February is here and you know what that means… Valentine’s Day is around the corner! In honor of the upcoming holiday, I recently showed my son how to create fun “Love Bug” Valentines.
It’s something a little different than plain store-bought cards. This was actually one of my favorite crafts growing up that my mom made with my siblings and I. It’s a great way to show your valentine some DIY love with a heartfelt message!
Best part? It’s SUPER EASY to create and lots of fun. Supplies are simple. All you need is your choice of color construction paper, toilet paper roll, scissors, glue, tape, and markets / crayons, or whatever artistic instrument you would like to use to create designs on your Bug.
Love Bug Tutorial
First you want to pick your color for the “body” of the Love Bug. This will wrap around the toilet paper roll. I’d measure out first how much paper you need to cover the entire roll. Once you’ve cut the paper out, cover one side with glue.
Place the roll on the glue covered paper and proceed to roll it so that the entire paper roll is covered with the construction paper. You may need to secure the ends with tape so the construction paper does not unroll.
Once that is done, use the bottom of the roll to trace the size of a head for the Love Bug. Be sure that you or your child draw a funny face! Give your Love Bug a playful personality.
Cut the head out with scissors but make sure you cut out a neck as well. This will adhere to the inside of the roll as seen in the below photo. Feel free to cut out antennas as well! Glue or tape them to the back of your Love Bug’s head.
Now that the body is done, it is time to work on the wings aka the Valentine part of the Love Bug. Take a piece of construction paper and fold it in half short ways.
Draw a half of heart so that the center of the heart would be the folded edge. You can see how to do so in the image below.
Take your scissors and cut along the line you’ve drawn. After you are done, you should have a heart! There will be a concave and convex side.
On the concave side of the heart, write you message to your valentine. Be creative! You should have plenty of room to write a heartwarming message, or a simple “I Love You.”
On the convex side, decorate your heart to… well… your own heart’s desire! Dots, lines, swirls, shapes… you can draw and color whatever you wish! My son and I collaborated on the design below together.
Okay now you want to place tape or glue along the body of the Love Bug, on the opposite side that you attached the head. I highly recommend using tape as seen in the photo below over attempting to use glue.
Attached the convex side of the “wings” to the Love Bug’s body. This way the concave side, with your Valentine message, is facing outward.
Once the wings are attached… PRESTO! You’re done! See how easy and simple that was?
My son enjoyed making the Love Bug and wanted to do one of his own to give to me. Of course he chose HIS favorite colors or orange and yellow. That is what is so great about this project. Of course making a Love Bug is cute for Valentine’s Day… but honestly you can make these Bugs any time of year for any occasion!
Want to check out other Valentine’s Day crafts?
Heart Tree Craft for Kids ~ Nifty Mom
Valentine’s Day Bookmark Craft ~ Random Mommy
Stay tune as I’m adding more Valentine’s Day crafts to this list…
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Super cute! I am going to do this with the boys next week! They will love it!
Those are adorable! My girls would have a lot of fun with this craft. Especially, my youngest :)