Valentine’s Day is over. What are your kids going to do with all the valentines they brought home from school? Here are some creative ways to repurpose all those valentines into something artistic.

How to Re-Purpose Valentines

Valentine Collage
Children can take all the valentines they received at school this year and turn them into one, colorful, piece of artwork. All you need is some glue, scissors, a sturdy piece of poster board, and some creativity.

Draw a giant heart in the center of the poster board. Glue the valentines inside it and fill up the heart. Kids can glue each valentine down as-is or cut them into smaller pieces. Keep going until the heart is full. If they like, they can draw or decorate the blank area around the heart. The finished artwork can hang in their bedroom or on their bulletin board.

Digitized Valentines
Your child wants to keep all their valentines, but you would prefer to cut down on the clutter. There is a way to do both. Teach your child how to take a photo of each of their favorite valentines (or of all of them if need be). The idea is to keep the digitized valentines and recycle the paper ones.

Make an album in your iPhoto to put the valentine photos in. You child can ask to view them when he or she wants to. Another option is to have your child put his or her favorite valentines on the table and to take a photo of the group of them. Print out that photo for your child to keep.

Make New Valentines
Turn this year’s valentines into brand new ones for next year. Older kids will be able to do this on their own. Younger kids might need a parent’s assistance. You will need red, white, pink, and purple construction paper, glue, and scissors. It is also good to create a cardboard template of a heart shape for kids to trace.

In short, your child is going to glue each valentine onto a construction paper heart. The back of the valentine is usually the part where the giver and the recipient’s name goes. No one will see it after it has been glued down. Next year, your child can write his or her name on the back of each heart, and the name of a classmate, and hand them out.

Valentine Journal
Use the valentines to encourage your child to start keeping a journal. Pick up an inexpensive spiral bound journal for him or her to use. They can tape one or two valentines on a page. Next, they can write about who the valentine came from and some nice words about that friend. Or, they can describe what they like about that particular valentine.

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