MAMA Children’s Activity Post: “Will you be my Valentine?” Part 2

So the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed some hand and foot prints on the ‘Tidy tidy tidy up’ picture from “Will you be my Valentine?” Part 1 ?!?! Well this is how we made those and what we did with them next…………

Equipment

For the painting bit

Activity mat (for table or floor).
Old towels.
Old clothes/aprons for you and your child.
Paints – red and pink (water based, non toxic).
Paper plates – to squeeze paint onto.
White Card.
Paint brushes/sponges.
Wipes.

For the Decoration bit;

Glue (PVA or Glue stick).
Double sided sticky tape.
Scissors.
Paper Plate.
Red sheets of card.
Green lollipop sticks.
Ribbon.
Permanent markers/ felt tips.

Step 1: Preparation.

Set up the activity mat on the table or floor (I often use an old towel on the floor too to enlarge the space and my son finds it nicer to sit on). Put out the card, paper plates to squeeze paint onto and brushes/sponges. As previously mentioned my son likes to squeeze the paint out so I let him do this as part of the activity but if you have a younger child you may want to put paint onto the plates ready.

Step 2: Experimentation.

When doing hand and foot prints I always leave time at the beginning for my son to just play with the paints and brushes first before trying to get the prints. For this MAMA afternoon it was experimenting with the heart shaped mark-making tools as featured in “Will you’ve my Valentine?” Part 1.

Step 3: Making hand and foot prints and more messing around!

My son enjoys painting his own hands and feet with the brushes but you can do this part for your child if they are too young/don’t want to. I often paint my hands/feet first so he knows what’s going on (although now we’ve done this a lot I just say let’s paint with our hands/feet and he starts painting them)!

For the hands I used red paint. Once the the paint is on the hands I let him slam them down on the card – this often makes messier prints but he loves it! I then repaint the hands and press his hand down onto card in a more controlled way to get a cleaner print. I let him do loads on different sheets of card because you can pick the best ones later.

For the feet I used pink paint for the activity but he then wanted to paint them red afterwards as this is his favourite colour! Once his foot was painted I pressed it onto the card at two angles to make a heart shape (see photo). I then let him stomp onto paper and mess around afterwards which he enjoys.

Step 4: Tidy tidy tidy up!

Make sure you wipe off any excess paint and ensure you’re little one doesn’t walk paint all through the house – I say this from experience as my son decided it would be fun to “run away” with red painted feet!!!

Put your reusable painting equipment to soak and then wash thoroughly later. Put aside all of your card hand and footprints to dry. After this activity a bath was definitely called for!!

Step 5a: Decoration time: “Roses are red”

Choose your favourite red handprints and cut round them (I choose 3 but you can have as many as you like). I used double sided sticky tape to secure one handprint on top of each green lollipop stick. I then arranged these onto a piece of red card into a nice bunch and stuck them on using double sided sticky tape (you could use glue if you prefer). I then tied a bow with the ribbon and stuck this on the green lollipop sticks. And there you go a bunch of red roses to give someone for Valentine’s Day!

Step 5b: Decoration time “I love you from the very bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes”!

I cut around the heart shape made from the two footprints and stuck it in the middle of a paper plate. I then used a permanent marker pen to write the phrase “I love you from the very bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes” in a circle around it. I also decorated the edges of the plate to make it look like a frame.

So now you have some lovely Valentine’s Day pictures which you can display or give to people as cards! Don’t forget to write the age of your child on the back of any extra hand/footprints and keep them for your MAMA memory books/boxes.

Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments and of course share any of your MAMA Creations!!