Craft: Foamies Valentine's Day Cards

Foamies have become very popular during the past couple of years. You can find them in all shapes and sizes and for almost every holiday. They are great for children's craft projects, but anyone can use them to make easy, creative greeting cards. I found a big tub of Valentine's Day foamies at Walmart for just a couple of dollars, so I decided to try my hand at making homemade Valentine's Day cards with them.

This Valentine's Day project is a great activity to do with your kids. Children as young as toddlers can stick the foamies on the cards after you have done the initial cutting and gluing. Preschoolers can even help with that part. While I was getting the cards ready to put together, I gave my toddlers some blank paper and a handful of heart-shaped foamies, and they had a great time sticking them all over their pieces of paper.

I came up with four different designs for my Valentine's Day cards. The materials listed below will make one of each of the four cards.

Materials

• Four pieces of red card stock
• One piece of white card stock
• Valentine's Day foamies
• Paper cutter, scissors
• Glue stick
• Decorative scissors

Instructions

First use the paper cutter to cut the red card stock into the desired sizes for your cards. I usually determine the sizes of my cards by the envelopes I have to put them in. I have a stack of envelopes of all different sizes, so each card can end up being a different size.

Card #1

Turn the first card to open horizontally. I cut out four small squares of white card stock to glue in the center of the card to form one large square, with just a little space in between squares. I then placed a large red foamie heart in the center of each white square.

Card #2

This card will also open horizontally. For this one I cut out eight small white squares and glued them in two rows of four squares across the face of the card. In the center of each square I placed a small heart foamie, alternating pink and red hearts. I trimmed the bottom edge of the front of the card with decorative scissors.

Card #3

Turn this card to open vertically. I cut a large square out of white card stock and trimmed around all the edges of the square with decorative scissors. I glued the white square in the center of the card and placed a large red foamie heart in the center of the square.

Card #4

This card will also open vertically. First I cut a piece of white card stock into the shape of a rectangle, to be slightly smaller than the face of the card. I next trimmed around the edges of the rectangle with decorative scissors. I then cut two red pieces of cardstock into the shapes of squares and glued them one above the other inside the white rectangle. Next I cut out two white squares to fit inside the red squares. Lastly, I placed a medium-sized red foamie in the center of each white square.

That's it! These Valentine's Day cards are fun for anyone to make. You can make them in less than half an hour and people will think you slaved over them for hours! More photos of finished Valentine's Day cards: http://www.crafty-moms.com/valentines-day-card-foamies.shtml By Rachel Paxton from Washington State