Homemade Valentines for Boys

How do you get boys interested in making  homemade valentines? Why, incorporate monster trucks of course! My 4yr old would much rather hand out batman valentine day cards than make some but once he heard he could paint with his cars he was hooked. He didn’t even mind painting with pink paint (we had very little red paint on hand so I added white to have enough to complete the project)

Materials:
Cars- look for ones that have treads on the tires.
Washable Paint
Paper (Make sure to use a heavier card stock paper, we used watercolor paper)

Step 1: Prep your work surface.
We used plastic chopping mats to protect the table for an easy clean up but good old newspaper works great too! We were low on red paint so I added white paint. Lil B and M-Woww enjoyed watching the colors mix to make pink. They mixed the paint on paper plates (once again…easy clean up). The paper plates also allowed enough space to “ink” the cars.

Step 2: Roll your car in paint

Step 3: Roll your car on the paper

You could end the project here if you are looking for  a one day activity but if you are making them into Valentine Day cards keep going.

Step 4: Create your card.
Once the paper has dried cut the paper into rectangles for cards. We cut ours into 4″x 6 ” rectangles. I ran them through the printer using the 4 x 6 photo settings  for the valentines message.  However, depending on how many valentines you are making you can handwrite your valentine message as well. Lil B is an emerging writer so I typed the message but left room for him to write his name.

 

 

 

Sorry for the not so spectacular photo of the finished valentine card. I will try to re-take it!

The best part of this project was that clean up kept both kids busy too.  I filled a bucket with soap and water and dumped the cars in it. We took the bucket outside and I gave each of them a scrub brush. They had even more fun scrubbing the cars and playing carwash with the water.  I realize that not everyone has the luxury of going outside this time of year but filling up the sink or bath could produce the same result.

 

And now we are all set for Valentine’s Day!