My kids are always asking me to cut out hearts for them, “I just can’t do it” they say! So today I taught them cutting symmetrical hearts using this little trick below. This is an easy trick that they will remember to do their whole lives. The result is a perfectly shaped heart. All you need is some pink, red, and white construction paper, a pencil, and some scissors. Now we’ve got hearts all over the place, ready for Valentine’s Day projects!
Trick for Cutting Symmetrical Hearts
Supplies:
- paper, any kind – cut into small squares, as it’s easier to fold and cut with little hands
- pencil – so you can erase the line if needed
- scissors – best to have child scissors for them to practice
Instructions:
Fold your small paper in half and using your pencil, draw a half of a heart on the folded side. Draw small hearts, medium sized hearts, or big sized hearts.
Here’s what it looks like if you do it on the wrong side. It’s good to show this to your kids, letting them know how important it is to draw on the folded side of the paper. We want a full heart not just a half!
Let your kids cut out the hearts on the fold, following the pencil line. This is great for practicing those scissor skills.
My daughter, 4 years old, loved cutting these out and did a pretty good job. My son, 7 years old, was able to draw his own half hearts and then cut them out. Perfect craft for so many ages. We now have hearts-a-plenty, looking like we’ve had a bit of a Heart-Attack!!
There are so many ways to use these heart cut-outs. Tape them your refrigerator, walls, or windows for Valentine’s Day decor. Write little love notes on them and give them out to friends and family. Use them in other Valentine’s day crafts.
More heart Valentine’s Day projects:
- Bouquet of Hearts Card for Valentine’s Day
- Abstract Painted and Pieced Hearts
- Hanging Pipe Cleaner Hearts
- Valentine Airplane Hearts
- DIY Glue Hanging Hearts
- Valentine Hearts Letter Match Game
- Colorful Puddle-Painted Hearts
- Pipe Cleaner Paper Clip Hearts
- Make Pencil Toppers with Crochet Hearts
- Valentine’s Day Tree With Clay Hearts
Such a nice, easy-to-understand tutorial. Marie! I linked it to a Valentines post that just went up on my blog :) http://tinkerlab.com/2011/02/all-in-one-valentine-envelope/
This would be a perfect precursor to adding cutouts to the hearts to hang on a tree. We made a Valentine Heart Tree recently; I should really let my kids loose to make them completely on their own!
Here is the prototype (but shame on me, I cut out the hearts!):
http://roots-of-simplicity.blogspot.com/2010/02/craft-of-week-colorful-cutout-paper.html
great tip!
ps. I loooove the new haircut! so cute! You will love the ease too.
This is an idea I’ve used successfully for years. Last year I had to change it a little because I had a child that didn’t like the fold line – they wanted a flat heart. We have lots of recycled copy paper, so I had them fold and make a heart the size they wanted. Now I had them open it up, lay down on the ‘good’ paper and trace around it. Now they could cut out a flat heart. It was a simple extra step, but solved what had become a real issue for this child. Success was worth the little extra time. Hope this helps anyone else that might have children with a strong need for flat hearts.