Free Printable: SuperHero Valentine

The upcoming Valentine’s Day is a sweet opportunity to create themed decorations and plot how to deliver secret Valentines. Include kids in the preparations and whether you’re getting ready for a classroom party dessert table or a small family celebration, you’ll have industrious helpers that are as happy about the process as they are for a Valentine event. This free, printable Valentine is a good starting point to spread the love! It can be used as is or it can be embellished by eager artists. Ready to explore some more options?

>>> Click here to download these free valentine printables in a PDF format. <<<<

Before you begin creating Valentine cards, help your kids decide how many people will be receiving their messages of friendship and love. If time and attention spans allow, go beyond the usual list of best friends; everyone likes to know they are cared about! Siblings, grandparents, a lonely neighbor or that favorite checkout person at the grocery store might be included on the list of recipients.

Some kids will know just what they want to make but it’s often helpful to have ideas to suggest. Letting younger children embellish a stack of hearts that you’ve already cut out can be a good starting point, too.

Children don’t need an elaborate studio to create but a well-stocked craft station excites imaginations. Older kids can handle some tools the younger set isn’t ready for, so of course target your audience. Scrapbook papers, cardstock, crayons, markers, paint, feathers, glitter, lace, ribbons, buttons, google eyes…on and on the list can go!

In addition to making Valentines to share, craft decorations too. String hearts on ribbons to hang from the ceiling. Make heart garlands to crisscross a room. Windows, doors, photographs and tabletops need to be embellished for the occasion!

Here are a just a few ideas that can benefit from Valentine fever:
-Decorate (and eat!) heart cookies.
-Create a heart mobile.
-Design silly animals or monsters with only heart shapes.
-Make heart shaped bird treats.
-Use melted crayons or tissue paper for heart sun catchers.
-Hand/footprint art hearts are great keepsakes.
-Make heart wreaths.
-Create homemade play-dough hearts.
-Cut a paper chain of hearts.
-Make heart magnets (using paper, Sculpey, Shrinky Dinks, etc.)

From creating special cards to making any one of the many heart inspired projects, there are lots of fun ideas for crafting with the Valentine theme. Making heartfelt memories with your kids might be the best Valentine project of all!

Stephanie Keeping is a wife to Mike, a mom to a boy named Sam and an Etsy-prenuer. She celebrates boyish charm at Spaceships and Laser Beams, where she talks about all things boy and birthday party.

If you want to feel personally attacked by a collection of knitting and crochet patterns as I was, check out the “90s Mod Inspired” pattern lookbook from Yarnspirations.

It’s actually a great collection of patterns for folks who want to stitch up that Y2K look again (or for the first time). There’s an oversized, striped grandpa cardigan! A (crocheted) plaid messenger bag! A boxy argyle vest, and a rolled hem sweater the likes of which I bought in a store in the ’90s and knit a replica of later.

There’s also a section of “Prep School” patterns (think “Clueless,” they’re even called things like “As if” and “Betty”) including a granny square tie and crocheted wrap skirt, and a knit cabled pullover, beret and cardigan with blocky stripes. Other sections include casual collegiate, punk and mod, and academia.

Some of the patterns repeat among the sections but there’s a nice selection for people who want a little throwback for their back to school and fall wardrobes.

Since I had this sweater, we’ll take a closer look at the Caron Cropped Stripy Sweater. The one I knit from a pattern of my own devising in the mid ’00s was tonal blues, but this one calls for two colorways of Colorama Haze, a fuzzy self-striping worsted weight yarn.

The pattern comes in six sizes, with chest measurements ranging from 39 to 60 inches (that’s 99 to 152.5 cm). Clearly that’s a lot of ease at the lower sizes, since the smallest size is meant to fit an actual chest measurement from 28-34 inches, or 71-86.5 cm.

The sweater is a modified drop shoulder worked flat in pieces and seamed. That means the stripes probably won’t match around the body but it’s still a classic look. This one does have ribbing at the neckline, where the original sweater I owned and my re-creation had rolled hems throughout, but you can do it either way depending on your preference.

Do any of these projects remind you of clothes you might have worn or knit in the past? I’d love to hear about it!

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