How to Make an Adorable Valentine’s Day Raining Hearts Craft
When it comes to kids’ crafts, I am an absolute sucker for a cute photo craft. And this Valentine’s Day “raining hearts” craft checks all my boxes – it’s cute, easy, child-led, and it makes an adorable keepsake gift!
This craft is also a great process art activity, meaning it’s an art project where the finished product is not the most important focus; the process of making and creating is most important. You can read more about why I love process art here!
This raining hearts craft pairs PERFECTLY with the book The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. And what’s better than a sweet book-and-activity pairing?
We completed this craft with my daughter, Ella’s, pre-k class last year. With just a little prep work the day before, this was a fun activity that the kids loved!
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Materials Needed
- Cardboard picture frame (I ordered these ones)
- Heart stickers
- Photo of each student, with arms raised, cut out
- Celery cut into 3-4” pieces
- Washable paint in your choice of colors (we use pink and purple)
- Optional: heart stamps
- Colored cardstock (lighter colors work best)
Creating Your Raining Hearts Craft
This craft is a two-step process: you’ll have some prep work to do the day before creating your raining hearts crafts, and then the day of, children will be able to create their adorable picture frames!
The day before:
Take a picture of each child with their arms raised in the air. I had my daughter’s teacher snap a photo of each child and send them to me, and I got the pictures printed at my local Walgreens.
Cut out each child’s picture. We don’t want any of the photo background remaining – just the picture of the child with arms up!
I also cut the colored cardstock in a variety of colors to fit our picture frames, and cut our celery into 3-4” pieces (these will be your heart stampers). Having everything ready beforehand makes this craft go smoothly, especially in a classroom full of four-year-olds!
The day of:
I set out a variety of heart stickers on paper plates, and gave the students time to decorate their picture frames.
Once they were done decorating their frames, I let each child choose what color cardstock they wanted, and then I demonstrated how to use our celery stampers to create “hearts”. Be sure to show children the correct way to stamp their hearts – if they stamp the celery upside down, it doesn’t look much like a heart! (Some of the kids didn’t really “get” this part. Don’t overthink it if their hearts don’t come out perfect!)
If you don’t want to use the celery stamping method, you could easily use heart stamps instead, or even just more heart stickers.
After the children were done stamping their hearts, I glued their photos onto the cardstock. Ella’s teacher took the class outside to play while I did this.
Allow the paint on the cardstock to dry completely before sliding each “raining hearts” picture into its picture frame. Then admire the adorable finished product!
More Valentine’s Day Fun
If you liked this fun Valentine’s Day raining hearts craft, you’ll love this Valentine’s Day name craft!
And you won’t want to miss this fizzy heart Valentine’s Day STEM activity, either!
Looking for even more preschool Valentine’s Day fun? Check these out!
- Valentine’s Day “Love Soup” Recipe Cards
- Valentine’s Day Preschool Activities
- Ocean-Themed Printable Valentines
If you try this fun and easy Valentine’s Day raining hearts craft, will you let me know? Comment below (or message me on Instagram) and tell me how yours turned out!
