13 Kid-Friendly Valentine's Day Card Ideas

Sign Language Card

Give this card a hand: it says "I love you" in sign language. Trace your toddler's hand on cardstock. Cut it out, then fold over the two middle fingers and secure them with tacky glue. Write "I love you" on the hand and glue it a blank card. Your child can decorate the inside with paint, markers, stickers, and more!

Tic-Tac-Toe Card

Colorful M&M's serve as a sweet stand-in for X's and O's in this packaged card-and-game combo. Parents can trim cardstock into a 4x6-inch rectangle. Then help your toddler use a marker to draw a tic-tac-toe board in the center and add a message or drawing at the top. They'll have lots of fun playing tic-tac-toe with the card's recipient!

Apple of My Eye

Pam Cox Jutte from Charleston, South Carolina, recommends this clever Valentine's Day card idea. For the stamp, she cut an apple in half and trimmed the edges so that it looked like a heart. Her daughter stamped the cards with red paint, then added seeds and a stem.

Chocolate Card

Personalize jumbo candy bars with festive wrappers, and attach homemade tags of your choice. Then have your little one decorate with markers, stickers, and their own little fingerprints!

Valentine's Day Card Ideas for Preschoolers

Thanks to their improving motor skills and ability to follow directions, preschoolers can get a little creative with their homemade Valentine's Day card ideas. Still, a parent or guardian should help them make the projects below.

Abstract Art

This abstract Valentine's Day card involves a common kitchen tool: your salad spinner. Line your salad spinner with plastic wrap, then tape a 5x5-inch piece of cardstock into the basket. Have your preschooler drop a tiny bit of acrylic paint into the spinner (you can mix the paint with water to thin it out, if needed). Put on the lid, spin it, and watch the paint create cool patterns! You can repeat these steps with other colors until you get your desired design. Write a cute message on the back of the Valentine's Day card.

Eye Love You

Take an 8 1/2 x11-inch piece of cardstock and cut into two pieces (each one should be 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches). Fold these in half to create two cards. Next, cut a 3-inch heart from a separate sheet of paper, and attach it to the card with a glue stick. Cut a slightly smaller heart from a double-sided adhesive sheet, peel off the backing from one side, and adhere to the paper heart. Peel off the other side and have your preschooler attach googly eyes of their choosing.

Zoo Animals

Print a message onto a piece of cardstock, then attach a piece of sushi grass along the width of the card. Place the card, along with a zoo animal, into a cellophane bag. The recipient will have easy access to the toy!

Lion Valentine

Get ready to roar with this Valentine's Day card idea! Print our template, then trace the lion's head onto yellow paper. The mane should be traced onto orange paper. Cut out the shapes. Crease the lion's head and attach the portion over the crease to the mane, using a glue stick. Finish by gluing on a heart-shaped nose and googly eyes.

Valentine's Day Card Ideas for Kids

These Valentine's Day card ideas are perfect for anyone on your child's list—and they're more creative than store-bought options to boot.

Two Little Birds

Here's what you'll need for this Valentine's Day card idea: a 4x6-inch flat card, decorative paper, a glue stick, and a felt-tip pen.

To make the card, cut out a branch and glue it to the card. Cut out two hearts, fold them in half, and glue two sides together. Glue down the remaining two sides to the cards' cover (this will make a bird). Repeat as desired to create more birds.

Cut out smaller hearts, and glue them inside of the larger hearts as wings. Attach paper beaks, draw on eyes, and write a message inside the card.

Rainbow Hearts

Gather your supplies:heart template, 12x12-inch rainbow paper, white or iridescent paper, and a 3x5-inch envelope.

Accordion-fold your rainbow paper into four 2 1/2-inch sections (lengthwise). Cut out the heart template (download it here), and trace it four times onto the folded paper (vertically). Trim out the hearts, taking care to leave the straight edges intact. Unfold the four rows of hearts, and tape them together to make one long strand.

Cut a cloud shape from white or iridescent paper, and tape it to the end of the rainbow heart strand. Cut scallops into the envelope, then stuff it with the hearts.

Marbled Swirl

This Valentine's Day card idea gives your kids an excuse to play with shaving cream! Spread some creamy shaving cream (not foaming gel) into a large tray. Have your kid put six to eight drops of food coloring into the tray, and swirl everything together with a toothpick. Then they can press a thick piece of paper into the shaving cream mixture. Scrape off the excess (we used a ruler) and repeat as often as you'd like. Once the papers are dry, cut hearts from each one. Glue the hearts to folded cards and write a nice message inside.

Galaxy Card

The recipient of this card gets a special surprise: a bouncy ball! Cut a heart out of cardstock (black or dark blue work well). An adult can cut a circle, slightly smaller than the bouncy ball, into the card with a craft knife (you can practice on scrap paper first; the ball should fit snugly into the hole). To finish the project, your kid can add stars and planets with gel pens.

Kissing Fishes

This Valentine's Day card idea is surprisingly simple. Make a bunch of hearts with various sizes of punches (or cut them by hand). Assemble with a glue stick to make fish, as pictured here. You can also cut circles for eyes.