Fingerprint heart keepsake for Valentine’s Day

We’ve had the most miserable weather all weekend. Days can be very long when you have two kids at home. To bring some colour and joy into our day we decided to make a head start on our Valentine’s Day crafts with some a fingerprint heart keepsake.

We love giving handmade gifts. I think I’ve kept almost everything the children have ever made. I want them to understand that the best things are those that have been given a little thought. It doesn’t matter how much they cost but that they have spent their time and energy of giving something special.

To make our special fingerprint heart keepsake for Valentine’s Day you will need the following:

air drying clay (we got ours online from office stationery)

a rolling pin and knife (taken from our playdough supplies)

baking parchment

heart-shaped cookie cutter

How to make a fingerprint heart keepsake for Valentine’s Day

My children love working with air drying clay. It’s inexpensive, easy to use and perfect for working on their fine motor skills. I cut a big slab into four equal pieces and let them warm it up between their hands for five minutes.

Then they rolled the air drying clay out quite thinly – to make sure it didn’t take days to dry! We found some heart-shaped cookie cutters and they used these to cut out several hearts from the clay.

I made a small hole in the top of each clay heart so each fingerprint heart keepsake could be hung with a ribbon. The children then used their fingers to add their fingerprints on each heart. They had to press quite firmly but not so much that the heart lost its shape. On a few of the hearts they scratched little messages into the clay.

We left them to dry overnight on a sheet of baking parchment. They look lovely and will make great little handmade gifts for the children to give on Valentine’s Day.

Disclosure – post in collaboration with officestationery.co.uk