Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids 8 Years and Older

Sometimes children can make the cutest crafts for Valentine's Day. Instead of just buying a stack of cards with candy hearts in the envelopes, you can try out some of these crafts to help them along with showing someone how much you love them.

The first craft is the coupon craft.

What you'll need:

Several sheets of construction paper, various shades of pink and red

Green felt-tip pen

White pen

Scissors

A dollar bill

Stapler or Elmer's glue

This is a plain and simple craft. Depending on who it's for, you can create 10 coupons that allow your child to do special favors for that special someone.

First, have the child trace your dollar bill onto the construction paper. Cut out about 15 coupons (you'll keep the 10 best ones). On the top of each one, have your child print out, as neat and stylish as they can "this love coupon is redeemable for" with the green felt-tip marker. Along the bottom of the coupon have them print "offer valid until next Valentine's Day" with the same pen. The creative part is in the middle.

Use the white pen to make up various chores and activities. For instance, if it's for mom, you can use "breakfast in bed" or "an extra night of dishes". If it's for that first love, she or he can put "an extra afternoon of homework help" or "one free ice cream bowl". Have your child sign their name on the back of each one.

Take two of the red pieces of construction paper and cut out large hearts. Write on one side "Coupon Basket" with the white letter. Staple the hearts together to form a basket to keep the coupons in. After that you can put it on the fridge or somewhere in the kitchen that's highly visible.

Another craft your child can make is the simple shiny Valentine's Day card.

What you'll need:

Heavy red construction paper

Aluminum foil

Scissors

Glue stick

All you have to do is cut out a square shape from the red construction paper and fold it in half. Next, cut out a heart shape in the aluminum foil. The best way to do this is fold the foil in half, outline half a shape of a heart in the foil that starts and ends in the fold and then cut around it.

Glue the heart onto the front. Make sure it's big enough to fit center of the outside of the card, but leave enough room on the top and bottom to print "Happy Valentine's Day". On the inside of the card you can have your child write a special message. Your child can even cut out smaller foil hearts to glue inside the card. For that extra step, you can even get half a dozen candy hearts and glue them inside the card as well.

The last craft is the mosaic heart.

What you'll need:

Small poster board

Old magazines, catalogs

Scissors

Glue stick

First, have your child go through the magazine and pull out any pages that have red or shades of red on them. Tell him or her to cut them into small, nickel-sized shapes like triangles and squares. When your child is done with that, try to arrange the pieces in the middle of the poster board to shape a heart. Once you get it the size you want, you can glue the pieces down.

After that's done, go through the magazine and pick out pages that will resemble the type of background you want behind the heart. If you just want a pink background, pick pages with pink or light red. If you want the heart too look like it's in the sky, pick pages with light blue, white for clouds, and a few yellow spots to resemble the sun. Either way, the mosaic will be eye catching and will say "I love you" from your child to that special person.