We don't usually send Valentine's Day cards, but it feels like this year is a good year to take advantage of any opportunity, however small, to celebrate and spread a little love. We made 16 cards to send to family and friends, knowing that it'll brighten up the day of elderly relatives shielding at home, and little friends unable to meet us in person right now.
As always, with these types of activities, I tend to set them up while Bean is absorbed in play elsewhere and wait for her to discover them in her own time. With art invitations I'm quite intentional about setting up enough 'stations' and supplies for us to create together. We both love arts and crafts, and it has become a special way for us to enjoy our time together.
You will need:
Two sheets of A3 white sugar paper/card
Four sheets of A3 red card (cut into 16 A5 pieces, then folded to make 16 A6 cards)
Ready mixed paints in shades of red, pink and purple, plus white and gold (we used acrylics)
Paint brushes
Glue
A jar of water, paint palette, paper towel
These supplies will make 16 x A6 cards
Optional extras: mark making supplies, stickers, washi tape, collage materials, glitter
We started by mixing lots and lots of different shades of red, pink and purple in our mixing palette. Bean loves mixing paint, and has become quite skilled at it with so much practice. The paint brushes come in handy for mixing. It can also be helpful to have other ready mixed paint colours on hand for fine tuning shades. Bean added blue, for example, to create some rich, dark purples, and orange to create shades of coral.
Use the paintbrush to apply the paint to your round sponge stampers, or stick your stampers straight in the paint. Cover your paper by stamping different shades of colour using different sized round stampers, until your page is completely covered.
We then added some small gold circles with the smallest stamper. Leave to dry.
Once dry, I folded and cut each painting into 8 equal pieces. Then I glued each painting onto the front of a card, stacking them under a pile of heavy books overnight to dry.
The cards look beautiful just like this, so it's fine for you to stop there if you want to. You can write them and send them just as they are. We decided to have a second phase of creating and decorating with ours. I put together a tray of stickers, washi tape and collage materials, and presented them to Bean along with our mark making supplies.
Bean then got busy customising each card for its recipient. I love that she has thought carefully about each of the important people in her life, and designed a card that she thinks they will like. Dog stickers for a friend with a new puppy, unicorns and dragons for another friend.
While Bean worked on her cards, I got busy making some sweet little window hearts to pop inside the cards as a gift. I found the tutorial for these in the story highlights on Myriad Natural Toys Instagram page.
Have you been making Valentine's Day cards? How do you plan to celebrate on Sunday? I went a bit overboard on gifts for Bean when I was last in the supermarket, and have ordered a special Afternoon Tea box from a local baker. Little treats are definitely helping us to pass these relentless days of isolation at home. I hope you have a lovely day, however you choose to spend it.
If you would like some more process art inspiration, why not download my 31 Days of Process Art digital guide? It includes instructions for 31 simple, fun, low cost, low waste, open ended and child led process art invitations.
With love
Rowan x
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