Lovely creations for Valentine’s Day

Let's all spread the love with some crafty carnival inspired creative Valentine makes. The first is a beautiful heart shaped snowflake style decoration which you can stick to your window or walls to decorate for Valentine's day, or you could make smaller versions to stick to Valentine's cards for your loved ones. The second creation is a lovely centrepiece decoration which will look lovely on any Valentine's table

Valentine Paper Decoration

This lovely heart shaped "snowflake" will look beautiful on any window, or if you make a smaller version perhaps you could stick it onto a Valentine's card for a loved one?

You will need:

• A4 paper (any colour, but red is ideal)

• Scissors

• Pencil

First get a piece of A4 paper, and fold down the left hand corner, like in the picture below. Then, cut off the extra rectangle bit so you end up with a folded triangle shape.

Your paper should look like this - a square shape with a fold in - when you unfold your triangle.

Fold the shape back into a triangle, then fold it in half into a smaller triangle.

Now, take one side of your triangle and fold over into the centre. Then fold the remaining side over the top into the centre - you should end up with a folded shape like you see in the picture below.

Next draw a curve on your folded piece of paper, like in the picture below, and cut it out. Finally unfold your shape - there you have your beautiful valentines snowflake!

Valentine's Paper Lantern

This lovely paper lantern will brighten up any table on Valentine's day, or you could decorate around your home with them to create a romantic vibe. You can put a battery operated tea light inside, or even a vase of flowers, or a small plant.

Important! This paper lantern is only suitable to be used with an electric battery operated tea light as paper is flammable!

You will need:

• A4 paper - any colour will do but red or pink are traditional for Valentine's day

• Scissors

• Glue

• A pencil

• A ruler

• An electric tea light / flowers/ plant

Make heart stencils

Start by making some heart stencils. You will need one large heart stencil and one small heart stencil. Use your ruler to measure the right size - the large one should be 9cm to the middle and the smaller one 4cm to the middle.

Cut out your heart shaped lantern pieces

Next, fold a piece of A4 paper twice so it is an A6 size like in the pictures below.

You can then use your large stencil to draw a heart on the folded piece of paper. Then cut round your heart shape - this will leave you with 4 hearts.

Repeat this process for the smaller heart shape.

You will need to create tabs to stick your heart shaped pieces together. To do this, take another piece of your coloured paper, and fold it in half lengthways. On one edge, mark a 2cm x 8cm shape along the fold. Then draw lines at 2cm intervals. Then cut out these shapes - you will end up with four folded tabs (see the picture below).

Put your lantern together

Fold each of your hearts in half and join them together using your tab pieces and glue, like in the pictures. So you fix one side of a heart to the side of another heart, until you have all four glued together.

Next, use your smaller heart template to cut out smaller heart shapes within the bigger hearts. This will allow the light from your electric tea light, if you are using one, to shine through. Once you have drawn the shape on, carefully cut out the smaller heart.

Next you will need to create a circle shape for the base of your lantern. To do this, take another piece of A4 paper (or the other half of the paper you cut out your tabs from) and draw half a circle at the fold with a diameter of 3cm. Then cut this out, and attach it to the space at the bottom of your heart structure.

There you have it! Turn your lantern over, switch on your electric tea light and enjoy the romance!

Just who was St Valentine? Find out in our post here!