Easy Valentine’s Day Craft for Boys
Easy Valentine’s Day craft for boys are not plentiful, are they? I have what I call “a gaggle” of boys in my house, meaning I have 5 boys. This does not mean we don’t craft together! Nope! Just a little tweaking is all that is necessary to turn “girly” crafts into “boy crafts”.
Todays example is: Changing stuffed felt Valentines day décor into balls!
It’s so simple right?
Easy Valentines Day Craft For Boys
Crafting With Boys
My boys have a crafty mother, so the ones who are old enough know how to embroider, hand sew, knit, crochet, needle felt, and do some simple machine sewing.
I have found that it is not hard for boys to find crafts they can enjoy, despite all the girly-girl kits that are for sale out there. Often only slight changes are needed to make a feminine girl craft work for any boy!
If you look on Pinterest you will usually see these used as decorations in different ways.
- You can glue them to a Valentine’s Day wreath
- Turn them into a garland
- Pile them up on one of those 3-tier decoration doohickeys. You can see how sophisticated my language is can’t you? 😉
- And much more!
Though my boys love to decorate for holidays, making stuffed Valentine hearts was not to their liking, and so why not turn them into balls?
Did you see what I did there? Just a slight change will make just about any craft perfect for boys. To be honest, these boy crafts can easily be loved by your girls too.
Easy Valentine’s Day Craft for Boys
How I Help You
Welcome to my kingdom, the land of Tutus and Fairy Tales. My kingdom is full of stories and crafts, which do their magic in your homeschooling by providing easy to follow embroidering lessons.
In my free embroidery lessons, we are working on some projects to have your children create a fun family Valentine’s Day tradition that is both literary and handicrafty (no, “handicrafty” is not a real word, but you are after in my kingdom, so it’s a word if I say it is!).
Last week we learned how to make a heart pouch to be used as Valentine’s decoration in any way you want, or you can put story cards that count down to Valentine’s Day in them.
Learn about these story cards here.
Make the pouch here!
Like most of my tutorials, they are taught through story. So now you are ready to enjoy this week’s easy Valentine’s Day craft for boys with tutorial and story!
Let’s begin.
Easy Valentine’s Day Craft for Boys
William Waits Patiently
William, age 12, is eagerly waiting for Willow to finish teaching his sister Charlotte, the first steps in making a Valentine’s Day heart pouch.
He was outside on a cool day in February, ready to make his first 3D blanket stitch project after completing his embroidery sampler just a few days before.
“Alrighty Mr. William, are you ready?” asked Willow, their embroidery teacher. Oh, and did I mention that Willow is a tiny wood nymph? No taller than the palm of a rambunctious 8-year-old, she is sweet, jolly, and loves to help her friends. Charlotte was the first one to meet her. For the full story, go here.
“First, you draw a heart the size you want. You could do 2 different sizes if you want to.”
“Since I’m making this for Charlie (dear readers, Charlie is Charlotte and William’s 3-year-old brother), I had better make it small enough for his little hands.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” approved Willow.
Willow needed to turn back to help Charlotte, so William finished his two heart paper patterns, and waited.
Easy Valentines Day Craft For Boys
Cutting Out the Felt
“Alrighty, pick the color felt you want to use and the floss color. Pin your paper heart to the felt and cut out two hearts. Then thread and knot your needle so you are ready to begin your blanket stitch!”
William followed her instructions. A few minutes later he was ready for the next step.
“Pull your needle through so that your knot is in between the two felt hearts.
“Poke back through on the back of your work, close to here you just came out but the opposite side.
“Before pulling all the way, pull the floss around the needle. Now pull through. Don’t pull too tightly!” corrected Willow, watching William pull with a little too much gusto.
William fixed his mistakes.
“Go to the left, wrap your floss around your needle, yes that’s right. Now pull all the way through.” William finished the second stitch. That is, the first stitch that really looks like a blanket stitch. “That’s it! just keep going until you have about an inch left to go and then stop for your next direction.”
William kept sewing while Willow gave her attention back to Charlotte.
William, meanwhile, was having great fun! He was enjoying using the blanket stitch more for this 3D project then he did for his embroidery sampler, and he liked sewing that as well.
Before he knew it, he was at the end and ready for the next step!
Easy Valentine’s Day Craft for Boys
Almost There
“Now stuff the heart with something white. It can be white scrap fabric or wool, anything soft and white. You couldn’t use the wool from my sheep though! It would take half our flock to stuff these large hearts!”
Wood nymphs, in case you were unaware, are very similar to we big folk. The biggest difference being that everything is in their own right size. Their sheep chickens and cows were just the right size for them. Their flowers and other garden plants were also their own right size.
Is this enough stuffing?” asked William.
“Sure is!” came the reply. “Now you finish sewing up your last inch, and you are done! Well, of course you need to knot it first.” added Willow.
“Done!” declared William.
Charlotte and Willow admired his work properly. William decided to make another one. He made another white one but decided to use some left-over blue yarn to stuff his heart with. This gave his heart a blue tinge, which he liked.
Willow suddenly moved the smaller heart onto the bigger heart and laid down on it.
“What a comfy bed you made me, William!” teased Willow.
They all had a great, hearty laugh!
After William took Willow home, he decided to make even more.
Before he knew it, he had made 6 Valentine’s Day ball hearts! He wrapped them up, eager to see Charlie’s face when he opened them. He also thought he might just need to make more for himself.
The End
Pin It For Later
Coming Up Next Time
I hope you enjoyed this easy Valentine’s Day craft for boys! The best thing about this Valentine’s Day felt heart ball is that it’s soft, light, and can’t break your house down no matter how hard your children throw it! They also can be thrown a good distance.
The only negative thing that can be said of them is that they are not good for outdoor play, with mud and dirt around. This is true for many toys though.
Until next time!
