Make your own Valentine’s Day suncatchers

These Valentine’s Day suncatchers are an easy Valentine’s craft activity for toddlers and preschoolers to do at home.

They’ll love seeing their artwork displayed on the window and the sun shining through all the colours to brighten up the room.

These suncatchers also make great Valentine’s Day gifts for family and friends.
 

Make your own Valentine’s Day Suncatchers

 

What you will need

 

• Scissors

 

• 2 x pieces of clear sticky back plastic approx. 20-30cm square

 

• Sheet of card for the border (slightly smaller in size than the sticky back plastic)

 

• Permanent marker pen

 

• Heart shaped stencil (optional)

 

• Tissue paper in various colours & torn roughly into small pieces (or you can just use red tissue paper if you want to stick to a true Valentine's theme)

 

• Sticky tape or masking tape

 

How to make your Valentine’s Day Suncatchers

1. Using the scissors, cut out two sheets of sticky back plastic to roughly the same size. Don't worry about the wrinkles, they’ll get smoothed out later on and disappear.

2. Peel off the back of one sheet of the sticky back plastic and lay the non-sticky side down, leaving the sticky side facing up.

3. Fold the sheet of card in half and using the marker pen draw a heart shape, either freehand or use a heart shaped stencil if it’s easier.

4. Cut out the heart shape around the outside edge.

5. Then cut out the centre of the heart leaving about a 2cm border.

6. Unfold the heart shape and carefully place it on the sticky side of the sticky back plastic, smoothing out the edges as you go.

7. Get your toddler or preschooler to stick the pieces of torn tissue paper onto the sticky side of the sticky back plastic inside the heart shape. It doesn’t matter if some pieces of the tissue paper overlap with others.

8. Remove the backing off of the remaining sheet of sticky back plastic and carefully place the sticky side on top of the tissue paper. Smooth out any air bubbles as you go.

9. Carefully cut out the heart shape around the outside of the border.

10. Stick your suncatcher to the window using sticky tape or masking tape.

You now have a Valentine’s Day Suncatcher to hang in your window!
 

Tips for your Valentine’s Day Suncatchers

Use really bold coloured tissue paper if you can. Pastel coloured paper tends to look pale and washed out when the sun shines through it.

With the harsh New Zealand sun, the colours of the tissue paper are likely to fade, so try to hang your suncatchers in a window that doesn’t get direct sunlight.
 

More Valentine's Day activities to enjoy

• 8 Valentine's Day Activities for toddlers and preschoolers
• Painted heart feet art

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