These crafts are designed for you to have some quality time together, and participation can be adjusted to your child’s capabilities. Have fun celebrating love! (Tip: While snipping and pasting, have some conversations about what it looks like to show special love to the people we want to honor — and some people who might need love anyway.)

For this accordion-pleated valentine, pleat cardstock and glue on paper-doll-style hearts (I used 12” x 12” stock and decorative paper, cut in thirds, to make a total of three of these valentines). We stamped on “I love you” for fun.

Grandparents and daddies love these. Have your child fold an 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet of cardstock in half, and trim a patterned background piece to glue on. Make his or her handprints on white cardstock, cut around them (or have an older child do so), and paste onto the background.

I just may hijack this pretty design for my own use! Bonus: It was a fun game for my preschooler!

I cut out roughly-shaped circles of various sizes from red cardstock and red printed paper (I chose roses), then asked her to play with me. We called it “Largest to smallest makes a rose!” (Original, I know.)

She found the largest circle and glued the next-largest on top of that, then the next-largest, and so on, which eventually formed a rose — with which she was delighted. She asked to do it again!

You can tell that

a) she was pretty happy with her creation, and

b) she was still in her jammies with bedhead. Supermom I am not.

These pretty door decorations that are just the right height to knock my husband’s head (sorry, Honey!) were immediately pronounced “beautiful!” by my daughter. They’re made simply enough with printed paper, a thread cut to random lengths, a pin (to poke a hole for thread), and a little tape.

And let’s not forget the reality of craft time, lest these pictures deceive you into believing that charming scenes come at little cost to your kitchen. Ah, the price of love!