Animalentines

 

Today's Snack: What else? Animal crackers!

 

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You can make some sweet and colorful little animals for Valentine's Day with these ideas from http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/animals.html. Check there for illustrations, too:

 

Red, white, pink, purple and gray construction paper

Scissors

Thin black marker

Thin red marker

Paper punch and other paper-cutting tools

Heart-shaped stickers in various sizes

Yarn, buttons and other small trims

Glue

 

Cut out heart shapes, or use the stickers, to build animal bodies out of reds, pinks and purples. Glue or stick onto folded cardstock, or complete, cut out and attach to sticks or straws for placing in the dirt of potted plants or in bud vases.

 

Examples:

 

Butterfly: make a vertical row of six or seven small hearts in alternate colors for the body; draw a face on the top one with thin black marker and draw thin red antennae with tiny pink hearts on the ends; use two large hearts for the left and right upper wings, and two smaller pink hearts, pointing slightly downwards, for the left and right lower wings

 

Mouse: use an upside-down red heart for the body; layer a smaller pink heart over it, right-side up, for the head; paper-punch pink circles for the insides of the ears in the humps of the heart; use a slightly larger heart for the nose, layered over the point; draw whiskers with thin black marker, and a curving tail with thin red marker

 

Elephant: cut a large pink oval for the body, and layer over it a smaller red heart for the head, with two gray hearts layered underneath the head going off to the left and right as ears; cut a red trunk and place a tiny upside-down pink heart on the end of the trunk; draw two tiny black nostrils; paper-punch two white circles for eyes and draw tiny black pupils; layer two upside-down purple hearts as legs; draw thin black "toes" and add a thin red tail with a tiny paper heart on the end

 

Other animals that would be fun to do include a giraffe (instead of brown blocks of coloration on the skin, use hearts), kitten (use the points of upside-down hearts as the triangular ears), and a bunny (cut two thin light pink inner ears to place vertically inside a larger pink heart to simulate two ears).