little love trees

I was so inspired by the success of last weeks little craft-scapade that I spent much of the next week seeking out an additional love inspired project for my budding artists.  Presenting week two of valentines crafts;  the little love tree!

Moms of tiny tots - this was such a simple project to take on - one of those that art teachers around the world would reach to time and again - because there is simply not a way to make this look bad and chances are you have all necessary materials in your house right now!  Here's what we used:

• 9x12 red paper mat
• 8x11 white paper
• 6x9 green paper
• assorted (pre-cut) red, pink, and patterned hearts (1-3 inch)
• glue
• scissors
• red and pink buttons (optional)

We began by tracing the girls hand and forearm on the green paper.  They proceeded to cut out as much of this as they could (I ended up cutting in-between the fingers) while I traced the boys arms and hands onto the green paper and cut them out.  If you're feeling adventurous I would think that you could also do the "tree" as a green paint print - imagine the beautiful soap suds you'd get on that clean up!  We turned our traced hands over and added dots of glue to the backs before gently pressing them onto the base of the white paper.

I had the hearts and buttons evenly divided onto four paper plates for each of my artists.  The project continued with them adding the "leaves" to their love tree in whatever pattern was most pleasing to them.  They all got to use their own glue bottle - because that's what we had on hand - but I imagine a glue stick would make this already "neat" project even less messy.

The biggest challenge that my young artists faced was the gluing - We had to practice putting the glue on the back of the paper - using "just a dot, not a lot"- and trying not to get too psyched about making little puddles of the white goop on their paper.  I think it's great for them to get to experiment with the materials though, even if one of the most exciting parts is peeling the glue off of your fingers when you are finished with your project (Jack!).

I love that each of their projects is just a little bit different from the others - and I really love that I have something that easily captured the size of their adorable little hands.  All four of the kiddos really enjoyed creating their little love trees, and I am enjoying seeing their cheerful creations on our refrigerator each day!  Success!