades of pink and red. My son has as much fun mixing the paint as he does doing the actual painting.
Next, start the painting! There’s not one right way to paint this frame, so let your child’s creativity run wild! And honestly, you don’t even need to use paint brushes.
For my son and most other two year olds, this will quickly turn into a finger painting project. But that’s developmentally normal and an awesome form of messy play! Messy play can seem intimidating for parents, however it’s great for children’s fine motor skills, cognitive development, and imagination.
Optional Step: Add the Glitter
We definitely understand if you skip the glitter (we usually do!). If you chose to add the glitter, pour or sprinkle some on the frame while the paint is still wet.
This time around, we let my son help pour the container of glitter. However, we didn’t let him get his hands in it. With someone so little, that’s a wonderful way to have glitter all over the house.
Add a Photo
Lastly, once the frame has completely dried, add a sweet photo to your frame! If you’re making it as a gift for someone, add in a photo specially for them. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day then with a photo of someone you love!
You can attach your photo with hot glue or tape if it doesn’t come with any backing on the frame like ours. When we tried a glue stick, the picture fell off.
Benefits of Painting for Young Children
A lot of parents and teachers shy away from paint because of the potential mess, but painting is great for children. And there’s so many adorable Valentine’s Day crafts you can make with a little paint!
You can turn this project into a whole painting activity by using other things to paint with besides brushes. Read about all our favorites here.
Painting not only encourages creativity and imagination by allowing children to express themselves, it also builds fine motor skills and coordination. No matter the tools they use to paint, children are strengthening the small muscles of their wrist, hands, and fingers.
Enjoying the Painting Process
This fun preschool Valentine craft is less about the finished product (although they turn out pretty cute!) and more about the process. Process art, such as this, is the best way to do preschool crafts. And there’s really no way to mess them up!
We find the best ideas for craft projects with young kids are the ones that don’t have hard set directions, but the ones that allow them to decide. These creative crafts also tend to hold their attention and interest more.
Without the pressure for a project to ‘look right’, there’s less stress on parents and teachers, and the children have a great time!
More Easy Heart Crafts
Looking for even more Valentine’s Day craft ideas to try with kindergartners, preschoolers and toddlers? Try our favorite Valentine craft projects for little ones here!
Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin
This simple activity is a child favorite on Valentine’s Day! Create our simple heart themed sensory bin with supplies we also found at the dollar store. You can find the full instructions here.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
