DIY Handprint Valentine Crafts

An easy way to send love to your family during Valentine’s Day is by making handprint Valentine crafts. Here’s how to send a handmade gift of love!

Living far away from family is hard – especially when you have little ones who are growing bigger every day. It is easy to use your children’s hand and footprints to make special gifts for loved ones that last forever.

Annabelle helped me to make “Love” canvases for her Grandmas in 2014 for her first Valentine’s Day. Each Grandma still has their handmade gift on display in their bedrooms today. This year we are sending a little bit of handmade love from both Annabelle and Ailey with handmade Valentine’s Day crafts. I love that they will be able to see the change in our beautiful daughters’ hand sizes over the years.

 

Materials Needed for Handprint Valentines

Acrylic paint, brushes or sponges, canvas, baby wipes for easy clean-up.

Handprint Valentines are so easy to make. Paint your child’s hands with paint. Align your child’s thumb and pointer finger to touch in the air. Place their hands flat on the canvas.

Allow your child’s handprints to dry before turning the canvas upside down. Draw with pencil block letters “I” and “You,” then paint in the blocks with a small brush. If you cannot draw freehand, craft stores sell easy to use stencils!

For another easy handprint craft, reapply paint to your little one’s hands and let her cover the canvas in prints.

Use baby wipes to clean your hands in between steps!

NOTE: Allow the canvas to dry completely before painting a different color heart in the center of the handprints.

I painted the big pink heart in the center of the hand prints. If your crafter is a little more handy with a paintbrush, let them draw their own. Use a permanent marker to write your child’s name, age, and the year on the canvas.

Once the crafts are dry, you can pack them up in a bubble wrapped envelope. Don’t forget a card to go along with your gift! 

See more DIY handprint art crafts here. 

For little hands and feet, make a L-O-V-E canvas like the one above with the help of another adult. And Handprint Valentine can be difficult to make with a little baby!

It isn’t easy to work with squirmy hands and feet covered in red paint alone. When the girls were youngest I always had help making handprint and footprint crafts. Whichever handmade Valentine’s Day craft you decide to make, someone will surely love and cherish it forever.

Want to see how we use these Valentine’s Day crafts as decorations in our home? Check out this post: How to Decorate Your Home for Valentine’s Day!