The Southwest Blend Magazine guide to St. Valentine's Day crafts for children.

St. Valentine's Day Crafts
Valentine's Day History
Valentine's Day Traditions 
 

Here are some easy and fun crafts for your children,
for Valentine's Day.
Heart Pancakes          Heart Seed Sprouter         
Valentine's Day Cards
Valentine's Day Angel Refrigerator Magnets        
 Glass Jar Keepsake

Heart  Pancakes

What You Need:
Pancake batter
Vegetable oil to grease pan
Metal heart shaped cookie cutter
Strawberry jam.
Follow instructions for pancake mix or make you own pancake batter as normal.
Heat oil in skillet and when a sprinkle of water bubbles, carefully place heart shaped cookie cutter (s) in the skillet.
Fill cookie cutters with batter and cook until the batter is firm enough to remove the cutter. Flip the heart shaped pancakes and cook until done.
Spread with strawberry jam and serve while warm.

Heart Seed Sprouter
What you need:
Plastic cookie cutter in shape of a heart
Chia or grass seeds
Sponge and a saucer
Plastic bag
Trace the heart shape around the cookie cutter, onto the sponge. Cut out the shape. Rinse the sponge well to be sure it is clean and let it dry. Slightly dampen the sponge and gently push it into the cookie cutter and place it in a saucer. Sprinkle the seed onto the sponge, mist lightly with water and put in the plastic bag. Place in a dark, warm cupboard for 2 days. Check for sprouting. Once the seed has sprouted, take the heart and saucer out of the plastic bad and place the saucer in filtered sunlight. Mist each day.

Valentine's Day Cards
What you will need:
Construction paper, red plus assorted colors
Scissors, pinking shears
Markers or crayons
Glue

Using the construction paper, cut out several sizes of hearts in different colors. For fancier edges, use pinking shears. Looking at the illustration to the right and using your imagination, glue the tips of the hearts to the largest heart shape--use the smaller shapes for lips and fins and the larger hearts for the body and tail.
Draw in the scales and eyes with your markers and crayons. You can write a "My Valentine" message on the back.

Valentine's Day Angel Refrigerator Magnets
What you need:
Construction paper in different papers, especially red, pink and white
Some different colors of yarn
3 popsicle sticks (or craft sticks) per magnet
Markers for illustration
Scissors, pinking shears
Rubber cement or any other relatively strong glue
Magnet backings
Wiggly eyes

Instructions: First cut a large heart out of red construction paper for the body of your Valentine Angel. Cut two smaller hearts out of white, for her wings (about half the size of the body)--use the pinking shearers for fancier wing edges. Cute a small circle out of pink for her head. Using the illustration to the right, use the large red heart upside down for the angels body. Glue the head to the pointed end of the body heart. Take one of the sticks and cut it in half. Glue each half close to the neck for arms. Cut another popsicle stick and half and glue to two ends to the bottom of the large heart for the angels legs. Glue the two white wings to the back of the large heart, behind the arms. Snip the yarn into small lengths to use for hair and glue to the pink head. Use your markers to draw shoes at the end of the stick legs, draw a face. You can either draw eyes, or glue small wiggly eyes on the head. Write your Valentine message on the body of the angel. Glue a magnet to the back of the angel. When dry, place gently on the refrigerator.

Glass Jar Keepsake
What you need:
Glass Jar, clean and dry--make sure you keep the lid.
Scissors
Old Magazines
Photos
Clear drying glue
Acrylic Craft Varnish or Decoupage Finish
Instructions: Let your children cut up some old photos you don't mind giving away, along with pictures they like from magazines you no longer wish to keep. Glue the pictures in any position (with pictures facing out) on the jar, covering the sides of the jar completely--but not so they interfere with the lid. This should make a nice decoupage look. Let the jar dry completely.  Paint on 2-3 coats of the Acrylic Craft Varnish, letting each coat dry completely before adding the next coat. None you have a pretty, personalized jar in which to keep buttons or any other item you wish to store.