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Straw-Blown Scented Valentine's Day Cards

Jan 26, 201312,083 views
Valentines Day
Valentine’s Day Cards : Scented Save
home made valentine's day cards Save
orange scented valentine's day cards Save
straw blown art with orange paint Save
straw blown painting with food colors Save
medicine dropper to drop food colors Save
valentine's day scented cards Save

by TurkeyMom in Valentines Day

Ages3–8 yrs
Prep20 min
Activity20 min
Leveleasy
MessMedium
Works for1:1 · Small group · Class

Kids drop scented food coloring inside a heart stencil and blow it around with a straw to make splashy patterns, then peel off the stencil to reveal a homemade Valentine's card.

⚠️ Safety first

  • Blow out only, never sip: show kids how to blow through the straw before starting, since a straw can pull the colored liquid into the mouth. The scented color mix is not a drink.
  • Give each child their own straw.
  • Food coloring can stain hands, clothes and tables. Cover the work surface and use smocks.
  • Lots of blowing can make little ones lightheaded. Let them take breaks.
  • Adult handles the scissors when cutting the heart stencils.

Before the kids arrive

  • Fold a sheet of white cardstock in half for each card.
  • Cut a heart shape out of regular white paper and remove the heart; keep the outer paper as the stencil.
  • Mix food coloring with matching Frosting Creations in small bowls, one per color.

Steps

  1. Glue the heart stencil gently onto the front of the folded card with a glue stick.

  2. Set out the bowl of scented color, a dropper and a straw.

  3. Use the dropper to place 2 small drops of color inside the heart.

  4. Hold the straw flat, parallel to the paper, and blow the drops across the heart.

  5. Keep turning the card as you blow to make cool patterns.

  6. Add more drops and colors until the heart is filled.

  7. Adult: gently peel off the stencil to reveal the heart.

  8. Trace around the heart with a marker or glitter glue, then add a message and names.

Tips

  • Hold the straw flat, parallel to the paper. That's the best way to create good patterns.from the author
  • Keep moving the card around while blowing. Big A was very pleased with how easy it was to blow around and make cool patterns.from the author
  • Use a glue stick only for the stencil. That's very important so the stencil is easy to remove.from the author
  • Watered-down paint was still too thick to create dramatic patterns. Food coloring makes a lighter liquid that's easy to blow around.from the author
  • Resist the temptation and don't use red when blow painting Valentine's hearts. The heart looks anatomically accurate and that's just creepy :)from the author
  • Plan ahead. Asking kids to make a card 1 hour before going to the party does not work in our household.from the author
  • Add a cheesy tagline like 'You blow my heart up with love.'from the author

Make it your own

  • Experiment with many colors and matching scents.
  • Trace the heart with glitter glue for sparkle.
  • Have older kids write the message inside for extra writing practice; younger ones can do mark making for their names.

The story behind it

By TurkeyMom · January 2013
Valentine’s Day Cards : Scented
Homemade Valentine's day cards are the best kind of cards to give, because they show the thought and effort the family put in to show their love.
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Straw-Blown Scented Valentine's Day Cards: the original post

Homemade Valentine’s day cards are the best kind of cards to give because they show the thought and effort the family put in to show their love to the receiver. If I plan ahead I can always find the right time to encourage the kids to create some homemade cards. Asking them to make a card 1 hour before going the party does not work ( in my household) That said we can’t expect the kids wanting to make cards for all the occasions. Some times we do buy cards from the store and have the kids draw a small picture and write their names( mark making for the younger one) on it. Making Valentine’s day cards was a great way to encourage the kids to express their creativity and imagination not to mention the oodles of opportunities to practice writing. .. So this week we will share three easy Valentine’s day cards ideas for kids. Today’s post is one such a Valentine card idea.

Straw Blown Scented Valentine’s day Card

valentine day ideas with heart cards I folded a white card stock paper in to half. On other regular white paper I cut out a heart shape and pulled out the piece. What’s left will become a stencil of sorts. I gently glued (glue stick only) on the card stock paper. To blow some color and create cool patterns on the card we initially tried the usual water downed paint. Paint was still thick to create dramatic patterns.But today we used food coloring to create a lighter liquid to blow around. Not just food coloring, I added some fragrance in the form of matching colored Frosting Creations. Food Color + Frosting Creations = Scented liquid creates wonderful patterns

valentine's day scented cards

So there, orange food color + orange Frosting Creations is our liquid which is going to be manipulated with a straw. Once the stencil is in place on the cardstock paper, Big A placed 2 small drops of the food coloring on the stencil and started blowing the drop using the straw into the heart.

medicine dropper to drop food colors She was very pleased that it was so easy to blow around and make cool patterns if we keep moving the card around.

straw blown art with orange paint We experimented with many colors. Best way to create good patterns to show the child to hold the straw flat.( parallel to the paper)

straw blown painting with food colors

Once she filled the card, I gently removed the stencil (( very important that you use a glue stick so that it is easy to remove the stencil) we were left with this.

orange scented valentine's day cards You can have your child trace the heart with a marker or glitter glue. I traced this one.

home made valentine's day cards That’s our orange scented homemade Valentine’s day card with a cheesy bonus love tagline. But hey, we were blow painting hearts so the song was stuck in my head.! Note: Resist the temptation and don’t use red when you are blow painting Valentine’s hearts. You know why? The heart looks anatomically accurate and that’s just creepy :)

More Valentine’s day activities on our category page. Check our a few sample posts below

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  1. Sugar Aunts · Feb 2013

    I love these ideas! Thank you for sharing. I would also LOVE to invite you to share on our weekly link up party at Share It Saturday. We have lots of creative learning, crafts, educational ideas and more submitted each week. Yours would fit right in! I hope to see you there :) Colleen at Sugar Aunts

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