Heart-Shaped Tube Painting for Valentine's Day

Is it just me or is February almost over already? Alright, so it's only February 9th, but our jam-packed calendar this month has me scrambling to fit in some cute Valentine's Day crafts before it's too late. 

Last week, my cousin Jen (who's always got creative projects for little ones up her sleeve) inspired me to set up my own heart-shaped painting station for Tory. I'm one of those crazy moms who hoards dozens of toilet paper rolls for rainy-day projects, and this craft put them to perfect use. If you've got a one-year-old in your house who unrolls toilet paper for kicks and giggles, you've probably got a lot of toilet paper rolls on your hands, too.  

I'd never used toilet paper rolls for painting before, and it turned out to be the perfect craft project for Tory's age and skill level. I loved how easy it was to set up using materials I already had, and the tubes were the perfect size for Tory little hands to hold. Best of all, Tory painted independently for a solid 30 minutes while I prepared dinner one evening last week -- a big win in my book! She was really proud of her finished artwork, too. 

Items Needed:

Cardboard toilet paper rolls

Paper plates

Paint (we used Crayola Washable Kid's Paint in pink, purple and red for Valentine's Day)

Construction paper

Directions:

Using your fingers, bend and shape the cardboard toilet paper roll(s) to create a "heart" shape. Squirt washable paint onto paper plates and stamp one side of the toilet paper roll into the paint, then onto the construction paper to create painted hearts on the paper.  

Tory free-styled as many painted hearts on the construction paper as she wanted, and then we let the papers dry overnight. The next day, I cut various sizes of hearts out of the painted construction paper and hung them up for Valentine's Day decoration.

Fun and easy!