Over the past few years we have developed the sweet Valentine tradition of making giant conversations hearts for each other. An easy, fun project for all ages, it's also a good way to integrate the love of Christ and the love we share for each other as a family into a Valentines Day celebration.
All you'll need is a sheet of copy paper, an assortment of pastel colored craft foam (classic Necco hearts come in yellow, light green, violet, pink, light orange and white), pencils, scissors, and red permanent markers. In our house using permanent markers also calls for some newspaper to protect our green table.
Fold the paper in half and cut out a heart shaped template about 4-5" wide and tall. Make sure to round off the point of your heart so it looks like a real conversation heart. Use the template to trace hearts onto the craft foam.
Cut out your hearts. Each family member gets enough hearts to design one heart for every other person in the family, plus maybe a few extras just for fun.
Next, use your imagination to come up with pithy love notes, conversation heart style. Conversation hearts used sub-standard abbreviations such as "u", "r", "qt" and "ez" long before text messaging! You might also want to have a few conversation hearts out on the table - for research purposes only, of course!
I always like to add a few "God is Love" and "Jesus Loves You" hearts too. We don't know a lot about St. Valentine, but we do know that God loves us so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to take our sin to the cross and die in our place. That's love!
Use all cap block letters to lightly write your message in pencil on the foam.
Finally, trace over your penciled letters in red permanent marker, allow a couple minutes for the marker to dry and share them with your lovies!
I'm not comfortable with allowing my young daughter to use a permanent marker yet, but she thought of ideas and wrote them out in pencil for me to trace in red.
The hearts look cute just tossed around tabletops, but I especially like them dangling from the windows. Stick them up with tape rolls, another great way for younger children to participate, or tape a ribbon (or ric-rac!) to the back of one or several hearts and tie the ribbon to the window frame for lateral garlands.
Our sweet conversation hearts brighten up the house, even on a dreary day like today!
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